ICES Call for Proposals on Protected Species

To collect 2025 data on fishing effort, monitoring/sampling effort, and bycatch of sensitive species to support the advice of the Working Group on Bycatch (WGBYC). The data support requests from the European Commission and NEAFC to assess the impact of fisheries on ecosystems and estimate bycatch mortality. Data for the year 2025 must be uploaded to the ICES database no later than July 3, 2026. Covers the Northeast Atlantic (ICES areas 27 and NAFO 21) as well as the Mediterranean and Black Seas (GFCM area 37).

Data to be reported:

    - All fishing effort (for all gear types).

    - All monitoring or sampling effort at sea.

Recorded bycatch of marine mammals, seabirds, sea turtles, and fish species of bycatch interest.

Submissions must be made via the ICES data portal using a specific Excel template converted to XML format (direct submissions via automatic Excel conversion are not accepted).