Update of "Delineating catch quotas for Dutch demersal fisheries: a theoretical pilot study"

Summary

A reduction of unwanted catches is a key element of the Common Fisheries Policy reform proposal (EC, 2010). To achieve this, a landing obligation (or discard ban) will be introduced, prohibiting the at-sea disposal of quota-regulated species. Instead these catches shall be brought back to shore and counted against a quota, where applicable. In 2014, upon request by the ministry, more clarity was sought on how catch quotas could be calculated and what they would look like for the most relevant fish species of the Dutch demersal fishery . The report of that study (Miller et al. 2014) provided an overview of total allowable catch allocations (TAC), national quota, landings and discards statistics for some of the most-relevant quota-regulated species caught by the Dutch demersal fleet. A number of scenarios of how the new catch quotas could be calculated were presented. The theoretical implications of these alternative scenarios for the Dutch fleet were described under the assumption of no change in relative stability. In 2015, the Ministry of Economic Affairs requested an update of Miller et al. (2014), and this report is the result of that update.