Analysis of the small-scale fleet’s coverage under two sampling strategies: from the DCR stock-based to the DCF concurrent sampling in the Northern Spanish coastal gillnets fleet

Abstract

The Northern Spanish coastal small scale fleet represents a major challenge for sampling due to the multi-species and multi-gear character and the complexity of the fleets’ dynamics. Particularly, the small-scale gillnets called “beta” (GNS_DEF_60-79_0_0) represents a complex Spanish métiers in terms of catches, effort, geographical distribution and the number of exploited species. Comparison of data obtained in 2008, under a stock-based approach, versus concurrent sampling realized in 2014 resulted in the increase of the information obtained and provided to ICES without detected failures in data quality. Concurrent sampling could represent a source of information for small-scale fisheries which often target a set of coastal species some of which are presently unassesed.