The Fisheries Information System of Ifremer-a multidisciplinary monitoring network and an integrated approach for the assessment of French fisheries, including small-scale fisheries

Since 2000, Ifremer has been developing a Fisheries Information System (FIS) in close collaboration with the DPMA (Director of Fisheries and Aquaculture of the French Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries). The FIS aims to build an operational and multidisciplinary monitoring network for scientific purposes, allowing a comprehensive view of fishery systems including their biological, technical, environmental, and economic components. The objectives of the FIS are (i) to provide specifications and methodologies for the collection, storage, and processing of fisheries data, with the aim of harmonizing all these procedures on a national scale, (ii) to improve data management systems and access to data for a wider public, and (iii) to produce and distribute relevant datasets, indicators, and synthesis, for understanding and evaluation, including bioeconomic diagnostics of fisheries, and assessment of the short- and long-term impacts of fishery management scenario and measures. The FIS covers all the French fisheries, including overseas territories and small-scale fisheries, for which data are often hardly available or missing. Two-thirds of the French vessels are less than 12 m long. The challenge was to establish a statistical and integrated approach supporting bio-ecological and economic issues. A wide range types of data, including acoustic surveys, biological in situ observations, environmental observations, as well as fishing statistics (landings and efforts) and economic data, are managed in a single data management system, based on an integrated relational database with geographical facilities.