Project: Developing fisheries management indicators and targets
Successfully achieving the economically optimal level of exploitation of a fisheries system is strongly influenced by a range of factors including the current status of the fish stocks; the influence of environmental variability (e.g. climate change); interactions with the wider ecosystem; the effects of fishing on the non-target elements of the natural fish community; and the economic nature of fishermen’s responses to management. Proposed management strategies should therefore be robust to the uncertainty introduced by all these factors. The effectiveness of a management strategy is strongly dependent upon the identification and use of appropriate targets and indicators. Fisheries management should ensure that exploitation of resources provides economic, environmental and social conditions that are sustainable. It is in this context that fisheries indicators are being developed and used. In particular, it is also necessary to consider the impacts on non-target and susceptible fish species to ensure that the level of exploitation is sustainable. The project aims to produce the tools needed to determine the economically optimal level of exploitation of European ecosystems under changing climatic conditions. Operational models of fish stock dynamics under change are being developed and combined with economic models to help predict the effort required to reach optimal yield. Using case studies in the Aegean Sea, the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea, the project will combine economic, social and biological indicators to produce resource indicators that can be used by managers in developing long-term management plans.
| Acronym | DEFINELT |
| Network | MariFish |
| Call | First MariFish Joint Call |
Project partner
| Number | Name | Role | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences | United Kingdom | ||
| Hellenic Centre for Marine Research | Greece | ||
| Institute for Marine Research | Norway | ||
| Marine Research Institute | Iceland | ||
| Technical University of DK - National Institute of Aquatic Resources | Coordinator | Denmark | |
| Wageningen University & Research - Wageningen Marine Research | Netherlands |