Overview of the international fishing activities on the Central Oyster Grounds and Frisian Front : update with Dutch, British, Danish, German, Belgian, Swedish and French data for 2010-2015

Abstract

In response to a request to Wageningen University & Research from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, an update of the data and analysis on the value of the fishing activities of the Dutch, British, Danish, German, Belgian, Swedish and French fishing fleets on the proposed closed areas on the Central Oyster Grounds and Frisian Front was prepared. This report uses the method presented in Chapter 5 of Effects of seabed protection on the Frisian Front and Central Oyster Grounds (Van Oostenbrugge et al. 2015) to update the reports already published by Wageningen Economic Research on fishing activity on the proposed closed areas on the Central Oyster Grounds and Frisian Front (Oostenbrugge, Bartelings et al. 2013, Oostenbrugge and Hamon 2014, van Oostenbrugge and Hamon 2014, Oostenbrugge, Turenhout et al. 2016, Oostenbrugge, Turenhout et al. 2016). The effort, value and landings by the Dutch, British, Danish, German, Belgian, Swedish and French fishing fleets are presented for a five-year period (2010-2015) and show variations over the last years without a clear trend. Value of landings and gross value added of the Dutch, British and Belgian fleets have been fluctuating over the past years but there was a clear upward trend for Danish and German fleets. Sweden and France have not been active in the area over the 2010-2015 period. Main target species of the Central Oyster Grounds and Frisian Front are plaice and sole mostly targeted by the beam trawl fleet, and sprat (largest in volume) targeted by the Danish fleet. The other demersal fleets also catch some nephrops and herring.