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SID 5 Research Project Final Report

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NoteIn line with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Defra aims to place the results of its completed research projects in the public domain wherever possible. The SID 5 (Research Project Final Report) is designed to capture the information on the results and outputs of Defra-funded research in a format that is easily publishable through the Defra website. A SID 5 must be completed for all projects.

A SID 5A form must be completed where a project is paid on a monthly basis or against quarterly invoices. No SID 5A is required where payments are made at milestone points. When a SID 5A is required, no SID 5 form will be accepted without the accompanying SID 5A.

This form is in Word format and the boxes may be expanded or reduced, as appropriate.

ACCESS TO INFORMATIONThe information collected on this form will be stored electronically and may be sent to any part of Defra, or to individual researchers or organisations outside Defra for the purposes of reviewing the project. Defra may also disclose the information to any outside organisation acting as an agent authorised by Defra to process final research reports on its behalf. Defra intends to publish this form on its website, unless there are strong reasons not to, which fully comply with exemptions under the Environmental Information Regulations or the Freedom of Information Act 2000.Defra may be required to release information, including personal data and commercial information, on request under the Environmental Information Regulations or the Freedom of Information Act 2000. However, Defra will not permit any unwarranted breach of confidentiality or act in contravention of its obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998. Defra or its appointed agents may use the name, address or other details on your form to contact you in connection with occasional customer research aimed at improving the processes through which Defra works with its contractors.

Project identification

1. Defra Project code MF0706

2. Project title

Fishing gears with mitigating ecological impacts

3. Contractororganisation(s)

CEFASThe Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture SciencePakefield RoadLowestoftSuffolk, UKNR33 0HT

54. Total Defra project costs £ 379,913

5. Project: start date................ 01 January 2002

end date................. 31 March 2005

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6. It is Defra’s intention to publish this form. Please confirm your agreement to do so...................................................................................YES NO (a) When preparing SID 5s contractors should bear in mind that Defra intends that they be made public. They

should be written in a clear and concise manner and represent a full account of the research project which someone not closely associated with the project can follow.Defra recognises that in a small minority of cases there may be information, such as intellectual property or commercially confidential data, used in or generated by the research project, which should not be disclosed. In these cases, such information should be detailed in a separate annex (not to be published) so that the SID 5 can be placed in the public domain. Where it is impossible to complete the Final Report without including references to any sensitive or confidential data, the information should be included and section (b) completed. NB: only in exceptional circumstances will Defra expect contractors to give a "No" answer.In all cases, reasons for withholding information must be fully in line with exemptions under the Environmental Information Regulations or the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

(b) If you have answered NO, please explain why the Final report should not be released into public domain

Executive Summary7. The executive summary must not exceed 2 sides in total of A4 and should be understandable to the

intelligent non-scientist. It should cover the main objectives, methods and findings of the research, together with any other significant events and options for new work.

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Introduction

This project is concerned with the development of more environmentally friendly fishing gears. It is evident that global developments in this field are at a fairly early and primitive stage. In this work however, one simple technology is developed and extensively tested onboard commercial beam trawlers. This simple technology (benthos release panel) is shown to significantly reduce the discarding of non-target benthic invertebrates by around 75% and could potentially therefore reduce the environmental impact of this fishing technique.

Generally, modified fishing gears with low environmental impacts are not well developed in most fisheries either nationally or internationally, particularly in the mobile gear fisheries. There is however, a growing global awareness of this issue and new technologies may emerge in the forthcoming years as research and development resources address this need. Several studies have been undertaken in this work, which provide overviews of the current status of developments in this field.

The discarding of non-target species and juvenile target species, and the natural resource wastage that this phenomenon represents continues to be an issue of some concern for many fisheries managers. As a result of this project this particular environmental impact is now quantifiable with a much higher degree of accuracy and resolution than ever previously possible. A tool developed in this project provides these high resolution, more accurate assessments of discarding levels, and can aid the development of focussed mitigation measures. Some progress has already been made in this project with respect to securing funding to develop discard mitigation measures.

This project is divided into four distinct work packages and all of the work objectives within each work package have been met in full. These are briefly described below.

Work package A.Studies on benthic release panelsBeam trawling has widespread effects on the biomass, production and diversity of benthic communities, and in some fisheries, the impact is deleterious. Beam trawls impact benthic communities because the ground gear crushes and dislodges animals on the seabed, and because animals are caught in the trawl and subsequently die. A study of the relative performance of seven designs of benthic release panels in commercial beam trawl fisheries of the English Channel and the North Sea has been undertaken. This work has demonstrated that panel designs consisting of 150mm 5mm ø double polyethylene square mesh or 150mm 6mm ø single polyethylene square mesh reduced invertebrate bycatches by 75 and 80% respectively, and that >90% of the animals released survived. It is concluded that the use of benthic release panels may reduce the overall environmental impact (expressed as invertebrate mortality) of beam trawl fisheries by 5 -10% without affecting their profitability.

Work package B.An ongoing watching brief /review of techniques which mitigate the ecological impacts of fishing gears upon benthic communitiesThe utility of the information gained from under this work package is likely to be of strategic importance to Defra. The principal researcher involved in obtaining such information has engaged in a number of national and international activities and fact-finding missions. Specific reports on these activities have been submitted to Defra throughout the course of this project. Activities under this work package are summarised below:

a) 2002. Visit to Varel in Germany, to evaluate the potential efficacy of a prototype submerged electric pumped water-jet beam trawl.b) 2003. Visit to Schreveningen in Holland to visit Jan Hoogenraad, a local engineer who was designing a new type of beam trawl that was claimed to be more environmentally friendly than existing designs of beam trawl. c) 2003. A review /study was completed regarding the likely technological developments in the fish capture industry and the associated implications for environmental impacts and marine eco-systems (CEFAS (2003).d) 2003. A paper was presented at the Glasgow fishing exhibition (UK) on benthic release panels. The conference was related to the latest developments in fisheries technology and emerging environmentally friendly technologies.e) 2004. Dr Revill and colleagues from the ICES - FAO Fishing Technology and Fish Behaviour (FTFB) Working Group met in Poland in 2004. They finalised a report detailing the current state of knowledge concerning modified fishing gears, which can potentially reduce environmental impacts upon the seabed. (Anon, 2004).f) 2004. Dr Revill acted as an observer on Dutch fishing trials aboard the R.V. Tridens during which the Dutch designed electric pulse beam trawl was tested. A summary report was produced for Defra.g) 2005. Dr Revill acted as a judge in an international global competition launched by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) (www.smartgear.org).

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Work package C.To develop a framework for the systematic analysis of discard data and discard mitigation measuresA tool has been developed and continually refined throughout the course of this project, which is able to give both quantitative, and qualitative overviews of the catch and discard data held in CEFAS databases. The tool displays temporal and spatial patterns of catch and discard data (commercial and non-commercial species), attributable to the English and Welsh fleets. The source data is derived from the sea going catch and discard sampling programme undertaken by the CEFAS catch-sampling officers; a programme, which has only been fully operational for the last two to three years. The data from this programme is raised to fleet level using effort-based indices obtained from the FAD database.

The tool has a number of potential applications, including:a) Quantitative assessments of landings and discards on both a spatial and temporal basisb) Quantitative assessments of above relating to specific fishing metiersc) Tracking changes in any of the aboved) Assessing the efficacy of discard mitigation measurese) Identifying discarding ‘hot spots’ both spatially and temporallyf) Identifying the likely causes of discardingg) Providing an assessment of unaccounted mortality due to discardingh) Providing alternative landings estimatesi) To aid in the development of ecosystem approaches to management

Work Package D.To secure additional funding for the ‘Research and Development’ of new discard mitigation measuresDuring the course of this project, funding for six research and development projects has been obtained from a variety of funding sources. The total value of these projects is in excess of £0.5 million, some of which are still ongoing and active projects. There is little doubt that this additional income and research and development activity will lead to advances being made in the field of developing new and effective gear based discard mitigation measures.

Project Report to Defra8. As a guide this report should be no longer than 20 sides of A4. This report is to provide Defra with

details of the outputs of the research project for internal purposes; to meet the terms of the contract; and to allow Defra to publish details of the outputs to meet Environmental Information Regulation or Freedom of Information obligations. This short report to Defra does not preclude contractors from also seeking to publish a full, formal scientific report/paper in an appropriate scientific or other journal/publication. Indeed, Defra actively encourages such publications as part of the contract terms. The report to Defra should include: the scientific objectives as set out in the contract; the extent to which the objectives set out in the contract have been met; details of methods used and the results obtained, including statistical analysis (if appropriate); a discussion of the results and their reliability; the main implications of the findings; possible future work; and any action resulting from the research (e.g. IP, Knowledge Transfer).

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IntroductionThe impacts of beam trawling on benthic communitiesBeam trawling reduces the biomass, production and diversity of benthic communities (Lindeboom and de Groot 1998; Kaiser and de Groot 2000). Changes in communities following beam-trawling result from the direct mortality caused by the trawl and the indirect effects of this mortality on species interactions (Ramsay et al., 1997; Jennings et al. 2002). The widespread use of beam trawls in many shelf sea fisheries has led to large-scale reductions in benthic production and local extirpation of benthic species that are particularly vulnerable to such trawling (Rumohr and Kujawski, 2000, Dinmore et al., 2003; Bergman and van Santbrink 2000a; Piet et al. 2000).

Beam trawls cause direct mortality in two ways. First, the shoes, tickler chains or chain mat impacts on benthic organisms (Bergman and van Santbrink 2000b). Second, animals that are caught in the net can die from injuries sustained in the net, during hauling or when the catch is processed and animals discarded (Lindeboom and de Groot, 1998).

The mortality caused by beam trawls hitting benthic invertebrates was measured by Bergman and van Santbrink (2000a,b), who compared the densities of animals before and after trawling. For gastropods, small and medium-sized crustaceans (typically 5-40 mm length) and annelid worms, direct mortalities following a single pass of a 12m-beam trawl were typically 5 - 40%. For bivalve species, mortalities ranged from 20 to 65%. The mortality rates of invertebrates that are caught and discarded can also be high, ranging from 26 to 88% for bivalves, 25 to 67% for crustaceans and 11to 21% for starfish in North Sea studies (Fonds, 1994; Lindeboom and de Groot, 1998). However, as the catch efficiency of beam trawls for invertebrates is generally less than 10% (Lindeboom and de Groot, 1998), the total mortality caused by the trawl gear hitting animals is typically 5 - 10 times greater than the mortality of invertebrates that are caught and discarded.

Modification to gears to reduce benthic impacts of towed gearsModifications can be made to the beam trawl that may serve to reduce discard mortality of benthic invertebrates, such as the benthos release panel, and is the focus of the work conducted within work package A. The replacement of the tickler chains / chain matrices that are currently used in beam trawls, with less-impacting alternatives is a poorly explored field of fisheries technology. Dutch scientists and entrepreneurs using electrical pulses as tickler chain replacements have made some positive progress in this field. . As a general statement however, it can be said that only a few technologies aimed at specifically reducing the environmental impact of towed fishing gears are successfully implemented in global fisheries today. This area of science and technology is rather poorly developed at present. Many of the emergent ideas, technologies and issues associated with this topic are outlined in the works undertaken within work package B. It is clear however that global developments is in this field are at an early stage.

Discarding of fish from mobile fisheriesIt is recognised that invertebrates are not the only important groups in benthic communities. Fish species are also an important and integral component of benthic eco-systems. The removal of fish species can have profound disruptive effects upon benthic communities, but may be an unavoidable consequence of commercial fishing.

The deleterious effects upon benthic ecosystems resulting from commercial fishing may be further exacerbated if large numbers of non-target fish are also unintentionally removed and killed during the capture process. Such fish are usually caught unintentionally, largely due to poor selectivity of the fishing gear, and are discarded overboard in poor condition from the fishing vessel (termed discards). Some discarding results from lack of quota or market etc, but much can be attributable to poor gear selectivity.

Discards are widely considered to be a waste of finite natural resources, particularly if they are juvenile species of commercial value. There appears to be broad agreement amongst fishers, managers and scientists alike, that discarding is wasteful and detrimental to the marine environment, and should be minimised wherever practicable.

Until recently, discard data from commercial fisheries has been sparse and intermittent. However, in work package C, a new tool has been developed which can allow the user to systematically analyse catch and discard data, which is now collected on a routine basis. This tool will allow for the evaluation of discarding and the associated impacts, as well as facilitating a focussed approach to aid the development of discard reduction technologies and strategies.

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References to published material9. This section should be used to record links (hypertext links where possible) or references to other

published material generated by, or relating to this project.

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Anon., 2004. Report of the ICES-FAO working group on fishing technology and fish behaviour (WGFTFB). 20-23 April 2004 Gydinia, Poland. ICES CM 2004/ B:05, Ref.ACE

Bergman, M.J.N., van Santbrink, J.W., 2000a. Mortality in megafaunal benthic populations caused by trawl fisheries on the Dutch continental shelf in the North Sea in 1994. ICES J. mar. Sci., 57: 1321-1331.

Bergman, M.J.N., van Santbrink, J.W., 2000b Fishing mortality of populations of megafauna in sandy sediments. In: M.J. Kaiser and S.J. de Groot (ed) Effects of fishing on non-target species and habitats: biological, conservation and socio-economic issues. Blackwell Science, Oxford, p 49-68

CEFAS., 2003. A study of the likely consequences of technical innovation in the capture fishing industryand the likely effects upon environmental impacts. CEFAS Contract Report C1823, CEFAS, Lowestoft NR33 0HT, UK

CEFAS., 2005. Fleet trials with benthos release panels to reduce the environmental impact of beam trawling. An FIFG funded projecr FGE 158. Cefas Contract Report C2081.

Dinmore, T.A., Duplisea, D.E., Rackham, B.D., Maxwell, D.L., Jennings, S., 2003. Impact of a large-scale area closure on patterns of fishing disturbance and the consequences for benthic production. ICES J. mar. Sci., 60: 371-380.

Duplisea, D.E., Jennings, S., Warr, K.J., Dinmore, T.A., 2002. A size-based model to predict the impacts of bottom trawling on benthic community structure. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 59: 1785-1795.

Fonds, M., 1994. Mortality of fish and invertebrates in beam trawl catches and the survival chances of discards. In: S.J. de Groot and H.J. Lindeboom (ed) Environmental impact of bottom gears on benthic fauna in relation to natural resources management and protection of the North Sea, NIOZ Report 1994-11, p 257pp

Fonteyne, R., Polet, H., 2002. Reducing the benthos by-catch in flatfish beam trawling by means of technical modifications. Fish. Res. 55, 219-230.

Jennings, S., Kaiser, M.J., 1998. The effects of fishing on marine ecosystems. Adv. Mar. Biol., 34: 201-352.

Jennings, S., Nicholson, M.D., Dinmore, T.A., Lancaster, J.E., 2002. Effects of chronic trawling disturbance on the production of infaunal communities. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser., 243: 251-260.

Kaiser, M.J., de Groot, S.J., ed. 2000. The effects of fishing on non-target species and habitats: biological, conservation and socio-economic issues. Oxford, Blackwell Science.

Lindeboom, H.J., de Groot, S.J., 1998. The effects of different types of fisheries on the North Sea and Irsh Sea benthic ecosystems. Netherlands Institute of Sea Research, Texel

Marlen, B. van, Bergman, M.J.N., Groenewold, S., Fonds, M., 2001. Research on diminishing impact in demersal trawling - The experiments in The Netherlands, ICES CM 2001/R:09.

Piet, G.J., Rijnsdorp, A.D., Bergman, M.J.N., van Santbrink, J.W., Craeymeersch, J., Bujis, J., 2000. A quantitative evaluation of the impact of beam trawling on benthic fauna in the southern North Sea. ICES J. mar. Sci., 57: 1332-1339.

Ramsay, K., Kaiser, M.J., Moore, P.G., Hughes, R.N., 1997. Consumption of fisheries discards by benthic scavengers: utilisation of energy subsidies in different marine habitats. J. Anim. Ecol., 66: 884-896.

RCEP., 2004. Turning the tide. Addressing the impacts of fisheries on the marine environment. Twenty fifth report by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, London. Published by The Stationary Office. ISBN 0-10-163922-8

Revill, A.S., Dulvy, N.K., Holst, R., 2005. The survival of discarded lesser-spotted dogfish (Scyliorhinus canicula) in the Western English Channel beam trawl fishery. Fish. Res. 71, 121 –124.

Revill, A.S., Jennings, S. Holst, R., 2005. The capacity of benthos release panels to reduce the impacts of beam trawls on benthic communities. Fisheries Research (in press)

Rijnsdorp, A.D., Bujis, A.M., Storbeck, F., Visser, E., 1998. Micro-scale distribution of beam trawl effort in the southern North Sea between 1993 and 1996 in relation to the trawling frequency of the sea bed and the distribution of benthic organisms. ICES J. mar. Sci., 55: 403-419.

Rumohr, H., Kujawski, T., 2000. The impact of trawl fishery on the epifauna of the southern North Sea. ICES J. mar. Sci., 57: 1389-1394.

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