ANNUAL REPORT - Marine Institute Open Access Repository

Marine Institute Annual Report 2008
Fisheries Science Services
Director’s Statement
Fisheries science is changing. It continues
to evolve as managers seek new forms of
scientific advice that meet the new and
wider demands of marine policy makers
(e.g. for greater environmental integration).
Against this background, the fishing
industry continued to go through a very
difficult period as reduced quotas, fuel price
uncertainty, fleet decommissioning, greater
environmental awareness and tighter EU controls impacted on their
profit margins. The role of Fisheries Science Services (FSS) is to provide
the research, assessments and advice that underpin the sustainable
exploitation of living marine resources in the waters around Ireland.
Meeting the needs of our major client (DAFF) was the major objective
for 2008 and FSS provided it with a broad range of scientific services.
The poor state of the fisheries resource, the demand for increased
interaction with stakeholders, the need for improved data quality, the
development and testing of management plans and the integration of
environmental considerations into fisheries advice were all key drivers
for our scientific services.
FSS also paid close attention to meeting the future needs of our
clients and stakeholders. A major achievement for FSS in 2008 was to
implement a set of highly relevant and applied research projects through
the Sea Change and the EU funding frameworks. Great care was taken to
ensure that these projects would fully complement, enhance and evolve
our core activity—that of delivering the scientific advice decision makers
need for the sustainable exploitation of our living marine resources.
Data Collection Regulation
Data are the raw materials FSS use to produce scientific advice. The EU
data collection framework is a very important funding source for FSS
and, in 2008; €2.4 million was secured to conduct the data collection
and data management programmes that provide the scientific data
needed to support the Common Fisheries Policy. A total of 13 research
surveys were undertaken on RV Celtic Explorer, RV Celtic Voyager and on
chartered commercial fishing vessels, yielding a total of 1,124 scientist
sea days. These surveys focused on Rockall haddock, acoustic estimates
for herring and blue whiting, cod tagging, a groundfish survey of the
shelf waters around Ireland, a deep water trawl survey of the slope area
to the west of Ireland and a survey of monkfish stocks off the west of
Ireland. These surveys involved close collaboration with UK, Russian,
Norwegian, Spanish and French scientists. FSS also continued to develop
its underwater TV survey programme on the Nephrops prawn grounds off
the Aran Islands, in the Celtic Sea and Irish Sea.
Sampling of landings in the ports, sea sampling of discards and analysis
of fleet activity and fishing patterns were also important components of
the DCR work programme. A total of 595,789 fish were measured and
52,620 aged during these 2008 programmes. A considerable amount
of time was devoted to the management (e.g. quality and data base
updates) of these data sets. The annual DCR cost statement and technical
reports for 2007 were completed and submitted to the EU. A new DCR
covering the period 2009-2013 was established by the Commission and
Ireland submitted a new two year programme covering the period 2009
and 2010.
This new DCR programme will be more complex than the old DCR and will
deal with a new type of sampling (fleet-based as opposed to stock-based)
and will also cover the provision of scientific advice. Working closely with
BIM, FSS also completed major sampling programmes on inshore stocks
(e.g. crab, lobster, cockles and shrimp). These inshore stocks are very
important economically to the coastal communities of Ireland.
Dr. Paul Connolly
Director: Fisheries Science Services
Scientific Advice
Scientific advice is the main product of FSS. The International Council for
the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) provides an international platform for
marine science where independent scientific advice is formulated for
the EU Commission and EU Member States. FSS participated in over 40
ICES meetings in 2008 (see Appendix 9) and they remain the primary
discussion groups used by FSS for international stock assessment and
advice. FSS staff held a number of key posts within ICES during 2008,
including chair of the review group on deep water species; the expert
group on assessment of southern shelf demersal stocks, and the
planning group for north Atlantic slope surveys.
FSS staff also participated at various meetings of the Scientific, Technical
and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF), chairing a sub group
on reducing discards. FSS also provided scientific support for DAFF staff
at several international meetings including the EU-Norway fisheries
agreements and the December Council of fisheries ministers that set the
fishing opportunities for 2009. The FSS modelling and simulation group
further developed the FPRESS tool which has received international
praise. Working with stakeholders, this tool was used in formulating
management plans for Celtic Sea herring, mackerel and horse mackerel.
The annual Stock Book, which provides all the latest scientific advice on
the fisheries resource of interest to Ireland was delivered to DAFF, and
used in negotiations with the EU on fishing opportunities for 2009. A
major review of the future format of the Stock Book was completed.
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