A fishing method that involves towing a trawl net trough the water column. Can be performed by either a single or a combination of ships.

A generic term describing cultivation of marine / freshwater species. This includes both plants and animals. Back to Top Benthic

Organisms dwelling on, or attached to, the seabed.

When a species population density is so low that no partners are available for mating purposes.

The accumulative total weight of all living organisms in a stock or resource.

Unwanted, non-target, marine species caught while fishing for another species. Back to Top Catch share

The fisheries policy of the European Union (EU). It sets quotas for which member states are allowed to catch what amounts of each type of fish.

The fishing effort -taking in account costs, subsidies, offset prices etc- needed being too high to make an economic profit. Back to Top Discards

A type of overfishing. When the balance of the ecosystem is altered due to overfishing. Declines in the abundances of large predatory species declines and in turn small forage type species increase in [..]

A type of overfishing. When fish are harvested at an average size that is smaller than the size that would produce the maximum yield per recruit. This makes the total yield less than it would be if th [..]