Workshop on Innovative Fishing Gear (WKING)

The EU Commission (EU DG-MARE) seeks ICES advice on the progress that has been made, or impact arising from innovative gears within EU waters. This advice should assess the benefits for, or negative effects on, marine ecosystems, sensitive habitats and selectivity. Specifically, and to the extent possible, the advice sought should provide information on what kind of innovative gears are being used, their objective, their technical specificities and the impact on both target species, non-target species and the environment in which they had been deployed. In response to the EU DG-MARE request on the progress and impact that has been made in innovative gear use within EU waters, ICES advises that EU adopt the definition of “Innovative gear” as provided in the report for the Workshop on Innovative Fishing Gear (WKING). In addition, through the work in WKING, the international expert group has also identified rigorous approaches and methodologies to assess different levels of innovation and provide insight for possible adoption or approval of use...

...Depending on the expected potential impact on the performance improvement, compared to the baseline (conventional fishing gear), each CA was scored as incremental, transformative, disruptive, or negative, while the technology and/or methods were evaluated by the readiness, assessed by the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) as low, medium, or high. The use of TRLs enables consistent, uniform evaluation of technical maturity across different types of technology. For each CA, an innovation matrix was conceived to allow identification of the innovations that appear to be most relevant to the objectives of the European policies. The work carried out includes an innovative fishing gear catalogue with 42 factsheets that describes fishing gear innovations tested in the main EU sea-basins. The CA analysis was conducted within a small group of fisheries scientists. Conclusions drawn within the WKING report must therefore take this narrow focus into account, especially when extrapolating conclusions into industrial or commercial settings.