Bay of biscay
Abstract:
Data presented below focus on Spanish and French demersal fleets that were detailed and studied on during the project. Information concerning the other fleets/countries fishing in this area can be found here. Data used to produce figures are coming from the STECF working group on Fisheries Dependent Information it might then happen that time series can be incomplete for some countries/indicators.
You can check 
if data were provide or not for a couple of country/year.
Landings
The Bay of Biscay (BoB) is a large gulf located in the Eastern part of the North Atlantic Ocean, covering a total area of approximately 223,000 km2, contained in the line that joins Cape Ortegal and It is located off the western coast of France and northern Spain, limiting with the Celtic Sea in the north. Its average depth is around 1,750 m, with a deepest area at about 4,730 m. It corresponds to the ICES divisions VIIIabcd and it is divided into more than 70 statistical rectangles.
This case study is focused on the French Continental Shelf, covering a total area of approximately 102,585 km² and covering the ICES divisions VIIIab.
The most important fisheries operating in the BoB, both in number of vessels and in landings, are the French fishery (46% of the landings for 2006-2013), and the Spanish fisheries followed by the Dutch with 22%, the UK with 16%, and Belgium 8%. Those countries mainly operate pair trawl (mainly targeting hake), bottom otter trawl (targeting both demersal – hake, megrim and monkfish – and mixed – mainly cephalopods and red mullet – species).
In DiscardLess, we focus on the Spanish mixed demersal fisheries, consisting of several fleets (pair and otter trawlers) using different métiers and targeting different species assemblages during the year. Pair trawlers mainly target hake (Merluccius merluccius) (approximately 90% of the landings), while otter trawlers perform a mixed fishery, targeting again, hake, megrims (Lepidorhombus whiffiagonis and Lep. boscii), horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus), blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou), mackerel (Scomber scombrus), rays (Raja clavata) red mullet (Mullus surmuletus), seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax), squids (Loligo forbesii and Loligo vulgaris), or cuttlefish (Sepia officinallis). Most fish species are analytically assessed by ICES working groups. Cephalopod species are the main exemptions, though the ICES group in charge of that assessment is making good progress during the last years.
Landings are spread through all the ICES VIIIb and VIIIa areas. However, the rectangles with higher landings are the 17-16E8 (in VIIIb) and 24E5 (in VIIIa), where almost the 35% of the landings are (and have been located).
Proportion of landings in each rectangle
Landings 2015
       [STECF FDI data (2015)] |
Trends in landings by gears
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[STECF FDI data (2015)] |
Trawlers (pelagic and demersal) are the main gears in this area. On what the DiscardLess project concerns, the main gears are the otter and pair trawlers. The southern geographical area of the Bay Biscay (VIIIb) is dominated by vessels from the Spain, while in the northern geographical area (VIIIa) French vessels are the one which fish and land more.
Average Landings by gears
Year 2015
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[STECF FDI data (2015)] |
Average Landings by countries
Year 2015
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[STECF FDI data (2015)] |
In the southern area anchovy and sardines are one of the main species caught. These species are out of the scope of the DiscardLess project, given that first, are caught using pelagic purse seines and pelagic trawlers and second because they are not facing a real discarding problem (at least anchovy). On what concerns with other pelagic species such as the mackerels, they are part of the project analysis, given that they are caught by in the demersal fleet in the winter métiers. In terms of the demersal species, hake and anglerfishes are the main two species.
Average Landings by species
Year 2015
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[STECF FDI data (2015)] |
Trends in landings by species
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[STECF FDI data (2015)] |
Discards
The mixed nature of these fisheries leads to high discards ratios, especially in the mixed demersal trawl fishery. Another important factor is the seasonality of the catches. For example the pelagic métier operates in the winter season of the year and with low quota allocation, which ended up in high discards rates of these species. In that sense, the most discarded quota species are horse mackerel and mackerel, though species such as hake (below the Minimum Conservation reference size- MCRS) might also be an important part of these discards.
Discards figures are the estimates from STECF working group on Fisheries Dependent Informations group. Their spatial reallocation was made proportional to the observed landings by métier and species. This might not be realistic/accurate for all species, however it allows having a first approximation of the areas that might be of main concern, and start the dialogue between scientists, fishermen and managers to better describe these areas.
Catches (Landings+Discards)
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[STECF FDI data (2015)] |
Disclaimer : Following graphs are made using discards rates at high spatial level and the landings at statistical rectangle level as raising factor. We assume that it's not the more statistically consistent way to proceed. However we consider that, with available data, it's a first step to use the data.
Discards by species (Average discards ratio applied to landings by rectangle)
Year 2014
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[STECF FDI data (2015)] |
Year=2015
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[STECF FDI data (2015)] |
Discards by Species for most important gears (year=2015) (Average discards ratio applied to landings by rectangle)
First Gear (in terms of total discards) (BOTTOM TRAWLS)
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[STECF FDI data (2015)] |
Discards by "on quotas" Species for most important gears (year=2015) (Average discards ratio applied to landings by rectangle)
First Gear (in terms of total discards) (PELAGIC TRAWLS)
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[STECF FDI data (2015)] |
Trends in discards by Country (5 most important countries in Landings)
Total Discards
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[STECF FDI data (2015)] |
Discards ratio (Discards/(landings+discards))
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[STECF FDI data (2015)] |
Trends in discards by Gear (5 most important Gear in Landings)
Total Discards
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[STECF FDI data (2015)] |
Discards ratio (Discards/(landings+discards))
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[STECF FDI data (2015)] |
Several pelagic species are the main discards made in this area and also by the fleets analyzed and the reason are (or have been) twofold: First the lack of quota, and second the low prices of these species in different season of the year. In terms of the demersal species hake and megrims are the most discarded ones. In both cases the MCRS is the main reason for these discards.
In terms of the fishing gears, trawlers (pelagic and bottom) are those with higher discards. The case of the sardine requires a further exploration of the data used.
Trends in discards by species (5 most important species in Landings)
Total Discards
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[STECF FDI data (2015)] |
Discards ratio (Discards/(landings+discards))
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[STECF FDI data (2015)] |
En savoir plus
Citation :
Fiche Bay of biscay , Author(s) : Eider Andonegi and Raúl Prellezo
DiscardLess Atlas [on line]. 2017. Guitton J., Ulrich, C., Vermard Y., Afonso P., Andonegi E., Argyrou I., Calderwood J., Fauconnet L., Quetglas A., Morato T., Prellezo R., Robert M., Savina-Rolland M., Triantaphyllidis G., Vaz S.
http://www.discardless.eu/atlas/
