The EU distant water fleet (excluding Estonia and Latvia) landed around 730,000 metric tons (MT) of fish in 2015, with Spain accounting for more than two-thirds of the catch, finds the new “2017 Annual Economic Report on the EU Fishing Fleet,” published by the European Commission.
Some 88 percent of the EU’s distant water catch comes from areas classified as “Other Fishing Regions (OFR),” with a further 6 percent taken in the Northwest Atlantic, 5 percent from the Outermost regions and less than 1 percent from non-EU Mediterranean waters.
Spain with 520,000 MT (down 1.8 percent on 2014), France’s 77,000 MT (up 405 percent), Lithuania’s 54,000 MT (down 46 percent), and the Netherlands’ 36,000 MT (down 60 percent) were the leading distant water fleets, together accounting for 94 percent of the total weight landed.
In terms of landed value, the Spanish fleets dominated the fishing activity with EUR 907 million (USD 1.1 billion), down 22 percent on 2014; followed by France with EUR 102 million (USD 119.8 million), up 252 percent: Portugal earned EUR 86 million (USD 101 million), up 1 percent; and Lithuania earned EUR 40.6 million (USD 47.7 million), down 42 percent.
The two most important distant water fleet segments by revenue generated were the Spanish purse seiners over 40 meters with EUR 343 million (USD 402.8 million) and demersal trawlers over 40 meters with EUR 226 million (USD 265.4 million).
Spanish demersal trawlers (24-40 meters) generated EUR 115 million (USD 135 million) in revenue, the Spanish vessels using other passive gears (24-40 metres) earned EUR 86 million (USD 101 million) and the French purse seiners over 40 metres earned EUR 85 million (USD 99.8 million).
The Spanish distant water fleet (vessels over 40 meters) is highly diversified with a broad range of vessel types targeting different species predominantly from West Africa and the Indian Ocean. The fleet targets a variety of species but in particular large pelagic fishes, such as blue shark, bigeye tuna and swordfish.
