Overview of the international fishing activities on the Cleaver Bank alternative closures : analysis 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 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 Cleaver Bank (Hamon et al. 2013; Oostenbrugge and Hamon 2014) and investigate a set of closure options. 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. Value of landings and gross value added show an upward trend for the Dutch fishery but a downward trend for the British, German and Belgian fleets. Other fleets have only marginal to no activity in the areas. The main target species of the area are plaice, targeted by the beam trawl fleet, followed by mackerel, cod and whiting in the rest of the demersal fleet. The total value of landings has remained relatively stable on the Cleaver Bank between €1.6m and €2m for most years under proposal 1 (largest area closed) down to €0.7m to €1m for most years under proposal 4 (smallest area). The dependency on the different alternatives is highly related to the surface to be closed; notable exceptions are that the German fleet is relatively less dependent on proposals 2 and 3 and more dependent on proposal 4 and the British fleet is less dependent on proposal 4. In the Dutch fleet, the dependency of individuals on the areas to be closed can greatly vary although the value of landings in the proposed closures represents less than 1% of the total value of landings for the fleet. For the Dutch fisheries about 20 to 40 vessels (depending on the closure option) fish a minor part of their revenue from the proposed closed areas on the Cleaver Bank (less than 10%) and only 1 or 2 vessels get more than 10% of their revenue from the proposed closures. While the number of Dutch vessels fishing in the proposed closures of the different proposals is similar, the degree of dependency of those vessels is related to the surface of the areas.