Marine Beacon has featured alongside its sister project CIBBRiNA in June’s edition of the Rederscentrale newsletter, a Dutch-language publication with extensive distribution within the Belgian fishery fleet. The Belgian fisheries representative organisation Rederscentrale is a major information broker between the Belgian fisheries sector and various authorities, with a vision that focuses on innovation and sustainability while minimising environmental impact and fuel consumption.
In their July 2024 issue the article “Ongewenste bijvangst” (Unwanted bycatch) introduced the overall goals of the projects Marine Beacon and CIBBRiNA, noting that both seek to reduce unwanted bycatch of vulnerable species in European fisheries through the development of new tools and programmes while also promoting healthy, bio-diverse ecosystems. The article highlighted project partner EV ILVO’s role in analysing a time series of bycatch registrations to better map the distribution of species and potential incidents with fishing activities as well as the further development of an app-based catch registry previously tested in the Netherlands.
As noted in the publication, both Marine Beacon and CIBBRiNA are working in close collaboration with fisheries representatives, policy makers, conservationists and others to design and implement effective strategies for tackling the bycatch problem, with workshops, training courses and further open-dialogue events expected over the coming years from both projects.
The article can be found at the Rederscentrale website https://rederscentrale.be/infoblad/ or downloaded directly here.