In fast-paced fishing environments, fishers need to be able to quickly identify any species they accidentally capture in their gear – something that can be challenging in practice.
To help fishers identify the species they encounter while they are working, many identification (ID) guides have been produced across Europe by government ministries, scientists, environmental organisations, and others. While these guides vary in design, style, and language, they typically contain photographs or drawings of the species, labels noting distinct features, and any reporting requirements that apply to the country (or countries) for which the guide has been produced.
However, a desk-based review by CIBBRiNA last year found that despite the number of guides available online, there are still gaps – in terms of languages and species coverage, and accessibility of the information. Within CIBBRiNA, we saw an opportunity to help address this, as part of our two work themes on fisheries perspective and stakeholder engagement, and education and communication.
We didn’t want to duplicate the extensive work already done by the developers of the existing ID guides. But we did want to help increase the accessibility of existing identification resources in terms of languages spoken by fishers. So, we took the Clean Catch Wildlife ID Guide (2024) and – with the permission of the guide’s owner, Cefas – removed information about UK reporting regulations (as these don’t apply to fishers elsewhere in Europe). We also added a series of tables providing translations of the common names of a wide variety of ETP species found in the Northeast Atlantic into the following languages:
- French
- Spanish
- Portuguese (Continental and Madeira)
- Dutch
- German
- Polish
- Danish
You can find and download the CIBBRiNA version of the Clean Catch Wildlife ID Guide here.
We’d love to know what you think about the guide, and any thoughts you have about further improving the coverage and accessibility of identification and safe handling guides – you can contact us about this at CIBBRiNA@minlnv.nl. We’re also keen to explore with fishers how we could improve the accessibility and usefulness of advice on how they can safely handle and release live animals, so keep an eye out for future updates!