A means to an end

We want to use these days until we start fishing to tell you about our work. We already gave information in 2012, which is still available online, but we will go back to it for the benefit of the new readers and to justify our current easy life during the trip west. Some reader has already pointed out that we should eat less and work more... Some people are very demanding!!! But first we will give our position, for those fond of putting pins on the board: 42º50.9770 – 026º05.1370.

New readers unaware of the fisheries world may be asking themselves why is a Spanish oceanographic vessel on the way to the Grand Bank, and whether we should be spending money on this. Cannot we stay home and count sardines? This question has a twofold answer: sardines have already been counted (or rather, their eggs) by another IEO team lead by Ana de Lago during the SAREVA survey, and very successfully, by the way, on board no other but R/V Vizconde de Eza. Besides, the Spanish fleet has interests on fishing grounds worldwide. The Grand Bank off Newfoundland is a traditional fishing ground in which Spanish ships have been present almost permanently for nearly 500 years, since the old skippers said that cod was so abundant that it was possible to walk on their backs without getting wet. It is true that Canada conducts surveys in its waters, but some of the commercial species, very ignorant of geopolitical issues, cross the Canadian  Exclusive Economical Zone (EEZ hereafter) line, entering international waters. This is actually the Bank region that we intend to sample, known as the Tail of the Bank. The area is so interesting and the data so necessary that the European Union has been co-funding 50% of these surveys (known as 3LMNO) since 2002, and they have been incorporated into the National Plan for Basic Data Collection, a European initiative to establish comparable sampling routines among member countries.

 Our data will join those collected by other countries with fishing interest in the region. Actually, our IEO colleagues Fernando Gonzalez and Diana Gonzalez (equal surname being a coincidence) are flying as we write to Canada to take part in an international meeting for evaluation of fishing resources. All the data for the different species (or stocks, as we call them) will be pooled there. There is a stock coordinator for each of them, who applies an statistical model to the historical data set with two goals: one, to evaluate the current state of the stock, two, to make a prognosis for the next 4-5 years. This is done simulating in the model different degrees of fishing pressure (or maximum catches), and analyzing the response of the stock (how the number of fish varies). We want a compromise between maximum catches and resource susteinability. The group of experts discusses the results and elaborates the scientific advise accordingly. This is the base for the final decision taken by managers. To reach this point, Fernando, Diana and their colleagues at the meeting will work very long days from Monday to Monday for over a week.

 There may still be people asking themselves if all this mad traffic of people and data is needed. What`s wrong with allowing the fleets fish whenever and whatever they want to? After all this worry about the environment is new and fishing has been going on for as long as people have populated the Earth. At the beginning, people just collected organisms on the shore, but wooden and bone hooks have been dated back to 8000 BC. Egyptians used spears and nets in 2000 BC. In centuries closer to us but with very rudimentary means the first pre-industrial fisheries developed, such as herring in the North Sea in the XIth and XVIth centuries, cod in the Grand Bank in the XVIth century, and sardine, also in the North Sea in the XVIIth century, whose fleet reached 3000 ships in the XIXth century. The Industrial Revolution affected fisheries in several ways. It four-folded fishing efficiency, found new ways to preserve fish (tins) and incremented the need for protein for the many people moving from the countryside to the cities to work in factories. The Great Wars gave pause but when fishing resumed the technological advances have been so great that the last decades have seen a disproportionate growth of the fishing industry considering the time frame.

World capture fisheries production. FAO

For these reasons and despite the traditional “freedom of the seas” agreed upon by the XVIth century leaders to ease maritime commerce, many countries claimed increasing their jurisdictional waters to manage their fisheries. Early in the seventies this limit was set at 12 nm, but countries especially dependent on their fishing resources effected great pressure to increase this limit to 200 nm. Iceland was probably the country accumulating more headings in the international press with their Cod Wars won against the UK. A direct consequence of incrementing jurisdictional waters of the coastal states was that many fishing grounds favoured by international fleets became managed by national governments.

Besides these geopolitical changes, past centuries have seen many fisheries grow and collapse, with the subsequent impact on economy, job and protein availability. Thus, for a large number of economical, social, political and biological issues, fishery management is considered to be necessary.

Wrapping up: the Atlantic crossing of R/V Vizconde de Eza towards the Grand Bank is fully justified. We are going to do a good job and once in St John's we will show off with our ship. After all, we want more than football for Spain to be remembered by....

Thanks to all those that have left their comments already! Remember we want this blog to be interactive, and we will be more than happy to discuss any aspect of our work that interests our readers. By the way, the lottery issued today by the Spanish Blind People Association carries the IEO Centenary logo... a good day to tempt luck!!