The problem

Recently introduced technologies, such as the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) and electronic logbooks to record and communicate fishing activity, have the potential to improve the accuracy and spatial precision of fishery data and to reduce the time it takes for these data to reach fishery stakeholders. This offers an opportunity to establish a more responsive management regime. But the feasibility of gathering real-time information, identifying bottlenecks and assessing the reliability of utilising the new technology needs to be determined.

Overview:

Fisheries management deals with uncertainty; some natural, others reflecting the unknown activity of the fishing fleets. CEDER will aim to reduce uncertainty in the second of these by exploring the opportunities for exploiting new technology and making management more responsive by:

• producing a harmonised database for six representative fisheries across the EU
• incorporating national catches and landings into the database
• producing and testing a real-time system to monitor catch, effort, discards and landings within
  each case-study fishery
• developing a design for an operational, EU-wide system and assessing its benefits to industry, managers and stock sustainability

Contribution to policy development:

• CEDER will provide a more responsive system for informing fishery management decisions
• The project will enable the matching of fishing activity more closely to available resources
• A harmonised catch and effort database will enable managers to make more direct comparisons between separate fleet activities, performance and compliance
• A real-time monitoring and management system will be more transparent

Project deliverables

• Report: Assessing information flow for reporting fisheries, the likely effect of new technologies and data standards for modelling – June 2006
• Report: Design of a pilot-study real-time monitoring system – September 2006
• Report: Pilot monitoring systems and the testing they have undergone – April 2007
• Report: Management model performance for each case-study fishery – June 2007
• Proposals for a new reporting system that allows real-time evaluation of catch – August 2007
• Report on case-study trials – October 2007
• Assessment of a new reporting system and project implementation plan – October 2007
• Final reports – December 2007

Dissemination

• Newsletter – January 2007
• CEDER will observe commercial confidentiality and will not publish sensitive information
• All data produced in this project will be archived in a way that facilitates retrieval at a later date.
• The Commission’s Joint Research Centre will establish and maintain a publicly accessible website displaying project details and progress
• Scientific and technical results will be submitted for publication in international
  peer-review journals
• Software produced by the project will be made available to all partners

Technical information

Project acronym: CEDER
Project’s official full title: Catch, Effort and Discard Estimates in Real time
Research priority: : 1.3. Modernisation and sustainability of fisheries, including aquaculture-based production systems
Specific webpage: Details not yet available
Proposal/contract no: 022615
Start date: 1 January 2006
Kick off meeting: January 2006
Completion date: December 2007
European Commission scientific officer: Mário Lopes dos Santos- mario.santos@ec.europa.eu

Coordinator:
Iain Shepherd - iain.shepherd@jrc.it
Name: Joint Research Centre
Abbreviated name: JRC
Address: DG Joint Research Centre
Public Relations Unit
SDME 10/78
B-1049 Brussels
Country: EU
Tel: +32.2.2957624
Fax: +32.2.2996322
Website: www.jrc.cec.eu.int  

Partners

Name: Fisheries Research Services
Abbreviated name: FRS
Country: United Kingdom

Name: Greenland Institute of Natural Resources  
Abbreviated name:GINR
Country: Greenland       

Name: Fisheries Research Institute  
Abbreviated name:FRI
Country: Iceland 

Name: L’Institut de recherche pour le Développement
Abbreviated name: IRD
Country: France 

Name: Instituto Español de Oceanografía
Abbreviated name: IEO
Country: Spain   

Name: Netherlands Institute for Fisheries Research
Abbreviated name: RIVO
Country: Netherlands    

Name: Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science  
Abbreviated name: CEFAS
Country: United Kingdom         

Name: Directorate of Fisheries, Iceland
Abbreviated name:DIS
Country: Iceland 

Name: Greenland Fisheries Licence Control Authority
Abbreviated name: GFLC
Country: Greenland 

Name: North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission
Abbreviated name: NEAFC
Country: International    

Name: Navigs s.a.r.l
Abbreviated name: Navigs
Country: France 

Name: Ocean and Land Resource Assessment Consultants  
Abbreviated name: OLRAC
Country: United Kingdom         

Name: TietoEnator
Abbreviated name: TietoEnator
Country: Denmark         

Name: Avanti Communications
Abbreviated name: Avanti
Country: United Kingdom         

Name: Traceall Ltd
Abbreviated name: Traceall
Country: United Kingdom         

Name: Correlation Systems  
Abbreviated name: Correlation
Country: Israel