The overall objective of the project is: to integrate and analyse the economic information available on European fisheries in order to contribute to effective fisheries management.

The project is organised in three main tasks

• Reparation of an Annual Economic Report (AER) on economic performance of selected fleet segments.
• Preparation of annual economic interpretation of the fishing fleet results in order to balance with fish resources.
• Development and maintenance of a pilot database to organise store and retrieve economic data on European fisheries.

These three tasks are mutually strongly related. AER compiles the basic statistical information on which most other work is based. In view of the increasing amount of data which is already available and which will become available under the Regulation on Data Collection it is essential to organise this data in a comprehensive database. This information will contain information at fleet segment level. The regulation specifies that all basic (individual) data will remain in the Member States in order to comply with privacy legislation.

In relation to all tasks, feedback from EU Commission and other experts will be actively pursued. Comments will be evaluated and discussed by the project team. On the basis of this exchange adjustments will be implemented in the various fields of the project.

The Lithuanian Institute of Agrarian Economics was founded in 1990 after reorganisation of the former Lithuanian Research Institute of Agricultural Economics, established in 1959. The Ministry of Agriculture founded the Institute. About 40 researchers are engaged in scientific work. Analysis and prognosis of micro and macro processes play an important role in the field of scientific research and information management. The Institute specialists also work on important economic and social agricultural, rural and fisheries development problems.

The importance of Lithuanian participation in the project

At present the Department of Fisheries at the Ministry of Agriculture has information about vessels fishing in the Baltic Sea and the High Seas under Lithuanian flag from the vessel register. The information contains data on ownership, tonnage, length, engine and age of the individual vessel. The information of logbooks from vessels fishing in the Baltic Sea is collected in a resource database.

No economic data (income and costs) have previously been collected by the fisheries administration. The Lithuanian Institute of Agrarian Economics participating in the project is starting the collection of these data. In this project data will be collected in order to assess the economic profitability of selected fleet segments. The economic information needed is to a large extent the same parameters as requested by the EU regulation on data collection.

The Institute of Agrarian Economics has set up a team with long experience in fisheries to carry out the Lithuanian part of the project. Dr. Romualdas Zemeckis, Secretary for Research is Coordinator of the project. On the basis of data on vessels and catches provided by the Fisheries Department, economic data is planned to be collected directly from the fishing companies in one or two fleet segments to be identified. Additional sources of information may also be used.

An on-going EU project on economic assessment of the fleet carried out by the Institute of Agrarian Economics constitutes an opportunity for the Lithuanian administration and researches to develop appropriate and efficient methods for data collection. The Lithuanian collection and processing of data this first year of the project period is pioneer work. However, the researchers will throughout the project take note of European experience in the field. When regulation of economic fleet data is in full force it should be possible for Lithuania to meet the requirements according to the regulations. The collected data will be used by Lithuanian administration of fisheries.

Consortium


Project co-ordinator:
Agricultural Economics Research Institute (LEI) located in Hague, the Netherlands.