The objective of the ecosystem approach is to protect the structures, processes and interactions of the ecosystem through a sustainable use of the natural resources. A key step when studying the environmental impact of the fishing activity is to assess the fishing footprint. There are two methodologies to study the fishing effort and footprint in the NAFO Regulatory Area (NRA). The first one uses a simple speed filter to select the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) pings most likely to be associated with fishing effort. The second one filters the VMS pings that correspond with the haul interval registered by the skipper in the logbook. The purpose of this study is to analyse the quality and coverage of the VMS and logbook data used in these two methods. Data collected by the IEO Scientific Observer Program on board fishing vessels were also used to measure the coverage. The results show that the current speed range (0.5-5 knots) used in the speed filter method may be adequate to study effort in trawl fisheries but is not representative for longline fisheries. It was also observed that both databases, VMS and logbook, contain errors and the effects of the misreporting are enhanced when both data sets are merged. Data from scientific observers allowed to measure these errors and, as a result, only around 60-70% of the total pings were taken into account with the merging approach. Despite the merging approach is widely considered an improvement in relation to the former method (i.e. simple speed filter) and a powerful tool for describing the spatial distribution of fishing activity, this improvement relies on the coverage and quality of the available information. The quality of information, both in the VMS system and in the logbooks, should be of concern to NAFO. The improvement of the quality of these data is crucial for better studying the effort distribution and the tasks related to this effort (SAI, fisheries footprint, fishing overlap with VME, assessments, etc).

within the National Program of collection, management and use of data in the fisheries sector and support for scientific advice regarding the Common Fisheries Policy.

European Union through the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF)

NO