Identifying the best fishing-suitable areas under the new European discard ban
Authors
Paradinas, I. (Iosu); Marín, M.; Pennino, M.G. (María Gracia); López-Quílez, A. (Antonio); Conesa, D. (David); Barreda, D.; González, M.; Bellido-Millán, J.M. (José María)Date
2016Type
research articleKeywords
beta regressionby-catch
discard ban
fishing-suitable area
spatial modelling.
Abstract
The spatial management of fisheries has been repeatedly proposed as a discard mitigation measure. A number of studies have assessed the
fishing suitability of an area based on units of by-catch or discard per unit effort. However, correct identification of fishing-suitable areas
should assess biomass loss with respect to the benefits. This study therefore, proposes the analysis of by-catch ratios, which do represent benefit vs. loss and are standardized to a wide range of effort characteristics. Furthermore, our study proposes the use of two ratios: the proportion
of total unwanted biomass out of the total catch as an indicator of the overall ecological impact, and the proportion of unwanted but regulated species biomass as a proxy for the economic impact on fishers resulting from the new European discard ban that prohibits the discard
of regulated species. These discard ratios are modelled by means of a Bayesian hierarchical model, specifically, a spatio-temporal beta regression model, ...