Reconstruction of total marine fisheries catches for Germany in the North Sea (1950-2010)

• Main Authors: Gibson, Darah, Froese, Rainer, Ueberschär, Bernd, Zylich, Kyrstn, Zeller, Dirk
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2016
• Subjects: atlantic cod; Gadus morhua
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/31102/; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/31102/1/Gibson%20et%20al_2015_GermanyNorthSea_WP.pdf

We reconstructed marine fisheries catches for the Federal Republic of Germany within the North Sea (specifically ICES area IVb) from 1950-2010. ICES landings statistics are used as a reported baseline, and then adjusted using information from ICES stock assessment working group reports, national data, and expert knowledge to estimate unreported landings, recreational and subsistence catches and major discards. Brown shrimp (Crangon crangon) contribute the most to unreported landings and discards. Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus), Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) and European plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) are also important fisheries for the period 1950-2010. The reconstructed total catch of 8.5 million t from 1950-2010 was approximately 63% higher than the baseline reported ICES landings of 5.2 million t. The reconstructed total catch of invertebrates is almost 4 million t, which is 2 times the ICES baseline catch which is just over 1.9 million t. The reconstructed catch for all finfish species is 4.6 million t and is 41% higher than the ICES baseline catch of 3.3 million t. These discrepancies are largely driven by discarded catches that are not accounted for in officially reported (ICES) data, which also form the globally reported data as presented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Our results demonstrate the importance of comprehensively accounting for and disclosing fisheries data to the public (including discarded catches), and effectively monitoring Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) catches.