Catalogue international des activités des flottilles de Manche, approche des interactions techniques

This work is the result of collaboration between the English, French, Channel Isles and Belgian laboratories which are involved in a study of the English Channel. Its subject is the activities of fleets and fleet interactions, and it complements other work on the biogeographical identification of Channel fish and shellfish stocks (published), and on modelling the fleets' interactions as they exploit the resources (in preparation). The concept of a métier is defined as being the use of one fishing gear to catch one or several species targeted during a particular season in a given area. On this basis, 74 métiers were identified during 1989-90. For each métier we give a brief description of the catching gear, the target species and most usual by-catch, the strategy of the fishing operation, the fleets involved and their ports of origin, the complementary activities with other métiers and possible substitutions in the event of activity in a métier being curtailed, relevant management measures, maps of the areas fished, and an evaluation of the quality of data which are available to be used in multi-métier interactive models. Each métier description is completed by a table which shows actual catch and effort data and the nature of interactions with other métiers, especially competition for resources and/or fishing grounds.