In the name of sustainability, fishermen and scientists are working together to better understand anchovy and sardine stocks in the waters off southwest France.
With scientists from the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (IFREMER) aboard, two pelagic trawlers just returned from a five-day research trip to southern Brittany and the Gironde.
“The aim of this collaboration is to better understand the lives of sardines and anchovies, where and when they move, the presence or absence of adults and the appearance of juveniles," a spokesperson for the National Maritime Fisheries Committee of France (CNPMEM) told SeafoodSource.
“Samples taken can be measured and weighed on the boat, but establishing the age of the sardine or anchovy occurs in the laboratory,” added the spokesperson.
The thrust of the trip is to better understand the habits of pelagic fish. Ultimately, greater knowledge of the life-cycle patterns of anchovies and sardines will serve to better manage the stocks, “because visibility will be strengthened, providing greater stability to the sector,” said CNPMEM.
The two-trawler survey is the first of its kind this year. But, according to CNPMEM, it would be “ideal” to carry out such research on a monthly basis. A second five-day survey is slated for this fall.
Sustaining the vulnerable anchovy fishery in European waters took center stage late last month when the European Commission proposed a rule that would allow total allowable catches (TACs) to be set directly after the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) releases its biomass estimate, just as the fishing season is set to open on 1 July annually.
Currently, the anchovy TAC is set by EU fisheries ministers at their annual December meeting. They are then amended, if necessary, once the STECF has issued its advice the following June.
“Our pilot project, [which] combines scientists and industry professionals, aligns perfectly” with EU Fisheries Minister Joe Borg’s approach to anchovy management, said CNPMEM.
