Teil C - Annex 
49 
Process instruction for treatment of fishing hauls 
Treatment of catches and sampling 
Wherever possible, the entire catch must be treated. Determination of species is to be based 
on the lowest possible taxonomic classification. At least two of the following classification 
standards must be used: 
• Muus & Nielsen (1999). 
• Wheeler (1969). 
• Wheeler (1978). 
• Whitehead et al. (1986). 
The Wheeler/Whitehead publications are no longer in print, but are available second-hand. 
Publications by Muus/Dahlstrom must not be used as they are taxonomically outdated and 
incomplete. 
When transmitting data, uniform scientific and German species names must be applied. The 
validity of species names must be reconciled with the Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer 2012) 
under http://research.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatmain.asp. 
In the event of larger catches, which cannot be treated within a reasonable period of time, 
species or size categories of species that are available in sufficient numbers may be identified 
for taking representative sub-samples. Rare species or size categories must be separated 
from the catch. If a catch could not be fully treated, it must be accordingly marked in the data 
prior to transmission. The respective weight of the total catch, of the total catch of one species 
or size category and of the sub-samples per species or size category must always be docu 
mented. 
Handling of problematic taxa 
The members of some genera and families are difficult to classify down to species level. Usu 
ally, it is sufficient to refer to additional, general classification literature (see above). However, 
in individual cases, specialist literature/expert knowledge should be consulted. The classifica 
tion level detail must be uniform for all required surveys. 
Overview of problematic taxa: 
Lampreys - Petromyzontiformes 
The lamprey species occurring in marine habitats are the European river lamprey 
(Lampetra fluviatilis) and the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus). Both species are 
named in Annex 4 of the FFH Habitats Directive and in the Red List (Freyhoff 2009) 
under conservation status 3 (endangered, Lampetra fluviatilis) and V (vulnerable, 
Petromyzon marinus). The species are easy to confuse. The most important distin 
guishing characteristic is the teeth of the mouthpart (Muus & Nielsen 1999). 
Cartilaginous fish - Chondrichthyes 
The basis is the identification key for cartilaginous fish of the North Atlantic (Ebert & 
Stehmann 2012).