APPENDIX 4
Glossary of main fisheries terms used in the Report
and evidence
Age group All those fish spawned in the same year,
and thus of the same age (for example, "0group"
are fish in their first year of life, "1group"
are fish in their second year of life, and so on).
Aquaculture Fish farming, i.e. controlled breeding
of fish or shellfish (typically in fresh water or sheltered coastal
marine environments).
Black fish Fish landed illegally at night or in
small unregulated harbours (fish are typically undersized or from
quotas that have already been exceeded).
By-catch Any organism that is caught in addition
to the target fish. Some by-catches are marketable although much
is discarded.
CFP Common Fisheries Policy. Introduced in
1983 as a 20-year programme for fisheries management in EU waters.
Days at sea See Fishing effort.
Demersal Fish living near the sea bottom (e.g.
cod, haddock, halibut, ling and turbot) (cf Pelagic).
Discards Fish and other organisms disposed of
at sea, usually dead (typically discarded because they are non-target
species or below minimum landing size, or because the quota for
that species has been exhausted).
Eco-labelling Labelling of products or commodities
to indicate that they satisfy certain environmental criteria.
Effort controls See Fishing effort.
Ecosystem approach A fisheries management system which
considers the overall marine environment and the effects of commercial
fishing on established food chains and community structure.
Fishing effort The amount of fishing exerted by
a fishing vessel. This is roughly proportional to the percentage
of total stock taken each year. A reduction in fishing effort
(effort control) can be achieved by limiting the time spent on
fishing (days at sea).
Fishing mortality rate Mortality caused by fishing,
in addition to natural mortality. A rate of no more than twice
the natural mortality is thought desirable; in EU waters it can
be as much as 4 or 5 times as high.
Ground fish See Demersal.
Hague Preference Adjusts the CFP quotas to give some
preference to coastal communities that are particularly dependent
on the fishing industry.
Industrial fishing Large-scale fishing for low-value
fish (e.g. sprat, pout and sand eel) to produce fish meal, oils
and fat. In the EU, notably by Denmark.
ICES International Council for the Exploration
of the Sea.
ITQ Individual Transferable Quota. A fisheries
management system where each boat is allocated, or purchases,
a portion of the national stock quota. ITQs could be traded between
boats to reflect actual catches, and thereby reduce the need for
unnecessary discards of marketable fish.
JNCC Joint Nature Conservation Committee.
MAGPs Multi-Annual Guidance Programmes. EU programmes
in which fleet capacity reduction targets are laid down for each
Member State.
Multi-Annual TACs TACs set for more than one year at
a time, to avoid end of year problems when fish have to be discarded
until the new quota year commences. Application of this policy
requires longer term forecasts of stock levels to be made, with
potentially high margins of error.
Nephrops Nephrops norvegicus: Norwegian
lobster, Dublin Bay prawn or langoustine.
No-take zone An area of the sea closed to all
fishing.
OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation
and Development
Pelagic Fish and other organisms living in the
upper layers of the sea (e.g. tuna, herring, mackerel and pilchard)
(cf Demersal).
Precautionary approach Fisheries management term equivalent
to the "precautionary principle", as used in environmental
protection policy generally—i.e. a presumption against taking
action which has the potential to harm the environment, even where
scientific certainty is lacking.
RACs Regional Advisory Councils.
Ranching The enhancement of natural fisheries
by artificially rearing young fish to be introduced to the wild.
Relative stability The principle within the CFP
that the total volume of allowable catch is shared among Member
States in a manner which assures each State relative stability
of fishing activities taking one year with another.
SSB Spawning stock biomass.
Structural funds The various Community funds,
financed by the EU budget with matching contributions from Member
States, through which aid is directed towards less developed areas
of the EU.
TAC Total Allowable Catch. A component of
the CFP designed to achieve a specific fishing mortality rate
(e.g. if so many tonnes of fish x are caught this year
then the fishing mortality rate of y will be achieved).
TACs are set each year by estimating the number of fish available
in each age group, based either on scientific data ("analytical
TAC") or on estimates from historical catch data ("precautionary
TAC").
White fish Fish with white flesh (mostly demersal)
as opposed to oily fish such as herring and mackerel (mostly pelagic).
Year class All those fish of a particular stock
spawned in any one year. For example, the 1996 year class is all
those fish (of a particular stock) spawned during 1996.
6-12 mile zone The part of the 12 mile limit within
which others having a historic right may fish as well as vessels
of the coastal state.
12 mile zone The area of sea under the jurisdiction
of the coastal state.
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