In many European fisheries and particularly ORs, small-scale vessels are often multipurpose targeting different species using different gears. Given the narrow island shelves, vessels may develop their activity in coastal areas, on the edge of the continental shelf or offshore in deep-water or large pelagic fisheries but it is currently difficult to quantify the distribution of fishing effort between the different fishing gears and between the different areas. it is an important issue to better quantify the fishing effort, its spatial and temporal distribution with the principal objective of alleviating fishing pressure on the coastal fishing resources.

The EU legislation requires that all coastal EU countries over 12 meters should set up a Vessel Monitoring System (VMS). Used by the fisheries authorities for real time fisheries controls, VMS data and more generally any geo-tracking devices can also be used for knowledge and scientific purposes, especially for the analysis of fishing effort distribution. Without such geo-tracking device for the smaller vessels, it is much more difficult to spatialize the activity of SSCF, strongly dependent of coastal limited territories and highly submitted to concurrent uses. In this study, we propose to experiment the equipment a sample of voluntary fishing vessels with geo-tracking devices in different ORs, in order to follow the distribution of their fishing activity, only for knowledge purposes. The experiment will concern a maximum of 4 voluntary fishers by OR with a strong priority for the vessels involved in the experimental fishing trips (see previous tasks). The Task benefited from the experience of Ifremer, which developed the Recopesca project in the early 2000s, to equip a high-frequency geolocation system for voluntary vessels, including small-scale coastal fishing vessels.

https://wwz.ifremer.fr/recopesca/Le-projet-RECOPESCA/Description-du-projet.