Report of Ad Hoc Working Group - Elasmobranchs Fisheries"
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COUNCIL OF Brussels, 23 December 2003 THE EUROPEAN UNION 15965/03 PECHE 322 COVER NOTE 1 from : Secretary-General of the European Commission, signed by Mrs Patricia B)GNO,, Director date of receipt : 8 December 2003 to : Mr Javier SO1ANA, Secretary-General/2igh Representative S bject: 53eport of Ad hoc Working Group - Elasmobranchs Fisheries5 Delegations will find attached Commission document SEC:2003) 1427. ________________________ Encl. : SEC:2003) 1427 1 ,he text annexed hereto has been received in English only by the General Secretariat of the Council. 15965/03 MAM/dl 1 DG B III EN COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES Brussels, 5.12.2003 SEC:2003)1427 COMMISSION STAFF WORKING PAPER REPORT OF AD WORKING GROUP ELASMOBRANCHS FISHERIES Brussels, 22-25 July 2003 This report has been evaluated and endorsed by the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF6 in its plenary session of 3-7 November 2003. TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive summary.....................................................................................................4 1. Introduction 1.1 Terms of reference .........................................................................................5 1.2 Participants.....................................................................................................6 1.3 Methods and working strategy of the s bgroup.............................................7 2. Elasmobranch fisheries 2.1 Northeast Atlantic (Baltic, North Sea, Western waters, CECA8 area, etc.)..8 2.1.1 Commercial fisheries ............................................................................8 2.1.1.1 Coastal sharks and dogfish...........................................................9 2.1.1.2 Pelagic sharks...............................................................................12 2.1.1.3 Deep-water shar7s........................................................................19 2.1.1.4 Rays and s7ates............................................................................26 2.1.1.5 Discards........................................................................................34 2.1.2 Recreational fisheries............................................................................44 2.2 The Mediterranean Sea ..................................................................................46 2.2.1 Commercial fisheries ............................................................................46 2.2.1.1 Trawl fishery................................................................................50 2.2.1.2 Deep trawl fishery........................................................................54 2.2.1.3 1arge pelagic fisheries .................................................................56 2.2.2 Recreational fisheries............................................................................71 2.2.3 1andings................................................................................................71 2.3 European elasmobranch fisheries outside Community waters ......................79 3. Biology ...............................................................................................................82 3.1. Species distribution and stock structure........................................................82 3.1.1 Spurdog.................................................................................................83 3.1.2 1esser spotted dogfish...........................................................................83 3.1.3 Blue shar7 .............................................................................................84 3.1.4 Cuckoo ray............................................................................................85 3.1.5 Thornback ray .......................................................................................86 3.1.6 Blackmouth catshar7.............................................................................86 3.1.7 Portuguese dogfish................................................................................86 3.1.8 1eaf-scale gulper shar7.........................................................................87 3.1.9 Kitefin shar7..........................................................................................87 3.2 1ength-weight relationships, conversion factors ...........................................87 3.3 Maturity..........................................................................................................99 4. Ecology ...............................................................................................................100 4.1 Introduction....................................................................................................100 4.2 Breeding seasons............................................................................................100 4.3 Breeding grounds...........................................................................................101 4.4 Parturition and spawning grounds .................................................................101 4.5 Nursery grounds.............................................................................................104 2 4.6 Feeding grounds.............................................................................................111 4.7 Essential Fish Habitat ....................................................................................111 4.8 Ecosystem considerations ..............................................................................113 5. Management considerations...................................................................................117 5.1 Introduction....................................................................................................117 5.2 Appropriate management units for elasmobranch fisheries...........................117 5.2.1 Community waters................................................................................117 5.2.2 Non-Community waters........................................................................131 5.3 Abundance trends and stock status of the 9 DE1ASS species ......................132 5.4 Stock assessment methods .............................................................................133 5.5 Data requirements ..........................................................................................140 5.6 Priorities for assessment status ......................................................................144 5.6.1 Priority species for fishery management...............................................144 5.6.2 Priority species for conservation assessment........................................146 5.7 Case studies IPOAs........................................................................................156 5.8 Considerations for a Community Plan of Action...........................................161 5.8.1 Specific concerns ..................................................................................161 5.8.2 Recommended objectives for a Community Plan of Action ................163 5.8.3 Proposed contents for a Community Plan of Action ............................164 5.8.3.1 Proposed structure........................................................................164 5.8.3.2 Actions that the Community Plan of Action should contain .......166 6. References..............................................................................................................176 Annex 1 Presence of basking shark : Cetorhinus maximus ) in the coastal waters of the Mediterranean Sea, and incidental catches in trammel nets................................................................................................188 Annex 2 Distribution and abundance of Galeus melastomus , Scyliorhinus canicula , and Raja clavata in the Mediterranean International Trawl Survey (MEDI,S) ...........................................................................193 Annex 3 3eview of implementation of the 8AO International Plan of Action for the conservation and management of sharks (IPOA- Sharks) ........................................................................................................201 1ist of participants .....................................................................................................206 3 E9ECUTIVE SUMMAR: ,he principle aim of the meeting was to collate, pdate and comment as appropriate, on available commercial, scientific and technical information on elasmobranch fisheries, biological and ecological data of relevance to fisheries managers, and the status of elasmobranch stocks. ,his report, the previous S,EC8 report, and other sources of information already a0ailable to the Commission :e.g. the DE1ASS report), present the bac7ground information that is required for the preparation of a European Community Plan of Action for elasmobranch fishes. Chapter 1 provides the Terms of Reference and the list of participants. Chapter 2 provides an overview of Community fisheries that catch elasmobranchs :,O3 1, 8). It gives an pdated description of the commercial and recreational fisheries for elasmobranchs in the Northeast Atlantic :Section 2.1), Mediterranean Sea :Section 2.2) and for Community fisheries that catch elasmobranchs in other waters :Section 2.3). ,hese descriptions were also given in the previous report of this s bgroup :S,EC8 2002), but have now been pdated, specifically with regards to more detailed landings data, and a more complete description of the fisheries in the Mediterranean. In Chapter 3, details are given on species