The rationale for heterogeneous inclusion of ecosystem trends and variability in ICES fishing opportunities advice

• Published in: Marine Ecology Progress Series
• Main Authors: Trenkel, Verena M., Ojaveer, Henn, Miller, David C. M., Dickey-Collas, Mark
• Other Authors: Dynamique et durabilité des écosystèmes : de la source à l’océan (DECOD), Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro)-Institut Agro Rennes Angers, Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro), International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, Partenaires INRAE, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet = Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Pärnu College, University of Tartu
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2023
• Subjects: Ecosystem-based fisheries management; ICES advice; Productivity change; Stock assessment; Forecast; Management strategy evaluation; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; Northeast Atlantic
• Online Access: https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04150704; https://doi.org/10.3354/meps14227

International audience Incorporation of ecosystem information into fish stock assessments and management advice, a cornerstone of delivering ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM), occurs often implicitly, faces multiple challenges, and remains often unquantified in terms of scope and scale. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the inclusion of ecosystem trends and variability in ICES fishing opportunities advice in the Northeast Atlantic, by covering 87% of stocks corresponding to 99% of landings. Just under 50% of all stock assessments considered ecosystem information and the majority of management strategy evaluations did so in at least one way. Almost 73% of the data-rich stocks incorporated ecosystem trends and variability in at least one way, and almost 55% of short-term forecasts did so. Stock (individual growth rate) and fisheries (landings) characteristics largely explained the observed patterns of incorporation of ecosystem information into advice, with pelagic species and stocks with higher landings having higher instances of incorporation. Early stages of the advice process (closer to data analysis and methods development) had greater inclusion of ecosystem information, though this inclusion was generally implicit and not explicit, e.g. based on a hypothesis of environmental influence on stock dynamics. Moving towards explicit instructions and routine documentation of the inclusion of ecosystem information in fishing opportunities advice will accelerate the path to the EBFM in a consistent and transparent manner.