Quantifying recreational shore angling catch and harvest in southern Portugal (north-east Atlantic Ocean): implications for conservation and integrated fisheries management

Recreational shore fishing along 250 km of the south and south-west coast of Portugal was studied based on roving creel and aerial surveys. Surveys were conducted between August 2006 and July 2007, following a stratified random-sampling design and provided information on catch and effort, harvest and discards, angler demographics and fishing habits. Overall, 192 roving creel surveys, 24 aerial surveys and 1321 interviews were conducted. Based on the aerial surveys, a mean +/- s.e. total fishing effort of 705 236 +/- 32 765 angler h year(-1) was estimated, corresponding to 166 430 +/- 9792 fishing trips year(-1). Average time spent per fishing trip was 4.7 h. A total of 48 species, belonging to 22 families, were recorded in roving creel surveys. The most important species was Diplodus sargus, accounting for 44% of the total catches by number and 48% by mass. Estimated mean +/- s.e. total annual recreational shore fishing catch was 160.2 +/- 12.6 t year(-1) (788 049 +/- 54 079 fishes year(-1)), of which 147.4 +/- 11.9 t year(-1) (589 132 +/- 42 360 fishes year(-1)) was retained. Although overall shore-based recreational catches only corresponded to 0.8% of the commercial landings (only common species considered), D. sargus catches by recreational shore anglers were considerable, corresponding to 65% of the commercial landings. The implications of these results for integrated fisheries management and conservation are discussed, and future research proposed.

Underwater acoustic networks: the FP7 UAN project

The EU-funded project UAN - Underwater Acoustic Network aims at conceiving, developing and testing at sea an innovative and operational concept for integrating in a unique communication system submerged, surface and aerial sensors with the objective of protecting off-shore and coastline critical infrastructures. A crucial aspect of the project consisted in the use of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) as mobile nodes in the underwater acoustic communication network. In particular, AUVs have the role of adapting the network geometry to the variation of the acoustic channel. This paper reports on the project concept and vision as well as on the progress of its various development phases. The recent at-sea successes that have been demonstrated within the UAN framework are detailed and results of the final UAN project demonstration, UAN11, held in the May of 2011, are reported. The UAN network was in operation for five continuous days with up to five nodes, of which three of them were mobile nodes. © IFAC.