Summary: | The EKOFISH Group, the North Sea Foundation (NSF) and WWF-Netherlands partnered up with IMARES in 2013 to explore whether an industrial survey can be used to strengthen scientific assessment of key commercial by-catch species in the North Sea flatfish fishery. The project was broken down in two consecutive phases. The first phase of the project served to establish the potential role of an industrial survey.The second phase of the project was used to run a pilot-survey and served to determine the practical feasibility of an industrial survey. This report synthesises the findings of the research that was carried out in phase one and two of the project and discusses the main findings to give answer to the main question that has guided this research project 'can an industrial survey for North Sea brill, dab, lemon sole and turbot strengthen scientific assessment of these stocks?'.
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