It is the primary objective of CEDER to harness technologies, such as the Vessel Monitoring System and electronic logbooks, to provide more accurate and timelier information on catches, effort, landings, discards and quota and TAC uptake and to assess the benefits of this information for fisheries management.
(A) In the first “analysis” phase all available data from the fishery from traditional sources such as observers and landing notes as well as from new sources such as VMS will be collected and analysed in order to determine relationships between the different measurements – VMS and declared effort or landings and log-book entries for instance – and to convert these measurements into the information required by the stakeholders.
(B) The second “testing” phase will involve carrying a series of pilot studies under real conditions to show the feasibility of obtaining real-time information on fisheries, to identify bottlenecks and to measure the performance of the technology used in terms of accuracy of information, timeliness and cost.
(C) The third “implementation” phase involves determining how the system could be moved from pilot scale to full-scale EU implementation and identifying the benefits for stakeholders in doing so.
The measurable objectives are:
- the production of a harmonized database for fisheries data of six different fisheries;
- the construction of relationships between these data and national catches, landings;
- an assessment of the accuracy of such relationships;
- the production and testing of a near-real-time system that can monitor catch, effort, discards and landings of these fisheries;
- the delivery of an outline design for introducing such a system into operation;
- an assessment of the benefits to industry, authorities and to the sustainability of stock and the fishery.