SEAwise report on the effects of fishing on food webs and community diversity aimed at populating the MSFD Descriptor 4 and based on food web and end-to-end modelling. ...

• Main Authors: Thorpe, Robert, Lynam, Chris, Thompson, Murray, van de Wolfshaar, Karen, Püts, Miriam, Corrales, Xavier, Romagnoni, Giovanni, Tsagarakis, Konstantinos, Potier, Mikaëla, Papantoniou, Georgia, Halouani, Ghassen, Heath, Michael, Kempf, Alexander, Taylor, Marc, Jacobsen, Nis Sand
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Technical University of Denmark 2024
• Subjects: Environmental assessment and monitoring; Natural resource management; Northeast Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.11583/dtu.25158746; https://data.dtu.dk/articles/online_resource/SEAwise_report_on_the_effects_of_fishing_on_food_webs_and_community_diversity_aimed_at_populating_the_MSFD_Descriptor_4_and_based_on_food_web_and_end-to-end_modelling_/25158746

The SEAwise project works to deliver a fully operational tool that will allow fishers, managers, and policy makers to easily apply Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM) in their fisheries. This SEAwise report describes work that aims to provide a strong evidence base supporting the use of ecological indicators in fisheries management through statistical studies and end to end modelling. Our aim is to support the use of ecological indicators to guide managers towards strategies that lead to an ecologically safe space for fisheries, which we define as a range of states that provide yields for sustainable fisheries, maintains ecosystem functions and leads to low risk of overexploitation of species and loss of diversity. We show from an analysis of the past, using stock assessment model products for the northeast Atlantic and observations from scientific survey data of the North Sea, that fishing has already impacted ecosystems. Fishing on commercial fish stocks altered the balance of functional groups ...