Catch and bycatch data: EIR release

Information requested

Can you please provide me the data showing catch and bycatch in numbers and length by species as well as latitude and longitude to nearest whole round number for each of the 'over 11,000 separate trawls' sampled from 2018 until 2023 inclusive (5 years)?

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations.

1. I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested. I enclose four spreadsheets of the data we hold, entitled:

1. “Scottish Demersal Joint Observer Programme Data 2018-2023 – trawl data.csv”

2. “Scottish Demersal Joint Observer Programme Data 2018-2023 – bycatch units sampled.csv”

3. “Scottish Demersal Joint Observer Programme Data 2018-2023 – landed weight sampled.csv”

4. “Scottish Demersal Joint Observer Programme Data 2018-2023 – length data.csv”

These data are collected as part of the Scottish Demersal Joint Observer Programme. Some background information on the Scottish Demersal Joint Observer Programme, the data collected under this programme, and the purpose they are collected for are included in Annex 1.

Please refer to Annex 2 below for a key to explain the column headers for each spreadsheet provided.

2. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing part of your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. The reasons why that exception applies are explained in Annex 3 below.

Additional information provided out with the EIRs

We have also included the estimates calculated from these data and a draft report covering the years 2018 to 2023. Please find enclosed a PDF file titled “Scottish demersal bycatch report 2023.pdf”, and a spreadsheet titled “Scottish demersal bycatch estimates 2018-2023.csv”. In columns B, C & D of this spreadsheet, you will find various codes listed. You will need to refer to the PDF report for a full explanation of the codes used. For ease of reference:

Column B codes are provided in the report table 2.

Column C codes are provided in the report figure 1.

Column D codes are explained in the opening sentence.

Due to the size of the files we are unable to upload the documents referred to above.

If you wish to consider, please contact us at the address below and we will be happy to provide.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

EIR 202400420868 - Information released - Attachment

File type

6 page PDF

File size

1.4 MB

EIR 202400420868 - Information released - Spreadsheet

File type

CSV file

File size

60.2 kB