ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil Advance Access originally published online on May 15, 2007
ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil 2007 64(4):730-737; doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsm057
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Effort regulation of the demersal fisheries at the Faroe Islands: a 10-year appraisal
1 Faroese Fisheries Laboratory, Nóatún 1, PO Box 3051, FO-110 Tórshavn, Faroe Islands
2 1450 Godefroy, Québec, Canada G1T 2E4
Correspondence to S. H. í Jákupsstovu: tel: +298 353900; fax: +298 353901; e-mail: hjaltij{at}frs.fo
Jákupsstovu, S. H. í, Cruz, L. R., Maguire, J-J., and Reinert, J. 2007. Effort regulation of the demersal fisheries at the Faroe Islands: a 10-year appraisal. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 64: 730–737.Since 1996, the demersal fisheries for cod, haddock, and saithe in Faroese waters have been regulated by a combination of fishing licenses, effort quota (days fishing), and area closures. The number of days initially allocated aimed at exerting an average annual fishing mortality rate of 0.45 on each of the three species. Considering that these stocks are taken in mixed fisheries, it had been hypothesized that effort would be targeted at the most available species, resulting in lower fishing mortality on the less available species, allowing them to recover. We review ten years of experience with the management system with special focus on the underlying assumptions. Although the system appears to have achieved an appropriate balance in catch opportunities among the different fleet components and has minimized interference among gears, the objective of controlling fishing mortality on cod and saithe below the stated objective has not been achieved, partly because the original number of days allocated to fishing was too high. Also, there is no evidence that fleets switch target species according to relative abundance of all three species, which was one of the underlying assumptions of the effort management system. In view of the impact of major changes in productivity on stock development and exploitation, the current system cannot be expected to ensure spawning-stock biomasses above safe biological limits without a large reduction in the number of days allocated.
Keywords: area closures, demersal fisheries, effort, fishing licenses, fishing mortality, management
Received 13 July 2006; accepted 2 March 2007; advance access publication 15 May 2007.
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Introduction |
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 Top Introduction RegulationsDemersal fisheries and the...Technological advancesCatchability analysisTargeting by fleetDiscussionReferences |
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Before the early 1990s, fisheries at the Faroe Islands were managed by a combination of license limits (number of vessels), area restrictions for trawl fisheries, legal minimum mesh sizes, and measures to protect juvenile fish. As a consequence of several consecutive years of poor recruitment (R) combined with high rates of fishing mortality (F), the stocks of cod (Gadus morhua), haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus), and saithe (Pollachius virens) collapsed in the early 1990s. To reduce F and rebuild the stocks, a total allowable catch (TAC) management system was implemented in 1994 together with the introduction of a fishing year running from 1 September to 31 August (Anon., 1993). However, this system met stiff resistance from the fishing industry, so a new management system for all vessel groups targeting demersal fish in Faroese waters (Table 1) was developed in close cooperation with the fishing industry. For vessel groups especially targeting cod, haddock, and saithe, the system was based on individually transferable effort quota (days fishing) by fleet category. This effort system was introduced on 1 June 1996, replacing the TAC system. The established fishing year was maintained. In addition, legal minimum mesh sizes, area restrictions for trawl fisheries and longline fisheries executed by larger vessels, and area closures during spawning seasons for all gears, were implemented. Juveniles are protected by temporarily (1–2 weeks) closing the fisheries in areas where the numbers of small cod, haddock, and saithe in the catches exceed 30% of the total.
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The initial allocation of fishing days was based on a recommendation from a committee ("Skipanarnevndin") consisting of managers, scientists, and key fishing industry representatives (Anon., 1996). The committee used the ICES (1995) assessments of cod, haddock, and saithe, after a re-analysis by the Faroese Fisheries Laboratory, together with statistics on the number of days fishing used by the various vessel groups. The general Fisheries Act stipulates that care should be taken that the fisheries are biologically sustainable, and Skipanarnevndin states that this is achieved when the spawning stock is larger than an unspecified minimum, and when approximately one-third of the stock in numbers is harvested annually, corresponding to F = 0.45.
In designing the TAC system, the Faroese parliament fixed the shares for the three species to be caught by the main vessel groups (Table 2). The effort regime was designed to take these shares into account as well as the spatial and temporal distribution of areas where trawling was banned. This was achieved by amending and expanding the areas closed to trawling (Figure 1). A basic aspect of the system is the assumption that the effort exerted on any of the three stocks will shift according to that stock's relative availability.
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We describe the fisheries at the Faroes and the regulations, examine whether the objectives of fleet separation and species shares by fleets have been achieved, investigate the factors affecting temporal changes in F across species, and evaluate the extent to which the assumptions underlying the effort management system hold.
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Regulations |
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TopIntroductionRegulationsDemersal fisheries and the...Technological advancesCatchability analysisTargeting by fleetDiscussionReferences |
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The demersal fisheries in Faroese waters are almost exclusively conducted by Faroese vessels belonging to the fleets listed in Table 1. Some vessels may move from one fleet to another by changing gears. In the initial effort allocation, the F exerted by one fishing day (Ffd) for each fleet and species was calculated from the average partial F by fleet during the period 1985–1994, based on the 1995 assessments of the three species (ICES, 1995) and the average number of days fished by fleet during the same period. The resulting Ffds by fleet and species were used to calculate the total number of days that could be allocated to each fleet within the constraint of F
0.45. Based on the Ffd, one fishing day of a longliner < 110 grt was equivalent to two fishing days using jigs. These conversions provided fishers with flexibility in selecting which gear type to use and how to deploy their effort. Also, to encourage diversion of effort to deeper water, a special area (the ring) was defined, generally corresponding to the 200 m depth contour (Figure 1): holders of effort quota may fish for three days "outside the ring" for each day allocated "inside the ring".
Satisfying the desired distribution of catches over fleets and species specified by parliament required extension and modification of the areas closed for trawling. An additional intention was to minimize area conflicts between passive and active gears. Within six nautical miles of the baseline, only longliners/jiggers < 110 grt are allowed to fish. In 2005, three new areas (C1, C2, and C3 in Figure 1) were closed to trawling to protect corals. The areas on the Faroe Plateau closed to trawling for at least some time of the year cover 
11 500 km2, 60% of the area shallower than 200 m. In addition, the entire Faroe Bank shallower than 200 m is closed to trawling, and there is also a total fishing ban during the spawning period for cod (1 March–1 May).
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Demersal fisheries and the stocks |
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TopIntroductionRegulationsDemersal fisheries and the...Technological advancesCatchability analysisTargeting by fleetDiscussionReferences |
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Since 1996, the spawning-stock biomass (SSB) of cod has generally been decreasing, whereas the SSB for haddock has increased and for saithe has changed little (Figure 2). F for cod and saithe has generally exceeded the target F = 0.45, whereas F for haddock has been lower. Average F has traditionally been calculated as an unweighted average for the ages contributing most to the catches, and the initial allocation of fishing days also used that method. However, this approach was questioned because the unweighted average may be strongly influenced by poorly sampled older age classes, and the inclusion of not fully recruited age classes may also influence the perception of changes in exploitation. Taking the ratio of catch in weight to total biomass should reduce the influence of those problems (Figure 3). However, the conclusion remains that the exploitation of cod and saithe has not been constrained by the effort management system.
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For cod, the actual shares in the catches by fleet (Figure 4) fluctuated within 15% of the intended shares, but for haddock and saithe, there were more systematic discrepancies. The longliners and jiggers < 110 grt and single trawlers < 400 hp combined have consistently landed less of these two species (up to 35% less for haddock in some years), whereas other gears have consistently landed more than their intended shares.
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Spatial distribution of fleets
The objective of separating the fleets geographically appears to have been met (Figure 5). Longliners operated mainly along the northwest and southwest areas of the Faroe Plateau within the trawling closure and on the Faroe Bank in depths < 200 m, targeting mainly cod and haddock. On average, 92% of the total catch of longliners is taken within the area closed to trawling (temporary and year-round), with a peak value of 97% in 1999. Pairtrawlers operated mainly in deep water off the Faroe Plateau and on the banks to the southwest of the islands, fishing mainly for saithe. Deep-sea trawlers were widely distributed in the waters outside the ring, targeting saithe and several deepwater fish species, especially redfish, blue ling, Greenland halibut, grenadier, and black scabbardfish.
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Allocation and utilization of fishing days
In 2005, a local committee (Nevndin at kanna fiskiorkuna), investigating developments in the nominal effort targeting the three species (Anon., 2005), concluded that the fishing capacity had generally increased, but by a variable amount depending on vessel group. A substantial increase had taken place in the longliners > 110 grt through purchases of longliners < 110 grt and transferring their effort quota to existing and new vessels. Since the introduction of the effort system, the total number of days allocated has been reduced on several occasions, by some 15% in all. The smaller coastal vessels (15–40 grt) have generally used < 60% of their quota, whereas the larger coastal vessels (40–110 grt) exceeded theirs from the 2002/2003 fishing year (Figure 6). Longliners > 110 grt used 80–100% of their quota, and pairtrawlers 75–95%. The unutilized days may indicate that either the quota exceeded the capacity for the vessels in a group, or that the market for fishing days was not working properly. It also suggests that the initial allocation provided scope for increasing F. There is no system in place to monitor changes in capacity when effort is traded between vessel size groups within a gear category.
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Technological advances |
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TopIntroductionRegulationsDemersal fisheries and the...Technological advancesCatchability analysisTargeting by fleetDiscussionReferences |
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The ever-increasing efficiency in fisheries (technological creep) is a challenge to fishery management, whatever system is used. In an effort system, efficiency can be increased by: (i) modernization of vessels and equipment; (ii) better utilization of time at sea; and (iii) accumulation of fishing days through acquisition by the most efficient vessels. Based on logbooks from eight identical trawlers operating as four pairs, Thomsen (2005) found that the average tow length had increased, allowing longer fishing time and less gear-handling time during a 24-h period, whereas the swept area had increased through towing faster. Moreover, three of the old pairtrawlers were replaced by two new ones. Although the new vessels and the old vessels remaining were not very different in nominal capacity, the catch per day for the new vessels was 48% higher and their number of fishing days 41% higher, resulting in a doubling of their catches compared with the old vessels.
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Catchability analysis |
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TopIntroductionRegulationsDemersal fisheries and the...Technological advancesCatchability analysisTargeting by fleetDiscussionReferences |
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Input control systems provide incentives to individual fishers to increase their efficiency to catch the largest possible quantity of the most valuable fish in the allocated number of fishing days. Such changes in efficiency, if they occur, should be reflected in the catchability coefficients of the fleets (essentially corresponding to the Ffd of a vessel). We estimated catchability by fleet by dividing the catch per fishing day by the total biomass by year according to the most recent assessment (ICES, 2006). Overall, the trends in catchability (Table 3) are variable by fleet, species, and timing, and a common medium-term pattern is not discernible. How- ever, changes in catchability are not only related to changes in efficiency, but also to variations in the availability of the fish to the different gears. Also, the primary production of the Faroe Shelf ecosystem may vary by as much as a factor of five and, given the positive relationship between primary production and recruitment and growth of cod and haddock (Gaard et al., 2002; Steingrund and Gaard, 2005), this might have pronounced effects on catchability, and hence on F for these stocks (ICES, 2006). Therefore, natural factors may have a larger influence than technological creep.
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decreasing; 
no trend; 
increasing; We conclude that, although the changes we have observed in fishing behaviour and fishing equipment would be consistent with the expected increase in efficiency, it is still too early to demonstrate changes in catchability that are directly related to the introduction of the fishing-days system. From a management perspective, if the hypothesis that catchability is inversely related to productivity is true, there is the potential for high F when stocks are low. Therefore, it would be prudent to consider substantial temporary reductions in effort under prolonged conditions of low productivity.
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Targeting by fleet |
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TopIntroductionRegulationsDemersal fisheries and the...Technological advancesCatchability analysisTargeting by fleetDiscussionReferences |
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A basic assumption of the effort system has been that the different fleets would seek to maximize their profit by adapting their behaviour to target the species that was most abundant in relation to catchability, market value, and costs of fishing. We evaluated whether targeting had changed by examining the percentage of each species in three fleets for which extensive data are available, and the partial F generated by each fleet on each species vs. time and also vs. its biomass. We also looked at the relationship between catches, recruitment, and biomass. The three fleets are longliners < 110 grt (CLL), fishing mainly for cod and haddock, large longliners (LLL) also targeting cod and haddock, and large pairtrawlers (LPTs) mainly targeting saithe, but with substantial bycatches of cod and haddock (Figures 7a–c).
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CLL take 40–55% of the total catches of cod and 30–45% of the haddock. The temporal changes tend to follow similar patterns, but the share of haddock has increased substantially since 1999. LLL take 17–30% of the cod and 34–44% of the haddock. The percentage of haddock has been relatively stable, albeit increasing in recent years, whereas the percentage catch of cod appears to vary cyclically. LPT always take
60% of the total catches of saithe, 8–18% of the cod, and 3–5% of the haddock. The shares of cod and haddock are declining, particularly so for haddock since 2000. The partial F generated by CLL (Figure 7d) on cod and haddock fluctuates almost in synchrony, and there is no indication that coastal vessels shift focus from one species to the other. The patterns observed for LLL (Figure 7e) are largely similar to those for coastal vessels, but since 2000, the partial F on haddock has increased more than on cod, suggesting that some redirection of effort may have taken place. The partial F generated by pairtrawlers (Figure 7f) on saithe and haddock are virtually mirror images, although those on saithe are much higher. If there has been a redirection of effort through active targeting, the effect on the exploitation of haddock can only have been small. The pattern observed for cod again has a cyclical pattern, completely independent of the pattern for the other species.
No significant correlations were observed between the partial F by fleet and the biomass of cod and haddock for CLL or LLL, but that for cod was significant for LPT, suggesting that pairtrawlers may divert effort towards cod when its biomass increases. We hypothesized therefore that the behaviour of the fleets might be linked to the abundance of cod specifically, and plotted the partial F by fleet and species against the biomass of cod (Figure 8). The partial Fs on cod for LLL and on haddock for CLL were significantly higher at low cod biomass, whereas all other relationships were not significant. Only for the LPTs are at least the directions of the regressions for cod and saithe consistent with the hypothesis of switching.
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In the absence of reliable price statistics by fleet, we converted the catches of the three species by the three fleets into monetary values using the average price per year for the weight class contributing most to the landings. The estimated landed value of the catches (Figure 9) by CLL and LLL show similar trends: apart from a small dip, a steady increase to 2002, followed by a decline and levelling off in recent years. Also, among the two species the patterns are indistinguishable, although haddock is relatively more important for the LLL. The value of all species combined for the LPT also increased from 1995 to 2002, but the pattern for cod and haddock differs markedly from those in the other gears. Saithe catches represent by far the most important component of the income for this group. Again, there is no sign of shifts in focus from one species to another within any of the vessel groups. Rather, the focus appears to be opportunistically aimed at cod, which represents by far the most valuable species per unit weight.
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We conclude that the catches of each species appear to be primarily driven by stock abundance, as shown by the correspondence (no lag) between the temporal fluctuations in total biomass and landings (Figure 10). However, it must be emphasized that estimates of biomass in population dynamics models are not independent of catches, so these data cannot be used for testing significance. Also the correspondence between total biomass in a given year and the exploitation rate (catch divided by total biomass) some years later (2 years for cod, 3 years for haddock, and 4 years for saithe) is quite good (Figure 10a–c). This suggests that, contrary to expectations, the change in targeting behaviour is a relatively viscous process that does not occur instantaneously. As fleets realize that a particular stock is large, they progressively shift their effort towards that stock, and the exploitation rate still increases after the biomass has peaked. Conversely, fleets do not decrease their effort immediately when catches decrease. This effect might be strengthened if prices increase as catches decline.
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Discussion |
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TopIntroductionRegulationsDemersal fisheries and the...Technological advancesCatchability analysisTargeting by fleetDiscussionReferences |
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Fisheries represent the single most important industry on the Faroe Islands, contributing 20% to GDP. The introduction of the TAC system in 1994 resulted in under- and misreporting of catches as well as substantial discarding. The current individually transferable effort quota system, developed jointly by fishers, managers, and scientists, is accepted by the industry as well as by the public at large. Consequently, under- and misreporting and discarding have been negligible since its introduction. In addition, the combination of the fishing-days system with closed areas for trawling and incentives to fish outside the ring has helped maintain appropriate shares of the catch by species for each fleet, even if they may deviate somewhat from the ideal ones originally envisaged, and has also kept conflicts between active and passive gear to a minimum.
The original calculation of effort quota allowed more fishing days than had been used in the past, because F on haddock at that time was lower than the target and, consequently, there was seemingly room for increased effort. It could have been predicted that at least some of the additional days allocated would be directed at cod. In addition, the smallest coastal vessels (group 5 in Table 1) were given a substantial number of extra days during a political revision of the system. The fact that, even after a 15% reduction, the allocated fishing days are not fully utilized ten years after the introduction of the effort-management system is an indication that the initial allocation was too high to constrain F to the target, at least for cod. In addition, because of technical improvements and increased knowledge, the efficiency of vessels is likely to increase over time, regardless of the management system used. The number of licenses was frozen when the system came into force in 1996, and days were allocated to all, whether active or not. Because inactive licenses may have been activated (or the associated days sold to other license-holders), it should not come as a surprise that F on cod has not decreased.
The intent of the law underlying the effort-management system is to constrain F below an average value of 0.45 and to maintain sufficiently large spawning stocks. During the ten-year period, this value has often been exceeded for cod, and recently also for saithe. Apparently, the current measures are insufficient to meet the objectives. Apart from exploitation, environmental variations influence stock trends: large variations in local productivity affect recruitment, growth, and catchability of cod and haddock, and are considered the main drivers of stock fluctuations (Steingrund and Gaard, 2005; ICES, 2005, ICES, 2006). The apparent failure of the system as currently applied to constrain exploitation rate on cod specifically indicates that the sustained productive capacity of this stock is not guaranteed and that the risks of future collapse remain substantial.
The probability of a collapse scenario is difficult to estimate. In output control systems, TACs are established with the objective of exerting a pre-agreed mortality rate that corresponds to taking a specific proportion of the exploitable stock. In theory, input control systems are less demanding in terms of monitoring, control, and surveillance, because incentives to cheat are considerably less in input control systems. Nevertheless, because the scope for increasing the efficiency of the catching process is considerable, the main parameters likely to influence this efficiency have to be monitored, and mechanisms have to be put in place that allow for regular downward adjustments of the total number of days allocated. Measuring efficiency in a multispecies fishery is difficult, because there are so many interacting factors. We have not been able to show a clear increase in efficiency for the Faroese fleet on the basis of the broad statistics for fleet categories in conjunction with partial F estimates based on stock assessment. However, this does not mean that there have not been any, but rather that other approaches may be required, using more detailed information from individual vessels (Rijnsdorp et al., 2006).
We are concerned that we could not find any evidence for the underlying assumption of the effort-management system that, to be effective in controlling Fs on several species simultaneously, the fleets would switch their target according to relative stock abundance. Apparently, other processes such as price compensation govern the behaviour of fishers, which may counteract the expected switches in targeting. It is an unfortunate characteristic of an effort-management system that adjustment is unidirectional and always downwards. If the catchability is strongly influenced by environmental conditions, as suggested above, it would also be necessary to include this as a risk factor in setting future effort as a safeguard mechanism against accidental reduction of the SSB below acceptable levels.
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Acknowledgements |
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We thank Kjartan Hoydal and Cathy Dichmont for their useful comments on the draft manuscript, and guest editor Niels Daan for his continuous support and encouragement.
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References |
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TopIntroductionRegulationsDemersal fisheries and the...Technological advancesCatchability analysisTargeting by fleetDiscussionReferences |
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