Les petites pêches côtières et estuariennes Françaises du sud du golfe de Gascogne. Typologie des flottilles et approche socio-économique et commerciale

The European contract PECOSUDE (Small inshore fisheries of the south of Europe) accepted in 2000 for 2 years concerns French, Spanish and Portuguese partners. The aim is to assess the inshore and estuarine fisheries from Loire estuary to Portugal. Three levels of study are considered : fisheries (data 1999), socioeconomy and marketing (data 1999 or 2000). Exploitation in the 12 miles area for France and on continental shelf for northern Spain and Portugal (within 1000 m depth), as well as the fishing period lower than 96 hours was determined as the definition of this fishery for the study. Socioeconomic analyses are made only on boats smaller than 15 m. The fisheries part analyses the activity of the fishing vessels taking into account gears used, landed species, areas and fishing seasons. Within the 39 harbours of the south Bay of Biscay 1 799 coastal or estuarine vessels with 3 580 fishermen are located. Statics gears are predominant, and more than half of the vessels are polyvalent (using several gears). In 1999, landings were 20 6441 weight for 84 M¿ value. The fishing activity of these boats was also analysed by typology of the fleet, based on fishing gears and/or species landed. These characterisations allowed the application of stratified sampling for the implementation of socioeconomic investigations. The analysis of the information received from the fishermen allow to describe the production factors, to estimate their costs, as well as the turnover, the richness creation and the efficiency of the production means. The capital value of the south Bay of Biscay " ship " is established about 94 k¿, the average turnover amount to 83 k¿ and the average rate of added value to 70%. Products commercialisation vary from component to component, the importance of the sells in auction places depends on the landed species. Some valuable species are directly sold to particular

RAIMOUEST : la pêcherie française de raies dans le golfe normand-breton

The landing ban of Raja undulata has raised misunderstanding for French fishermen, particularly for those fishing in the Norman‐Breton gulf (Southeast of ICES Division VIIe) where this species is very abundant. In this context, the RAIMOUEST project was launched as a professional and scientist partnership in order to enhance fisheries data on the main ray species caught in the Norman-Breton Gulf (Raja undulata, Raja brachyura, Raja clavata, Raja montagui and Raja microocellata). The French ray fisheries fleet was identified and a sample of fishermen involved in rays fishing was interviewed. Landings and effort data (logbooks), auctions sales and sampling at sea aboard professional fishing vessels were analysed. This working document presents the current results of this study. The French fleet concerned by ray fishing in the Normand-Breton Gulf in 2012 was composed of 289 vessels, mainly coastal trawlers/dredgers and small length size netters and longliners. R. undulata is the main ray species in this area. This species seems to form a local stock in the Normand-Breton Gulf with some continuity in the Eastern English Channel and the Western part of the Western English Channel. Three ways of analysis were used to provide an indicative level of R. undulata stock: French landings before 2009 were estimated at least at 300 tons in the Western English Channel (VIIe) and 160 tons in the Normand-Breton Gulf; sales at auctions of the Basse-Normandie fleet before 2009 were estimated at 235 tons in the western English Channel and 35 tons in the eastern English Channel (VIId); discards by the French bottom trawl fleet in ICES Division VIIe in 2012 and 2013 were estimated at 750 tons. Information on the spatial distribution of the other ray species in the English Channel was also provided. The coastal localisation of nursery for R. undulata and R. clavata was highlighted.

Ecoviability for small-scale fisheries in the context of food security constraints

This paper applies a stochastic viability approach to a tropical small-scale fishery, offering a theoretical and empirical example of ecosystem-based fishery management approach that accounts for food security. The model integrates multi-species, multi-fleet and uncertainty as well as profitability, food production, and demographic growth. It is calibrated over the period 2006–2010 using monthly catch and effort data from the French Guiana's coastal fishery, involving thirteen species and four fleets. Using projections at the horizon 2040, different management strategies and scenarios are compared from a viability viewpoint, thus accounting for biodiversity preservation, fleet profitability and food security. The analysis shows that under certain conditions, viable options can be identified which allow fishing intensity and production to be increased to respond to food security requirements but with minimum impacts on the marine resources.

Optimizing PAT data transmission: assessing the accuracy of temperature summary data to estimate environmental conditions

Pop-up archival tags (PAT) provide summary and high-resolution time series data at predefined temporal intervals. The limited battery capabilities of PATs often restrict the transmission success and thus temporal coverage of both data products. While summary data are usually less affected by this problem, as a result of its lower size, it might be less informative. We here investigate the accuracy and feasibility of using temperature at depth summary data provided by PATs to describe encountered oceanographic conditions. Interpolated temperature at depth summary data was found to provide accurate estimates of three major thermal water column structure indicators: thermocline depth, stratification and ocean heat content. Such indicators are useful for the interpretation of the tagged animal's horizontal and vertical behaviour. The accuracy of these indicators was found to be particularly sensitive to the number of data points available in the first 100 m, which in turn depends on the vertical behaviour of the tagged animal. Based on our results, we recommend the use of temperature at depth summary data as opposed to temperature time series data for PAT studies; doing so during the tag programming will help to maximize the amount of transmitted time series data for other key data types such as light levels and depth.