Invisible catch: a century of bycatch and unreported removals in sea fisheries, Belgium

(Picture by marine biologist Jan Reubens)

 

Scientists from Flanders Marine Institute,the Marine Biology Research Group (UGent) and the Institute for Agriculture and Fisheries Research recently published a new paper entitled ‘Invisible catch: a century of bycatch and unreported removals in sea fisheries, Belgium 1929-2010’.

Publicly reported statistics on the production of fisheries refer to ‘landings’ as opposed to ‘catch’. However, decisions and evaluation on the impact of fisheries on ecosystems should be based on total removals, thus also including unreported landings from the recreational and subsistence fisheries and estimated discards. The reconstructed total removals were estimated for the entire Belgian sea fisheries in all fishing areas. In the Belgian part of the North Sea, total removals were estimated to be 55% higher than the 0.8 million ton publicly reported over the period 1929-2010. These data provide a context for a wider debate about how to move to more sustainable fisheries, what the role of small-scale fisheries (not subject to reporting) is, and how to achieve the agreed policy targets in Belgian marine waters and in marine areas protected under the EU Habitat and Bird directives.

You can read more here.