The first diagram shows the 1988-97 trend in fishing effort using bottom trawl. The diagram shows that the effort was fairly constant in 1988-92 and that it has been decreasing since. Cod is the major targeted stock in the groundfish fisheries and in the period 1988-95 the annual cod landings were decreasing. Since 1996, the annual cod catch has increased significantly year by year. The system of individual transferable quotas for each vessel is likely to be one of the main causative factors for the reduction in effort since 1992 whilst a more effort based system would most likely have resulted in increased effort during the same period.
Similar considerations apply to longlining.
The effort in the groundfish fisheries increased until 1992 but has decreased markedly since, as shown in the following diagram. Gillnetting in the cod fishery was much more common in the early 80s than it is now and fishing by gillnets has continued to decrease in recent years. This is shown in the following diagram. Effort in the groundfish fisheries Fishing by gillnets Groundfish effort by Danish seine has been increasing in recent years as shown in the following diagram, although, in fact, the main increase occurred in 1983-1988. It is likely that increased fishing effort for flatfish has been the main reason for this development.