Analyse des flottilles du sud du golfe de Gascogne, de 1986 à 2002 – De Noirmoutier à Bayonne. Description et évolution des composantes de pêche

This document presents a comparative assessment of six triennal analysis carried out between 1986 and 2002, on 1300 boats, on average, from the 35 ports of Southern Bay of Biscay fishing fleets (from Loire river to Spanish border). Fisheries statistics allow the identification of different fishing practices and fishing boats associated with them within the fleets. In order to allow comparison and analysis of the evolution that has taken place during the study period, the same variables (gears used, landed species) and multivariate analysis procedures have been used to produce groupings of vessels. Over the period, 11 components, on average, have been identified, grouped in two entities, mobile and fixed gears. If the discriminative characteristics (gears, species, vessels characteristics) of each component described are globally stable over the study period, behaviours of boats belonging to one or the other groups are far from being stable. Depending on the attraction of the target species and the gears needed for their capture, boats have been found to move from one component to another. Main species important for vessels flux are common sole, glass eel and cuttlefish. From this study, it is possible to conclude that the inshore polyvalent boats have been the most able to support the modifications undergone by the fishery over this ten year period. Among the whole of the components, gillneters have registered the strongest progression.