Descriptive guidelines for fisheries

The aim of these guidelines is to provide elements for the role of fisheries in the impact assessment of marine aggregate exploitation.

  1. Nature and source of data
  2. Access to data

1. Nature and source of data

The data currently available for the description of fisheries uses are the following:

  • The "Community Fishing Fleet" (Flotte de pêche communautaire (FPC)) and "Shipowners" files, which list all the professional fishing vessels in the French fleet and their technical characteristics [Source: Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries (MAAP) - Directorate of Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture (DPMA)];
  • Catch and effort declaration data provided by professionals. These data are the result of French Community regulatory obligations for vessels of 10 metres or more (logbooks) and national obligations for vessels of less than 10 metres (fishing sheets). Vessel declarations are recorded by tide, gear, fishing sector and species (Source: MAAP - DPMA);
  • Sales data, which essentially contain auction sales and provide information on the sales made per vessel by weight and value per species and by place of sale (Source: France Agrimer);
  • "Activity" survey data carried out each year by the network of observers of the Ifremer Fisheries Information System (SIH) for all vessels in the North Sea - Channel - Atlantic, the Mediterranean (excluding Corsica) and the French overseas departments, registered in the "National Fleet" file. The aim of these surveys is to reconstruct the annual activity schedule of the vessels for the past year, based on declarative and sales data, when available, and by means of direct surveys of the owners of these vessels and their professional representatives. Each month, the activity calendar specifies whether the vessel was active in fishing, and if so, the different trades practised. The term "trade" refers to the use of fishing gear to catch one or more target species in a given fishing area (Source: Ifremer - SIH).
  • Data from the satellite-based Vessel Monitoring System (VMS), which applies to all vessels over 15 metres (1), within the French Community regulatory framework. This system records and transmits the position of all vessels equipped with a satellite- positioning device with a time resolution of one hour [Source: DPMA, project manager for the system, with the Directorate of Maritime Affairs (DMA) acting as project manager].

 (1)The system is to be extended to ships over 12 metres in length from 1 January 2012.

2. Access to data

A significant part of the available data is collected within a regulatory framework. The transmission and availability of these data therefore require authorisation by the DPMA (Direction (française) des Pêches Maritimes et de l’Aquaculture).

  • Rules of confidentiality apply and in particular, only data aggregated according to the rules of statistical confidentiality may be released (communication of individual data is not possible).
  • On the other hand, no communication or dissemination of VMS data in any form (raw or aggregated data, maps) is currently authorised by the French fisheries administration.

It is important to specify that, with the exception of VMS data, which provide a high degree of precision on the position of vessels, the vast majority of geo-referenced data (declarations of catches and fishing effort, activity surveys) is available at the scale of the statistical rectangle(2) whose surface area (1/2° latitude, 1° longitude, i.e. 6,000 km² ) is unfortunately not compatible with a detailed description of the fishing uses necessary for the implementation of marine aggregate exploitation or the installation of offshore facilities (wind turbines, tidal turbines, cables, etc.)

 (2) Some data are sometimes available at the sub-rectangle level, but they are partial and their representativeness is difficult to estimate

However, these data are the only ones currently available. In this respect, Ifremer provides annual summaries per statistical rectangle containing a series of descriptive indicators of the fleet and the fishing activity carried out in the rectangle. In particular:

  • the technical characteristics and port of origin of the vessels active within the statistical rectangle;
  • the annual radius of action and the fleets to which the vessels concerned belong;
  • the fishing gear used within the statistical rectangle;
  • the seasonality of the activity per gear within the statistical rectangle;
  • the indicator of frequentation and "dependence" of vessels on the statistical rectangle;
  • catches per species present in the statistical rectangle.

These summaries are freely available on the SIH website. Insofar as the information is provided at the level of statistical rectangles, only the data from the "Fleet" file, the declarative flow (unfortunately often incomplete) and the "Activity" surveys are used.

Beyond this survey of currently available data, we can suggest ways to try to overcome the mismatch between the statistical rectangle and the extraction perimeter and/or the unavailability of these data, such as:

  • An ad hoc survey of fishing professionals, for which Ifremer believes that the answers to questions on extraction could be biased/influenced by the context of the survey itself;
  • On-site observations, which make it possible to observe, directly from the coast or using nautical means, the professional and recreational activities carried out on the site. This method would consist of instantaneous situations that would only provide qualitative information on fishing activities.

Concurrently, Ifremer will propose to the ministries concerned, in particular the Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and the Sea (MEEDDM) and the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries (MAAP), refined methodology for evaluating fishing activities, based on geographical positioning data (VMS (Vessel Monitoring System), AIS or Recopesca type). Generalising this type of system would make it possible to envisage a response adapted to the scale of the issues raised by the various uses of the marine environment, according to access methods that remain to be specified.