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This note explains what discards are, why they occur, their significance and what can be done about them. The idea came from the Discard Action Group, one of the ‘issue forums’ that Seafish runs in order to resolve problems affecting the whole seafood supply chain. This group was established to start a cross-industry dialogue in response to the European Commission’s proposals to minimise or ban discarding. This is an updated edition of February 2008 briefing note. Discarding has moved up the political agenda again: in a global context European discards are still disproportionately high; the Commission is further developing its policy aimed at minimising discards across Europe; and the wasteful nature of discarding is increasingly seen as unacceptable throughout the supply chain. This briefing note includes an appendix that describes the initiatives introduced over the last couple of years, many initiated by the fishing industry, in order to reduce discarding in UK fisheries.

This study examines the various issues associated with promoting pole-and-line fishing and attempts to derive lessons from experience that may guide future development efforts.

This Responsible Sourcing Guide to Nephrops contains information on sustainability issues, stock assessment, conservation measures and management worldwide for the individual stocks of this species updated to 2013. There is a short section on the product characteristics of the species. The information was obtained from scientific, industry and governmental sources and appropriate references are given

The aim of the work is to analyse the impact of the landing obligation in a whole supply chain context, and from financial, legal, operational and market perspectives. This project will:- •Map the UK supply chain and identify existing and perceived issues for each sector. •Assess the impact of issues in respect of changes in policy •Discuss potential consequences for each sector; for example, changes in operational behaviour, policy issues, loss of supply or loss of market. •Identify gaps in information and suggest better use of existing information. The analyses will be mainly qualitative.

The SIP project output examines opportunities for aquaculture in/around enclosed marine water bodies, as well as the development of a generic design for a shellfish hatchery - the proposed Tidal Lagoon in Swansea Bay (TLSB) case study is a significant focus

The study covered fisheries from northwest Norway through the North Sea, English Channel/la Manche, Cantabrian Sea and Algarve to the French Mediterranean. It was carried out as a series of tasks. Task 1, preparation, involved reviewing each partner’s national fisheries and establishing liaison groups of fishermen and other industry members; Task 2, quantifying lost gear, required the partners to interview fishermen to establish their experiences of gear loss and then the survey the areas where losses were reported; Task 3, physical evolution, started with the retrieval of ‘naturally lost’ gears and then moved on to a series of exercises simulating gear loss and monitoring how the ‘lost’ gears changed over time; Task 4, ecosystem impacts, involved interpreting catch data from the experimental gears, raising the data to métier level and comparing the results to targeted commercial catches; Task 5, mitigating measures, established a sub-group to look at the ways in which gear loss is treated elsewhere, matched those approaches to the European fisheries and assessed the likely benefits of alternate strategies; Task 6, ran throughout the project and involved industry liaison, reporting and other dissemination. The work required a relatively high level of industry liaison. In practical terms this meant that each national partner set up a national advisory group (NAG) to guide the work and to ensure that the sea trials and recommendations were representative and realistic. The NAGs were mainly made up of experienced skippers but also included net riggers and other professionals as appropriate. This report, wherever possible, follows the sequence of tasks described above.

A market research report on the seafood sector in Australia.

Drawing together the UK experience of lobster stocking as well as information from other programmes in Europe and North America, the report provides a sound knowledge base for anyone interested in setting up a lobster hatchery or stocking programme.

Seining is a fishing technique traditionally done in areas with large schools or groups of fish.

This report presents the findings of a preliminary investigation into the relationship between vessel accidents and the operational and financial performance of vessels in the UK fishing fleet in the period 2008-2016.

Areas of potential alternative Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) sites representing mud habitat within the UK Irish Sea regional sea were selected at a stakeholder engagement meeting in October 2014. In order to assess the suitability of these sites within the Irish Sea regional area, existing data were examined to assess habitat condition, variation and how well these meet the mud habitat criteria set by the UK government. Nephrops stock assessment video surveys were utilised along with grab sample data, across both eastern and western Irish Sea areas. Macroinvertebrate community analysis was undertaken on the grab infaunal data, along with analysis of sediment parameters. The level of disturbance was also examined through benthic community assessment relating to successional stage.

The report concerns UK seafood supply chains reliant on domestic and international aquaculture production. It covers major impacts from key climate change drivers, from production to processing, and sets out major areas of adaptation action.