Scottish Pelagic Industry Self-Sampling Programme

Scottish pelagic fishermen collect length and weight data on pelagic stocks from their hauls to improve fisheries data collection, feed into ICES stock assessment and inform how fisheries are managed

The Issue

  • Since the 1970s, the Scottish Government has collected its data for pelagic stock assessments with the catch data from processors were the species are landed in the UK.
  • The nature of the pelagic fishing fleet is that they may land their catch into harbours outside of the UK, therefore not being representative of the stock. A better sampling programme was needed in order to analyse the full scope of the fishery.

The Solution

  • Seven pelagic fishing vessels took part in a self sampling pilot study, which proved so successful that 20 out of 21 of Scotland’s pelagic fishing vessels are now fully involved.
  • On the self-sampling programme, fish samples are collected on board, from every haul on every fishing trip.
  • Length and weight data is collected over a vast spatial distribution, with almost full coverage on the fleet.
  • This has opened up data on catches landed abroad, gathering high quality data which provides high quality data on herring ,mackerel and blue whiting stocks, improving scientists stock assessment, management measures and builds understanding and trust between science and industry

The Process

  • In 2018, a pilot project with the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association (SPFA), Shetland UHI and Marine Scotland saw a voluntary scheme developed for fishing vessels to sample fish onboard and enter the data into the system for scientific analysis
  • The fishing industry worked closely with fisheries scientists o develop a logistically viable procedure to collect the data at sea in place of the scientists
  • The project has two streams to its data collection process – self sampling and co-sampling
  • In self-sampling, the fishing vessels measure the length and weight of a set quantity of fish from each haul. This connects time and location of the catch with the biological data and other environmental parameters. 
  • Co-sampling requires more specialist knowledge to assess the age, sex and maturity of the species. In this case, fish are randomly selected from different trips and hauls, frozen at sea and send to Marine Scotland and Shetland UHI laboratories where scientists will defrost and analyse the more complex biological information. 
  • The data sets are collated and provided to ICES for stock assessments. Understanding the age structure of the species is essential to assessing their health and forecasting stocks in future years. 
  • In this collaboration, each partner has an important role: Shetland UHI manage the everyday implementation of the programme and work closely with the SPFA to deliver training and regular communications with the fishing vessels; Marine Scotland works with SPFA and Shetland UHI to design sampling methods, protocols, quality assurance and to assure the data collected meets required standards; The Scottish Fishermen’s federation (SFF) liaises on logistics of collecting and transporting samples to the laboratory and strategic work translating the best practice work from the pelagic sampling into other sectors
  • The co-sampling scheme has been formally adopted under Scotland’s National Sampling Programme as the key mechanism for biological data collection of pelagic stocks by the Scottish fleet.
  • ICES make yearly assessments from the data on mackerel, herring and blue whiting, which in is in turn used to make management decision in the following year

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“Fishing skippers tend to keep diaries detailing where and when they fished and what they caught. This is currently unearthed data, and the knowledge it contains on changes in pelagic stocks and fisheries is likely to be useful for fishermen and scientists alike. It will complement contemporary data collected under the self-sampling programme and provide fishermen with means to bring their data to life so they can better track and interpret changes in catching patterns. Having a long history of data from across the fleet will be scientifically valuable to research on changes in the North Atlantic pelagic ecosystem.”

Dr Steven Mackinson, SPFA

"The example here of the development of an industry-led pelagic sampling programme can serve as a role model for others intent on similar applications. This new arrangement of collaborative sampling also gives the scope for greater industry involvement and responsibility in scientific research in the future“

Ian Gatt, Chief Executive, SPFA

“The strong uptake from industry strengthen the evidence base; improving insight into the health of these fish stocks and state of Scotlands marine environment”

Matt Gubbons, Head of Fisheries Data within the Scottish government Marine Scotland directorate

We are delighted to see how the collaboration between SPFA, Scottish government and ourselves has developed new ways of collecting scientific data to support improvements in fish stock assessment. The pelagic sector is of huge importance locally and working cooperatively with industry remains a key strategic aim for us”

Professor Jane Lewis, Principal and CEO Shetland UHI

“The scottish pelagic industry recognises that engagement in science is more important now than ever. Taking new repsonibiloties for providing scientific samples is seen by the industry asa welcome opportunity to directly contribut to the continuous improvement of stock assessments”

Ian Gatt, Chief Executive, SPFA

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