This project was co-ordinated by João M. F. Pereira at IPIMAR in Lisbon.
The project was a continuation and extension of Study Projects 96-081 and 97-107. The underlying rationale was that informed decisions about management of cephalopod stocks can only be made with an adequate and proven data collection regime already in place. Currently exploited cephalopod stocks may increase in importance, particularly if finfish stocks decline significantly.
The project addressed the following specific needs for data collection:
(a) Data collection for cephalopod stocks not previously assessed. This study included data collection on the Portuguese coast and in Greek seas. In Scottish waters, data collection was extended into the North Sea. The similarities in life-cycle biology of all the exploited cephalopods suggested that the same methodology could be applied to them.
(b) Data collection to extend time-series of assessments for those stocks for which depletion methods have been shown to be appropriate; to determine stock trends and allow between-year and between-area comparisons.
(c) Data collection for evaluation of alternative assessment methods and for estimates of basic fishery parameters (e.g. length-weight relationships, growth curves, catch curves)
(d) Estimation of natural mortality. A limited, opportunistic stomach sampling programme was carried out during Project 96-081 to estimate amounts of cephalopods eaten by fish. Improved seasonal coverage and bigger sample sizes were needed.
(e) Data collection for basic economic information, such as, for example, species market value time-series and proportion of the income of the fishermen generated by cephalopod sales.
(f) Monitoring of official data collection and estimation of unreported catch and effort in the main artisanal and by-catch fisheries.
(g) Estimation of amounts of cephalopods discarded.
The choice of stocks for study was based on the distribution of catches in relation to the location of the partners, which gave us access to populations of all the main fished species. In Scotland, the main species of commercial importance is Loligo forbesi. Although there may be only one (or possibly two) stocks in Scottish waters, this may be subdivided for assessment purposes into Rockall, West Coast and North Sea units. In the English Channel, which was sampled from Caen (France), the squid fishery takes a mixture of two Loligo species (L. forbesi and L. vulgaris) and there is also an important fishery for cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) and a smaller fishery for ommastrephid squids. In Spain and Portugal, loliginid and ommastrephid squids are of major fishery importance as are cuttlefish and the octopuses (Octopus vulgaris and Eledone cirrhosa). In the Cretan Sea (Eastern Mediterranean) all of these categories occur in varying degrees of market importance.
The final report was delivered to Brussels at the start of 2002.
