Aran, Galway Bay and Slyne Head Nephrops Grounds (FU17) 2017 UWTV Survey Report and catch options for 2018

This report provides the main results and findings of the fifteenth annual underwater television on the Aran, Galway Bay and Slyne head Nephrops grounds, ICES assessment area; Functional Unit 17. The survey was multi-disciplinary in nature collecting UWTV, fishing, CTD and other ecosystem data. In 2017 a total of 40 UWTV stations were successfully completed, 31 on the Aran Grounds, 5 on Galway Bay and 4 on Slyne Head patches. The mean burrow density observed in 2017, adjusted for edge effect, was medium at 0.29 burrows/m². The final krigged burrow abundance estimate for the Aran Grounds was 343 million burrows with a CV (or relative standard error) of 3 %. The final abundance estimate for Galway Bay and Slyne Head was 25 and 11 million burrows with CVs of 7% and 3% respectively. The total abundance estimates have fluctuated considerably over the time series. The 2016 combined abundance estimate was 32% lower than in 2015 and at 379 million and is below the MSY Btrigger (540 million). Using the 2017 abundance estimate and updated stock data implies catch of 551 tonnes and landings of 513 tonnes in 2018 when MSY approach is applied (assuming that discard rates and fishery selection patterns do not change from the average of 2014–2016). Virgilaria mirabilis was the only sea-pen species observed on the UWTV footage. Trawl marks were present at 20% of the Aran stations surveyed.

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10793/1335

Citation

Lordan, C., Doyle, J., Butler, R., Sugrue, S., Allsop, C., O’ Connor, S and Vacherot, J.P. 2017. Aran, Galway Bay and Slyne Head Nephrops Grounds (FU17) 2017 UWTV Survey Report and catch options for 2018. Marine Institute UWTV Survey report.