Statistics Explained

Archive:Fishery statistics

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Data from September 2012, most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.

This article gives an overview of recent statistics relating to fishing fleets, fish catches and aquaculture production in the European Union (EU). Fish are a natural, biological, mobile (sometimes over wide distances) and renewable resource. Aside from fish farming, fish cannot be owned until they have been caught. For this reason, fish stocks continue to be regarded as a common resource, which needs to be managed collectively. This has led to a range of policies that regulate the amount of fishing, as well as the types of fishing techniques and gear used in fish capture.

Main statistical findings

By far the largest fishing fleets among the EU Member States, in terms of power, were those from Italy, France, Spain and the United Kingdom; in 2010, the fishing fleets of each of these countries had a collective power of between 0.8 million kW and 1.1 million kW. In terms of tonnage, however, the Spanish fishing fleet was by far the largest (415 000 gross tonnes), which was at least twice the size of the fleets in the United Kingdom, Italy or France. The fishing fleets of Norway and Iceland were also relatively large. Indeed, the fleet in Norway had more power (1.2 million kW) than any of the fleets from the EU Member States, while in tonnage terms the Norwegian fleet (366 000) was smaller only than the Spanish one – see Figure 1.

Having peaked in 2001 at 6.9 million tonnes of live weight the total EU-27 catch has fallen every year since; the total catch in 2010 was 28.8 % less than in 2001. Total catches by the fishing fleets of Denmark, Spain, the United Kingdom and France accounted for just over half (53.2 %) of all the catches made by EU-27 fishing fleets in 2010. This represented the highest combined share of these four Member States since 2004, having been close to 60 % between 2000 and 2002 before falling to a low point just under 50 % in 2007 – see Table 1. Among the 15 Member States that had a catch of at least 100 000 tonnes in 2001, the largest percentage falls in the catch between 2001 and 2010 were recorded in Denmark (-45.2 %) and the Netherlands (-44.9 %), while the total catch fell by about one third in France, Poland, Spain and Sweden. For comparison, during the same period of time the Icelandic catch fell 46.9 % while that in Norway fell just 4.6 %; the combined Icelandic and Norwegian catch was equivalent to 67.8 % of the EU-27 catch in 2001 and rose to a level equivalent to 73.6 % by 2010.

Around 71 % of the catches made by the EU-27 in 2011 were in the north east Atlantic, with the eastern central Atlantic the second largest fishing area – see Figure 2.

The level of aquaculture production in the EU-27 remained stable during the period from 2000 to 2010, with annual output of between 1.2 and 1.4 million tonnes. The five largest aquaculture producers among the EU Member States were Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Greece, which together accounted for around three quarters (75.2 %) of total aquaculture production in 2010. Among the non-member countries included in Table 2 aquaculture production was extremely large in Norway where it was higher than the combined output of the five largest EU Member States. The aquaculture output of Turkey was also quite substantial in 2008, similar in magnitude to that of Italy and larger than that of Greece.

The development of aquaculture production between 2000 and 2010 followed different patterns across the EU Member States. Production in the Netherlands was almost halved, while there were also relatively large reductions in aquaculture output in Germany, Italy, Denmark, Spain and France. In contrast, aquaculture output increased overall by 32.1 % in the United Kingdom during the period from 2000 to 2010 and rose by 24.1 % in Greece. Norwegian aquaculture production doubled between 2000 and 2010.

Data sources and availability

Fishery statistics are collected from official national sources either directly by Eurostat for the members of the European Economic Area (EEA) or indirectly through other international organisations for other countries. The data are collected using internationally agreed concepts and definitions developed by the coordinating working party on fishery statistics (CWP), comprising Eurostat and several other international organisations with responsibilities in fishery statistics. The flag of the fishing vessel is used as the primary indication of the nationality of the catch, though this concept may vary in certain circumstances.

In general, the data refer to the fishing fleet size on 31 December of the reference year. The data are derived from national registers of fishing vessels which are maintained pursuant to Regulation 26/2004 which contains information on the vessel characteristics – the administrative file of fishing vessels is maintained by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries.

There has been a transition in measuring the tonnage of the fishing fleet from gross registered tonnage (GRT) to that of gross tonnage (GT). This change, which has taken place at different speeds within the national administrations, gives rise to the possibility of non-comparability of data over time and of non-comparability between countries.

Catches of fishery products include items taken for all purposes (commercial, industrial, recreational and subsistence) by all types and classes of fishing units operating both in inland, inshore, offshore and in high-seas fishing areas. The catch is normally expressed in live weight and derived by the application of conversion factors to the landed or product weight. As such, catch statistics exclude quantities which are caught and taken from the water (that is, before processing) but which, for a variety of reasons, are not landed.

Geographical fishing areas are defined for a number of specific areas of water, including:

  • the north east Atlantic, which is roughly the area to the east of longitude 42°West and north of latitude 36°North, including the waters of the Baltic Sea;
  • the north west Atlantic, which is the region that is roughly the area to the west of longitude 42°West and north of latitude 35°North;
  • the eastern central Atlantic, which is the region to the east of longitude 40°West between latitudes 36°North and 6°South;
  • the Mediterranean and the Black Sea (also known as Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) major fishing area 37), which comprises the Mediterranean Sea and the adjacent Black Sea.

Aquaculture is the farming of aquatic organisms including fish, molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants. Farming implies some form of intervention in the rearing process to enhance production, such as regular stocking, feeding and protection from predators. Farming also implies individual or corporate ownership of, or rights resulting from contractual arrangements to, the stock being cultivated.

Context

The first common European policy measures in the fishing sector date from 1970. They set rules for access to fishing grounds, markets and structures. All these measures became more significant when, in 1976, the Member States followed an international movement and agreed to extend their rights to marine resources from 12 to 200 miles from their coasts.

After years of difficult negotiations, the common fisheries policy (CFP), the EU’s instrument for the management of fisheries and aquaculture, was born in 1983. The CFP sets maximum quantities of fish that can be safely caught every year: the total allowable catch (TAC). Each country’s share is called a national quota.

The CFP was reformed in 2002 to deal with the environmental, economic and social dimensions of fishing. Common measures were agreed in four areas:

  • the conservation of stocks/environmental impact – to protect fish resources by regulating the amount of fish taken from the sea, by allowing young fish to reproduce, and by ensuring that measures are respected;
  • structures and fleet management (such as vessels, port facilities and fish processing plants) – to help the fishing and aquaculture sectors adapt their equipment and organisations to the constraints imposed by scarce resources and the market;
  • the organisation of the market for fish in the EU – to maintain a common organisation of the market in fish products and to match supply and demand for the benefit of both producers and consumers;
  • and external fisheries policy – to set-up fisheries agreements and to negotiate at an international level within regional and international fisheries organisations for common conservation measures in deep-sea fisheries.

The 2002 reform identified the need to limit fishing efforts, the level of catches, and to enforce certain technical measures. To ensure sustainable fishing, it is not only the quantity of fish taken from the sea that is important, but also their species, size, and the techniques used in catching them, as well as the areas where they are caught.

The European fisheries fund (EFF) has a budget of around EUR 3 800 million and covers the period 2007 to 2013. It aims to support the objectives of the CFP by:

  • supporting sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources and a stable balance between these resources and the capacity of Community fishing fleet;
  • strengthening the competitiveness and the viability of operators in the sector;
  • promoting environmentally-friendly fishing and production methods;
  • providing adequate support to people employed in the sector;
  • fostering the sustainable development of fisheries areas.

The CFP is considered, by many, to be in need of further reform, essentially because of the depletion of fish stocks, the overall threat to the marine ecosystem and the resulting impact on the fishing industry and dependent communities. The European Commission’s proposals for the reform of the CFP were published in July 2011 (COM(2011) 417 final). The proposals aim to secure fish stocks and the future of the fishing industry. Targets and timeframes to stop overfishing have been proposed; one of the aims is to bring all fish stocks to a sustainable level by 2015. Financial support will only be granted to environmentally-friendly initiatives contributing to smart and sustainable growth. A package of legislative proposals was put forward by the European Commission, including proposals for Regulations concerning

Later in 2011 the European Commission completed this package with a proposal for a Regulation concerning the European maritime and fisheries fund (COM(2011) 804 final).

Further Eurostat information

Publications

Main tables

Catches in all fishing regions (tag00076)
Catches in the north-west Atlantic (tag00079)
Catches in the north-east Atlantic (tag00078)
Catches in the eastern central Atlantic (tag00080)
Catches in the Mediterranean (tag00081)
Aquaculture production, Total (tag00075)
Fishing fleet, Total engine power (tsdnr420)
Fishing fleet, Total tonnage (tag00083)
Fishing Fleet, Number of Vessels (tag00116)

Database

Catches by fishing area (fish_ca)
Aquaculture production (fish_aq)
Total Fishery Production (Catch + Aquaculture) (fish_pr)
Landings of fishery products (fish_ld)
Fishing fleet (fish_fleet)

Dedicated section

Methodology/Metadata

Other information

Catch statistics:

  • Regulation 216/2009 on the submission of nominal catch statistics by Member States fishing in certain areas other than those of the North Atlantic
  • Regulation 217/2009 on the submission of catch and activity statistics by Member States fishing in the North-West Atlantic
  • Regulation 218/2009 on the submission of nominal catch statistics by Member States fishing in the north-east Atlantic

Aquaculture:

  • Regulations 788/96 and 762/2008 on the submission by Member States of statistics on aquaculture production

Landings:

Fishing fleet:

Source data for tables and figures (MS Excel)

External links

See also

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