Abstract

The MEDITS programme started in 1994 in the Mediterranean with the cooperation among research institutes from four countries: France, Greece, Italy and Spain. Over the years, until the advent of the European framework for the collection and management of fisheries data (the Data Collection Framework, DCF), new partners from Slovenia, Croatia, Albania, Montenegro, Malta and Cyprus joined MEDITS. The FAO regional projects facilitated the cooperation with non-European countries. MEDITS applies a common sampling protocol and methodology for sample collection, data storage and data quality checks (RoME routines). For many years, MEDITS represented the most important data source supporting the evaluation of demersal resources by means of population and community indicators, assessment and simulation models based on fishery-independent data. With the consolidation of the DCF, MEDITS routinely provides abundance indices of target species for tuning stock assessment models of intermediate complexity. Over the years, the survey scope has broadened from the population of demersal species to their fish community and ecosystems, and it has faced new challenges, such as the identification of essential fish habitats, providing new scientific insights linked to the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (e.g. biodiversity, trophic webs, allochthonous species and marine macro-litter evaluations) and to the ecosystem approach to fishery and marine spatial planning.

Highlights

  • The aim of scientific bottom trawl surveys is typically to collect data on the distribution of a range of fish species, estimating relative abundance and biological parameters of these species (Hilborn and Walters 1992, Gunderson 1993)

  • Population and community indicators and spatial occupation indices have been estimated. All these results have provided information among the various General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) geographical sub-areas (GSAs) of the Mediterranean for a range of target species and thematic areas

  • This paper aims to summarize and update the specifications of the MEDITS trawl survey, focusing on those most relevant to an ecosystem approach to fishery management and on data quality

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

The aim of scientific bottom trawl surveys is typically to collect data on the distribution of a range of fish species, estimating relative abundance and biological parameters of these species (Hilborn and Walters 1992, Gunderson 1993). For several by-catch species or for stocks that are not the main target of the commercial fisheries, fishery-dependent data are sometimes of poor quality because of incompleteness of the time series, spatial coverage or misreporting (Cotter et al 2009a) In these data-limited situations, trawl surveys can provide valuable information in terms of quantitative abundance indices, length and/or age structure and biological parameters. This paper aims to summarize and update the specifications of the MEDITS trawl survey, focusing on those most relevant to an ecosystem approach to fishery management and on data quality The latter is pivotal for a sound evaluation of the status of demersal resources and their communities

A SUMMARY OF THE TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS OF THE MEDITS SURVEY
SUMMARY OF THE MEDITS BIOLOGICAL SPECIFICATIONS
F: Natural product F: Natural product B: Sanitary waste G
Negligible landings stocks and stocks caught in minor amounts as by-catch
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