The Recopesca Project : a new example of participative approach to collect fisheries and in situ environmental data

Face to the lack of data to assess precisely the spatial distribution of catches and fishing effort and for the environmental characterization of the fishing area, Ifremer has been implemented since 2005 a new project, Recopesca. It consists in fitting out a sample of voluntary fishing vessels with sensors recording data on fishing effort (and at mid-terms catches) and physical parameters such as temperature or salinity. Recopesca aims at setting up a network of sensors, for scientific purposes, to collect data and improve resources assessment and diagnostics on fisheries, and environmental data required for ecosystem-based management initiatives. The challenge was to develop sensors with no trouble for the fishermen, tough enough to be fixed up on fishing gears, self powered and autonomous. Insofar as the sample of targeted vessels intends to be representative of all the metiers and fleets, the sensors are modular and scalable to collect new data. Different sensors have been implemented: (i) a temperature-salinity sensor, able to record physical parameters, depth and duration of immersion, for passive and active gears, and (ii) a specific sensor to record number or length of passive gears. A GPS monitors the position of the vessels and the temperature or salinity profiles and series. Each sensor is equipped with a radio device transferring the data to a receiver on-board, called “concentrator” that sends the data to Ifremer central databases by GPRS. An anti-rolling weigh-scale has been developed and is currently on test to record catches per species and fishing operation. The presentation will show the first data and results of this participative approach.