Irish Fish and Fisheries

The Irish monitoring programme for Descriptor 3 “Commercial fish and shellfish” and fish biodiversity (D1, D4 and D6) is based on the monitoring required under the obligation of the Data Collection Framework Directive (EC 665/2008; 2010/93/EU) for the implementation of the Common Fisheries Policy and for additional stocks/species of national importance. There are two main sources of data collected as part of Ireland’s monitoring programme; fishery independent and fishery dependent data. The first involves monitoring the temporal and spatial changes in the fish populations using fisheries surveys on research vessels and commercial vessels. Fishery dependant data involves collecting and analysing biological data (age, length etc.) of the fish caught, together with data on the quantities of fish caught and the fishing effort. The fish and fisheries monitoring programme includes the evaluation of the fishing sector using capacity and activity, pressure monitoring of contributing activities in terms of distribution and intensity of effort, landings and discards of fish and shellfish and accidental bycatch of other species. Pressure on habitats is partially monitored based on the spatial and temporal distribution of bottom contacting fishing gear within mapped habitats. The monitoring programme also covers status monitoring through the use of dedicated scientific fish and shellfish surveys which estimate the distribution and relative abundance of different fish and shellfish species and the collection of biological parameters