Recreational fishery catches can be similar in size to some commercial fishing fleets, but have not been accounted for until recently in stock assessments.
Today, ICES has delivered advice to the European Commission highlighting four of the major drivers for the collection of recreational fisheries data. These include the need to quantify the total catch for stocks to give accurate advice on the fishing opportunities, the requirement of information for the design and evaluation of management measures specific to recreational fisheries, the development and evaluation of management strategies involving recreational fisheries, and to support the development of marine spatial planning.
Today's advice also addresses what types of data are needed and how these data could be used in stock assessment and fishery management advice