Catch Data

Abstract

The quality of the international stock assessments carried out by scientists are directly linked to the quality of the fisheries data they use. In recent years, scientists have expressed great concern over the poor quality of catch data from most of the important fisheries in the EU area. Although scientists have been struggling with the problem for many years, the problem has become more acute in recent years. In 2005, it was not possible to carry out stock assessments for a number of key stocks in EU waters (including the waters around Ireland) because of the poor quality of the catch data. The issues of ‘misreporting and discarding’ are now a serious problem for the scientific community and need to be urgently addressed.