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VALDUVISAn innovative way of

assessing the sustainability of fishing activities

Presentation for the 2015 ICES Annual Science Conference,

Copenhagen

Arne Kinds, Kim Sys, Laura Schotte, Koen Mondelaers and Hans Polet

‘Managing change in the Belgian fishery’

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The Belgian fishery anno 2015

• 83 vessels; 22 793 tons/year

• Mixed groundfish fishery

• Range of fishing grounds

• 83% beam trawl

– Low selectivity

– Sea bed disturbance

– Fuel-intensive

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Towards sustainability?

• 2008 fuel crisis

– Incentive to save fuel

– Adaptations to the beam trawl gear (e.g. sumwing, lighter

nets, etc.)

• NGOs and retail

– Pressure to demonstrate sustainability (since 2010)

– Maintain market access

• Competition with other countries!

• MSC not an option …

• EU and national polcies

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A framework for changeIntegrated Sustainability

Assessment(after Weaver and Rotmans, 2006)

• Explore solutions to persistent problems of

unsustainable development

• Cyclic step-by-step approach

• Stakeholder-driven

The VISTRAJECT project (2011-2014)

• ‘A trajectory towards sustainability in the Belgian

fishery’

• Develop shared vision of a sustainable future

• Define sustainability goals and actions

• Promoters: government, NGOs, PO, ILVO

The VALDUVIS project (2011-2014)

• Develop indicator-based sustainability monitoring

tool

• Bring more nuance into the sustainability debate!

• Multi-use tool, tailored to needs of different end

users

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The VALDUVIS project

Individual assessment

s

MonitoringProgress towards

sustainability goals

(VISTRAJECT)

Tool to assess and monitor the sustainability of the Belgian

fishing fleet based on individual fishing data

Provide fishers insight into their

sustainability

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Why individual assessments?

Electronic Reporting System (ERS) =

underused!

Detailed data for each fishing trip

Fishing tactics vary greatly between fishers+ no fishing trip is the same!

High degree of detail at a relatively low cost

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How does it work?STEP 1: trip

dataSTEP 2:

calculationsSTEP 3:

visualization

Methodology for calculations is

described in fact sheets for each

indicator

Assessments can be provided ‘real-time’

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Information at different levels

Trip

Vess

el

Segm

en

tFl

eet

4 levels

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The VALDUVIS radar chart

Case study: beam trawler, inshore fishing vessel, <221 kW (average for 2013)

Reference point

14 indicators in 12 themes

Score between 0 (worst case) and

100 (best practice)

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Stakeholder participationS

cie

nce

Pra

cti

ce

February 2013Proposal for data

collection and transparency

Feedback and approval

October 2014Proposal for further

implementation

time

Feedback and approval

Feedback and approval

December 2013Proposal for indicator system and reference

points

June 2014Proposal for visualization

of sustainability

scores

‘Multistakeholder process’

Crucial in the development of the tool

(selection of themes and indicators, continuous feedback)

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Stakeholder participation

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OVALDUVIS in 2015

• Pilot testing on 4 vessels

– Test use on board (effort for fisher, data

transfer)

– Automation and real-time scoring

– Evaluate the interest of fishers in using the

tool

– (Evaluate the interest of buyers in using

the tool)

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OVALDUVIS in 2015-2016

• Update indicators

• Internal external benchmarks

– The more data, the better the benchmarks

(VALDUVIS ≠ MSC); European projects (e.g.

Interreg)

• Accreditation of methodology and data flow

• Toolbox: how to improve sustainability?

• Market applications (~ FIP? Niche

markets?)

• Improve methods for stakeholder

participation

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Thank you!

Kim Syskim.sys@ilvo.vlaanderen.be+32 59 56 98 54

Arne Kindsarne.kinds@ilvo.vlaanderen.be+32 59 56 98 26

@VALDUVIS

©Karl Vanginderdeuren