I'm manager of the Applied Fisheries Science and Technology Group at Cefas, and senior science advisor to the UK Government on discard mitigation and the landing obligation. I conduct research in the fields of fishing gear, fisheries data and discard survival and leads and participates in a variety of national and international collaborative projects.
I'm a member of the EU Commission's Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee on Fisheries (STECF), an active member of the FAO/ICES fishing gear technology group (FTFB) and co-chair of the ICES Workshop on Methods to Estimate Discard Survival (WKMEDS).
Half of undersized sole survive after being caught and discarded in the English east coast inshore otter trawl fishery, according to preliminary results of research conducted by Cefas scientists. Senior scientist Tom Catchpole provides an update on the survival of …
Senior Cefas scientist Tom Catchpole explains why fish are discarded back to the sea, and what happens to them.