European fishing association the Pelagic Freezer Trawler Association (PFA) and Netherlands-based Wageningen Marine Research (WMR) have entered into an agreement on further research collaboration. The new agreement stipulates that the two parties will jointly conduct strategic research on sustainable fishing of pelagic fish stocks such as herring, mackerel and blue whiting.
Within this collaboration, PFA and WMR will jointly use data collected on board pelagic freezer trawlers, along with data from statutory sampling programmes, to produce more accurate estimates of fish stocks. The two organisations will also cooperate more intensively in the development of new techniques for the use of acoustic measuring equipment in fish research.
"With this step, we can use our self-sampling data much more effectively for stock management in international fora, such as ICES," said PFA Chief Science Officer Dr Niels Hintzen. "Close cooperation with Wageningen Marine Research is crucial for this, as the research institute has been active in this field for decades. We can now much more effectively present all the different samples, and better assess what they tell us about fish stocks and fishing pressure, especially also because hundreds of thousands of additional measurements will become available on an annual basis."
