In WOT-programme Fisheries Research, statutory tasks are carried out which are related to national and EU legislation in fisheries management and aquaculture. The present programme started in 2002 and will be continued till 2010. The main activity in the programme is related the collection of data on fish stocks, fishery and aquatic ecosystem in order to be able to provide biological advice to the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Conservation and Food Quality and European Union on the management of fisheries.
The programme is carried out by the Institute for Marine Resources and Ecosystem Studies (Wageningen IMARES) and Centre for Fisheries Research (CVO). Fisheries policy makers and managers are, like in most other policy areas, dependent on information. The present programme provides biological information for the management of fisheries and aquaculture in open systems.
The aim of the programme is to contribute to the collection of essential data on fisheries and fish stocks through sampling programmes as well in marine as in inshore areas. The data collection includes sampling programmes on fish species landed in fishing ports, discards and by-catch monitoring programmes on board commercial vessels and scientific surveys using research vessels. In addition monitoring programmes on shellfish (bivalves) are carried out in coastal waters, to estimate the available biomass of these resources. The data will be used to provide advice on management. The advice on marine stocks and fisheries is based on international data and assessments carried out by international working groups. Within the programme nine different projects can be distinguished which each may consist of several sub-projects.
The following projects are carried out in 2007:
* Assessment and advice
* Market sampling marine species
* Marine research vessel surveys
* Monitoring by-catches
* Fish and fishery research inshore waters
* Fishery statistics
* Monitoring shellfish stocks
* Accreditation aquatic organism for aquaculture
* Communication
A small part of the overall budget of the programme is not allocated to existing projects and will be used for dealing with ad hoc requests for information. In addition to the list above, programme management is run as a separate project.
