‘Real-time’ fisheries chart to protect the marine environment
Skippers and crew working on Ireland’s 2,022 registered fishing vessels can now access an interactive, real-time digital fisheries chart that provides information on conservation and fisheries management regulations, designed to help fishermen understand the rules that apply.
The charts, developed by BIM in partnership with the Marine Institute and the Sea Fisheries Protection Agency (SFPA), and funded under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, detail European and national regulations concerning closed areas, mesh size and restrictions on using certain fishing gears.
Charts are available for Nephrops (Dublin Bay prawn); pelagic (mackerel, and blue-whiting); whitefish (cod, haddock, whiting, megrim, sole); fixed gear (brown crab, lobster, scallop).
These technical conservation measures aim to control the catch that can be taken with a given amount of fishing effort while minimising the impacts on the ecosystem.
TCMs include measures that:
- regulate gear operation
- regulate gear design characteristics
- set spatial and temporal controls (closed/limited entry areas and seasonal closures) to protect aggregations of juvenile or spawning fish
- mitigate the impacts of fishing gears on sensitive species (e.g. marine mammals, seabirds and turtles) or closed areas to protect sensitive habitats (e.g. cold-water coral reefs)
TCMs also cover minimum conservation reference sizes below which quota species may not be landed for human consumption under the landing obligation.
Produced annually, the print format of the Fisheries Management Chart is available to download.
