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Related information

Fisheries Information

Defra: UK Government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. www.defra.gov.uk

NFFO: The National Federation of Fishermen's Organisation. www.nffo.org.uk

ICES: International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. www.ices.dk

2003/2004 programme

Catch from haul on FV Bill Rowney This was the first year of the Fisheries Science Partnership between the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO), Cefas and Defra. Ten projects were carried out all round the English coast from summer 2003 to spring 2004. These projects used chartered commercial fishing vessels with Cefas scientists onboard. The projects and their objectives can be viewed below.

These projects provided useful information for ICES and for negotiations between the UK and the European Commission. For example, the results of the western Channel sole project fed into UK proposals during 2004 for management of this small but locally important stock.

Full reports of the 2003/04 FSP projects are available on the reports page or by vessel name below. Some results of the 2003/04 FSP were highlighted in Fishing News on 6 August 2004 by Joe Horwood, Defra’s chief fisheries science adviser at Cefas.

Programme	Months	Areas	Vessels and gears
1: Whitefish bycatch in sandeel fishing areas	Jul-03	NE coast of England	Jubilee Quest (sandeel trawl) [PDF, 843KB]
	Purpose - To measure the whitefish bycatch taken by a 16mm commercial sandeel net, fished at a time when juvenile gadoids could be settling around the Dogger Bank.
2: Northern North Sea saithe	September – October 2003	Northern North Sea	*Farnella* (otter trawl). [PDF, 526KB]
	Purpose - To examine distribution and size composition of saithe and bycatches of other gadoids. To carry out an acoustic survey of saithe.
3: NE coast cod	August- October 2003	North Sea: off NE coast of England	**Abbie Lee and Emulator** (otter trawl). [PDF, 1.15MB]
	Purpose - To carry out a trawl survey of cod off the NE coast of England, and examine bycatches of other species.
4: Western Channel sole and plaice	August - October 2003	Western English Channel	*Lady T Emiel* and *Nellie* (beam trawl) [PDF, 1.43MB]
	Purpose -To carry out a beam-trawl survey of sole and plaice in the western Channel, and to examine bycatches of other species.
5: Western anglerfish and hake	September - November 2003	Celtic Sea and Western Approaches	Twilight III and Billy Rowney (beam trawl). [PDF, 2.05MB]
	Purpose -To carry out a beam-trawl survey of anglerfish and hake in the Celtic Sea and Western Approaches, and to examine bycatches of other species.
6: Whitefish bycatch in North Sea Norway Pout fishery	Dec-03	Northern North Sea	*Swanella* (Danish industrial pout trawl) [PDF, 0.99MB]
	Purpose -To investigate the bycatch of whitefish in the Norway Pout fishery.
7: Irish Sea roundfish	February – March 2004.	Western and Eastern Irish Sea	*Beniah IV* (semi-pelagic trawl: western Irish Sea) [PDF, 82KB] and *Kiroan* (otter trawl: eastern Irish Sea). [PDF, 156KB]
	Purpose -To carry out a survey of cod in the western and eastern Irish Sea and examine bycatch of other species. To tag cod on the spawning grounds.
8: Western cod	February - March 2004.	Celtic Sea (North Cornwall coast and Bristol Channel)	*Our Josie Grace* (twin rig trawl) [PDF, 218KB]
	Purpose -To carry out a survey of cod off the North Cornwall coast and the Bristol Channel, and examine bycatch of other species.
9: Deep water species	February - March 2004.	NW of British Isles	*Farnella* (rock-hopper otter trawl). [PDF, 574KB]
	Purpose -To obtain data on catches and size compositions of deep water species (blue ling, black scabbard, roundnose grenadier, Portuguese dogfish and other species).
10: Farn Deeps Nephrops	Mar-04	Farn Deeps, off NE coast of England	Luc and Still Waters (Nephrops trawl). [PDF, 347KB]
	Purpose -To compare the present distribution and abundance of Nephrops and whitefish bycatch with that obtained in previous similar exercises.