Overview of the international fishing activities on the Cleaver Bank and Frisian Front: update with Dutch, British, Danish, German, Belgian, Swedish and French data for 2010-2015

In response to a request to Wageningen University & Research from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs an update of the data and analysis on the value of the fishing activities of the Dutch, British, Danish, German, Belgian, Swedish and French fishing fleets on the proposed closed areas on the Cleaver Bank and Frisian Front was prepared. This report uses the method presented in Chapter 5 of ‘Effects of seabed protection on the Frisian Front and Central Oyster Grounds’ (Van Oostenbrugge et al. 2015) to update the reports already published by Wageningen Economic Research on fishing activity on the proposed closed areas on the Cleaver Bank and Frisian Front (Hamon et al. 2013; Oostenbrugge and Hamon 2014). The effort, value and landings by the Dutch, British, Danish, German, Belgian, Swedish and French fishing fleets are presented for a five year period (2010-2015) and show variations over the last years but generally show a decline in effort in both areas. Value of landings and gross value added show an upward trend for the Dutch fishery in the Cleaver Bank (with a low point in 2013) but a downward trend for the British, German and Belgian fleets and for the Frisian Front. Main target species of the Cleaver Bank are plaice, targeted by the beam trawl fleet, followed by mackerel, cod and whiting in the rest of the demersal fleet. On the Frisian Front, gillnets target mainly sole and cod. The total value of landings has remained relatively stable on the Cleaver Bank between €1.6m and €2m over years (with the exception of the low 2013 value at €0.7m) while it remained low for the Frisian Front around €17,000 per year on average for the fleets from the countries considered. Within fleets, the dependency of individuals on the areas to be closed can greatly vary although the value of landings in the proposed closures represent less than 1% of the total value of landings for the Dutch fleet. For the Dutch fisheries about 30 to 40 vessels fish a minor part (less than 10%) of their revenue from the proposed closed areas on the Cleaver Bank and only 1 or 2 vessels get more than 10% of their revenue from the proposed closures. Between 15 and 20 vessels would be impacted by a seasonal closure on the Frisian Front net fishery, of those vessels only one fished more than 10% of its revenue in the proposed closure for one year.