Cormorants and seals' influence on fish stocks in inner Danish waters (113827)

The natural mortality - the mortality incurred due to predation, lack of oxygen, senescence, or disease - has critical influence on the population sizes in the ocean. Despite the critical role natural mortality plays in understanding population dynamics, and in extension also the efficiency of fisheries management, we are still lacking essential knowledge on it's dynamics.  It is important to get a precise understanding of which factors have the highest contributions to natural mortality. In particular cormorants and marine mammals have a diet consisting primarily of fish, but at the population level there is no overview of the impact this predatory consumption has on fish populations in inner Danish waters. 

In this project we collect the existing expertise on cormorants and marine mammals (including feeding preference and abundance), and perform an analysis of the impact their predation has on the status and fishery of stocks in inner Danish waters. 

Funding

The project is co-funded by the European Union through the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Programme (EMFAF).

Research area: Ecosystem based Marine Management
Research area: Freshwater Fisheries and Ecology

Research area: Marine Populations and Ecosystem Dynamics