Closed areas system in the Faroe Islands

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Closed areas system in the Faroe Islands

• Luis Ridao
• Faroese Fisheries Laboratory

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FAROE ISLANDS
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Faroese Fisheries Management System

• TAC system (during 1994-1995).
• Effort Quota based on fishing days (since 1996).
• Spatial Closures (groundfish resources cod,
  haddock, saithe)
• Additional management measures (mesh size
  regulations,TAC for some fleets, by-catch
  restrictions)

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Closed Areas

• Area covered 12,000 km2
• Closures To Trawl Gear Type
• Year-round
• Temporal
• Seasonal All-Gear Closures (Spawning Season)
• Real-time closures - fishery banned temporarily
  (12 weeks) if numbers of small cod haddock, and
  saithe in the catches exceed 30 of the total

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Evolution of trawling closures
1985-1990
1994-1997
1991-1993
1998-2005
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Current status
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Target shares of the catches of demersal species
for fleet categories
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Spatial distribution of demersal stocks
COD
 
ABUNDANCE
Low High
HADDOCK
SAITHE
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Deviations of realized and intended catch by
fleet categories
Cod
Saithe
 
Haddock
Longline 400 HP
Longline 110 GRT
Pairtrawlers
Single trawlers 400 HP
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Spatial distribution of fishing effort by some of
the major fleets
 
Pairtrawlers
Deep-sea trawlers
Longline
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Catch of longliners within trawling closures
 
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Summary

• Use of spatially explicit measures as part of a
  traditional managament plan
• Aim of spatial coverage met
• Passive and movile gear conflicts reduced as
  consequence of 2)
• Discrepancies between nominal and realised shares
• Dynamic system, e.g., real-time closures and
  additional no-take zones (corals)

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Future investigations

• Use of analytical approaches for optimal site
  selection, e.g. GIS and Decision Suport Systems
  (DSS).
• Use of GIS tools for habitat mapping and
  evaluating effectiveness of closed areas.

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• Thank you