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The Trawl Knowhow project
The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) set quotas for EU member states on the number of each type of fish they are allowed to catch. As a result, fishermen were discarding fish that were over the quota, or too small, by throwing them back into the sea, often dead. A campaign begun in 2010 called Fish Fight highlighted this practice and led to a change in the regulations. As a result, the new Common Fisheries Policy has a landing obligation, phased in between 2015 and 2019, which aims to prevent the wasteful discarding of fish by requiring fishermen to land all the fish they catch and count them against quotas. As part of the implementation of the new CFP, measures are being taken to assist fishermen in avoiding unwanted catches in the first place. These measures include mixed quotas for vessels likely to catch more than one species, and encouraging the use of more selective gear. Research into and trials of more selective gear that allows for the more accurate catches of specific fish exists but the information from them tends to be in journals and in inaccessible formats. Fishermen may not have the time or resources to research the gear they need to help them to comply with the ban. The Trawl Knowhow project is connected to the EU Horizon 2020 DiscardLess project, which includes 31 partners from 12 countries whose aim is to identify strategies for the gradual elimination of discards in European fisheries. The aim of the Trawl Knowhow project is to gather information available on gear modifications relevant to the implementation of the discard ban in the management regions of the North Sea and the North West Waters into one database, housed by the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES). To get maximum benefit from this database, information on fishing gear technology needs to be disseminated among a wide range of stakeholders including producers organisations, fishermen, North Sea and Northwestern Waters Advisory Councils, among others. In order to disseminate information from the database effectively Cefas needs a communications strategy that is built around the needs of the stakeholders. The stakeholders vary widely in their knowledge, skills, interest and investment in the discard ban and therefore a communications strategy needs to be able to meet their needs.

The key messages of the Trawl Knowhow project are:

1) It is possible to comply with the discard ban and reduce the economic strain of it by using suitable fishing gear that allows more selective fishing

2) Research and trials of new fishing gear are being carried out on an ongoing basis.

3) The Trawl Knowhow project aims to bring together information on fishing gear technology in one database and to make that information accessible to the fishing community.

4) The fishing gear information will be of practical use to all stakeholders in the discard ban, including fishermen.

5) The fishing community can use this database to improve their fishing gear so that the ban has the least effect possible on their livelihoods.