The role of technical protocols and partnership engagement in developing a decision support framework for fisheries management.

In the context of the Common Fisheries Policy Reform, the implementation of multiannual management plans for fisheries and the annual quota negotiations between EU member states has generated a growing demand from stakeholders and managers for integrated advice that goes beyond the usual biological advice. This has led to the emergence of bio-economic tools and methods for the comparison of the biological, economic and social tradeoffs associated with alternative options for fisheries management. A Decision Support Framework (DSF) has been developed in this context, with the objective to tackle technical and methodological challenges to be able to provide bio-economic advices to support decision at national and European level. It is based on a partnership approach involving the fishing industry, managers and scientists and on technical protocols. We present the development of a partnership DSF within three local case studies, highlighting key challenges and lessons learnt regarding appropriateness and application of a DSF. The data processing methods and collaborative platform were pivotal for scoping out objectives and management options, and for aligning DSF outcomes with decision makers' needs and agendas. Definition of common standards and institutionalization of the use of partnership DSF are still required to operationalize the integrated advice process at national and European levels.

Managing fleet capacity effectively under second-hand market redistribution.

Fishing capacity management policies have been traditionally implemented at national level with national targets for capacity reduction. More recently, capacity management policies have increasingly targeted specific fisheries. French fisheries spatially vary along the French coastline and are associated to specific regions. Capacity management policies, however, ignore the capital mobility associated with second-hand vessel trade between regions. This is not an issue for national policies but could limit the effectiveness of regional capacity management policies. A gravity model and a random-effect Poisson regression model are used to analyze the determinants and spatial extent of the second-hand market in France. This study is based on panel data from the French Atlantic Ocean between 1992 and 2009. The trade flows between trading partners is found to increase with their sizes and to be spatially concentrated. Despite the low trade flows between regions, a net impact analysis shows that fishing capacity is redistributed by the second-hand market to regions on the Channel and Aquitaine from central regions. National capacity management policies (constructions/destructions) have induced a net decrease in regional fleet capacity with varying magnitude across regions. Unless there is a change of policy instruments or their scale of implementation, the operation of the second-hand market decreases the effectiveness of regional capacity management policies in regions on the Channel and Aquitaine.