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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

2004/2005 programme

publications/FSP2004_05 Prog 7 NSea plaice and lemon sole final report.pdf Defra provided a further £1m to continue the FSP into 2004/05. The projects included a continuation of the cod, sole and monkfish surveys carried out the previous year, to start building time series of data. New surveys were carried out on the plaice and lemon sole fishing grounds off the NE coast of England, and on the plaice and sole grounds off north Cornwall. Other projects addressed specific management issues such as bycatch and selectivity in the Irish Sea plaice and Nephrops fisheries, and testing more selective gears in the NE Nephrops and North Sea pout fisheries. A full list of the programmes and their objectives is given below. Full reports of the projects are posted on this website. They can be found by vessel name below or going to the reports page.

Programme	Months	Areas	Vessels and gears
1: North East Cod	Oct-04	NE coast of England	**Allegiance and Independence (pair trawl) and Christina** (otter trawl) [PDF, 518KB]
	Purpose - To repeat the otter-trawl survey of NE cod and selected bycatch species carried out in 2003. To compare the size/age compositions of cod catches between a single-vessel otter trawl and a pair-trawl. To examine day-night differences in catch rates.
2: Western Channel sole and plaice	August – October 2004	Western English Channel and Approaches	**Nellie and Lady T Emiel** (beam trawl) [PDF, 1.7MB]
	Purpose - To repeat the beam-trawl survey of western Channel sole and plaice and selected bycatch species carried out in 2003. To attempt to confirm the size of the 2002 year-class of sole using open gear in Lyme Bay.
3: Western Anglerfish	October - December 2004	Celtic Sea and Western Approaches	**Bill Rowney and Twilight** (beamtrawl). [PDF, 1.85MB]
	Purpose - To repeat the beam-trawl survey of Celtic Sea anglerfish and selected bycatch species carried out in 2003. To investigate the effectiveness of an “environmental panel” designed for reducing the bycatch of benthic organisms and debris.
4: Irish Sea roundfish	February - March 2005	Western and Eastern Irish Sea (two separate surveys)	Eastern Irish Sea: Isadale (otter trawl); Western Irish Sea; Beniah IV(semi-pelagic trawl) [PDF, 498KB]
	Purpose -To repeat the surveys of cod and selected bycatch species carried out in the western Irish Sea with extension into the Clyde (semi-pelagic trawl gear), and in the eastern Irish Sea (demersal otter trawl) in spring 2004. To tag cod on spawning grounds and the North Channel/Clyde using conventional tags.
5: Western Cod	February - March 2005	Celtic Sea	Josie Grace (twin-rig otter trawl) [PDF, 642KB]
	Purpose - To repeat the otter-trawl survey of Celtic Sea cod and selected bycatch species carried out in spring 2004. To extend the survey to include the Irish Coast. To tag cod on spawning grounds using conventional tags.
6: North East Nephrops	October 2004 - January 2005	Farne Deeps off NE coast of England	Nephrops survey: **Kristenborg, Star Divine, Gallant Venture and Quo Vadis** (single-rig Nephrops trawl) [PDF, 327KB] Gear selectivity trials: *Success III* (twin-rig Nephrops trawl); **Trudy May and Endeavour*(single-rig Nephrops* trawl). [PDF, 631KB]
	Purpose - To carry out a survey of Nephrops on the Farne Deeps using standard Nephrops trawls, mainly to examine catch rates and size compositions for comparison with the results of Cefas camera surveys of burrows. To carry out trials with new designs of Nephrops trawls aimed at reducing discarding of under-sized fish.
7: North Sea plaice and lemon sole	August – September 2004.	NE coast of England	**Jubilee Quest and Jubilee Intrepid** (twin-rig scraper trawl) [PDF, 860KB]
	Purpose - To carry out a survey of plaice and lemon sole on the fishing grounds off the NE coast of England and east coast of Scotland, using commercial twin-rig Scraper trawls. To examine the catch composition in this fishery, particularly the bycatch of cod. To compare the catches between 100mm and 120mm mesh cod-ends, especially in relation to the retention of lemon soles, and to compare the catches between various combinations of cod-end mesh and square-mesh-panels.
8: Gear selectivity in the Irish Sea	September - November 2004	Western and Eastern Irish Sea (two separate projects)	a) Eastern Irish Sea: *Kiroan* (twin-rig otter trawl). [PDF, 271KB] b) Western Irish Sea: Golden Bells II (twin-rig Nephrops trawl), Rhodanna and Margreta-M (single-rig Nephrops trawl). [PDF, 860KB]
	Purpose - a) To examine the effect on catches of using 80mm and 110mm cod-ends in the eastern Irish Sea plaice fishery using twin-rig otter trawls. To investigate the bycatch of cod in the eastern Irish Sea plaice fishery. b) To provide data on catch composition of the different types of Nephrops trawlers in the fleet operating from Northern Ireland, with particular emphasis on bycatch and discarding of cod and whiting. To provide information relevant to the design of a forthcoming FIFG-funded gear selectivity trial of Nephrops trawls in the Irish Sea involving ANIFPO and DARD(NI).
9: Pout bycatch mitigation	November - December 2004.	Pout box off eastern Scotland	Swanella (Industrial trawl and modified whitefish trawl). [PDF, 508KB]
	Purpose -To determine the potential reduction in bycatch of whitefish when a sieve net is incorporated into a commercial Norway pout trawl.
10: Celtic Sea sole and plaice	February 2005	North Cornwall coast	Nellie (beam trawl). [PDF, 321KB]
	Purpose - To carry out a beam-trawl survey of sole and plaice off the north coast of Cornwall, with particular emphasis on identifying areas where clean catches of each species can be made.