Flyshoot fishery in the Plaice Box

The European Union Technical measures are a broad set of rules which govern how, where and when fishermen may fish. The technical measures regulations in the EU need to be modernized in light of the reformed Common Fisheries Policy. To this effect, the European Commission has put forward a new framework proposal for technical conservation measures. One of the matters that will be discussed within this framework is the fishery within the Plaice Box. The flyshoot fishery (SSC) is one of the fisheries still allowed in the Plaice Box provided that less than 5% of the total catch consists of plaice and sole. To estimate the actual effort and biomass caught per species, at the request of VisNed, Wageningen Marine Research calculated the number of hours fished per gridcell in the Plaice Box and the Greater North Sea and the biomass caught per species per year for the period 2010-2019. The largest effort of the flyshoot fishery is in the southern part of the Greater North Sea. The flyshoot fishery is also active in the Plaice Box with the largest effort at the outer periphery of the Plaice Box. The catches of the flyshoot fishery mainly consist of tub gurnard, dab and plaice. The percentage of plaice (and sole) per year compared to the total catch is 14.6%.