Citation : Dave Reid, Laurence Fauconet (2017). Decision support tool for fishers incorporating information from tasks 4.1, 4.2 and information on unwanted catches derived from scientific data.

Main results

• The main highlight is the series of analysis making use of survey, observer and official landings data to provide maps that can be used to allow fishermen to choose where and when to fish to best avoid unwanted catches
• Guidance is offered on avoidance of choke species, fish below Minimum Conservation Reference Size, immature vs. mature individuals as well as where these are in low abundance while desired catch may be in high abundance
• Maps of where discarding occurs the most, and how species are discarded together or not can help provide further guidance on the avoidance of discards
• The economic implications of some of these strategies are also presented allowing fishermen to potentially maximise revenue while avoiding unwanted catch
• In some cases, the information has been packaged in flexible and interactive web based apps that allow fishermen to use the information in their own way.

The methods/approaches followed:

• The main methods used were a range of modelling and mapping tools.
• The models were principally statistical to allow us to see how species distributed in space and time, and where different species could be found (and discarded) together or not.
• The main output results were a series of maps for all the key elements; where particular catch proportions could be found, where discarding of a given species was generally low, where two or more species were discarded together etc.
• The outputs in some cases were packaged in web based apps, this approach can be used for all the output map information for the fishermen to choose how to use, combine and present the information

How these results can be used and by who?:

• The principle target of the outputs are the fishermen in their routine activities
• The availability of maps showing where different species, size classes (above and below MCRS), and discards can be found represent the key results.
• Our concept is that the maps can help fishermen find desired catches, and avoid unwanted ones. The web based apps then allow them to do this in their own way and approach.