An investigation of human vs. technology-induced variation in catchability for a selection of European fishing fleets

The impact of the fishing effort exerted by a vessel on a population depends on catchability, which depends on population accessibility and fishing power. The work investigated whether the variation in fishing power could be the result of the technical characteristics of a vessel and/or its gear or whether it is a reflection of inter-vessel differences not accounted for by the technical attributes. These inter-vessel differences could be indicative of a skipper/crew experience effect. To improve understanding of the relationships, landings per unit effort (lpue) from logbooks and technical information on vessels and gears (collected during interviews) were used to identify variables that explained variations in fishing power. The analysis was undertaken by applying a combination of generalized additive models and generalized linear models to data from several European fleets. The study highlights the fact that taking into account information that is not routinely collected, e.g. length of headline, weight of otter boards, or type of groundrope, will significantly improve the modelled relationships between lpue and the variables that measure relative fishing power. The magnitude of the skipper/crew experience effect was weaker than the technical effect of the vessel and/or its gear.