Ecosystem-based spatial high-resolution tools for marine fisheries management (113676)

The aim of this project is to ensure long-term socio-economic sustainability in the Danish fisheries. To achieve this, the Danish fisheries must adapt to Ecosystem based Fisheries Management, contained within the EU CFP, while complying to the environmental targets defined by the EU nature policies (i.e., the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), Natura 2000 directives Habitats Directive (HD) and Birds Directive (BD), the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 (BDS2030), the proposed Nature Restoration Law (NRL), and the Directive of Maritime Spatial Planning (DMSP) in its national implementation in Denmark's Maritime Spatial Plan. Within this project fisheries management scenarios are developed in dialog with managers and stakeholders in a Dialogue Forum, to evaluate the consequences of management measures for both the fisheries and the environment. This will directly inform the process of legal implementation of national and international policies.

Towards this aim, this project focuses on the Skagerrak and Kattegat basins, which are both included in the MSFD Marine Reporting Unit (MRU) the Greater North Sea, and: i), develop high-resolution Benthic Broad Habitat Types (BBHTs) and geophysical map of the seabed substrates, ii), analyze and map the impacts of all individual mobile bottom-contacting gear types on the seabed habitats, as well as their environmental and climate-related impacts; iii), analyze and map the status of benthic habitat biodiversity and ecosystem functioning and quantify the causal relations to impacts from mobile bottom-contacting gears; iv), identify distribution and connectivity of sensitive seabed habitats (OSPAR) and of fish and essential habitats; v), quantify by-catch of fish and PETS; vi), analyze the fisheries resources and socio-economic effects and value chains of all fishing cultures operating in the areas; vii), assess sustainability and ecosystem based trade-offs between fish distribution, socio-economic values, and fisheries impacts on the environment and state of MSFD Benthic Broad Habitat Types (BHTs), and viii), facilitate a Dialogue Forum for develop of scenario based solutions in collaboration with managers and stakeholders.

This project contributes to the Action Area 1 Knowledge for application in fisheries management, and we expect the following results and effects: i), habitat mapping that will feed directly in the update of the EMODnet international seabed map of for European waters, EUSeaMap version 2025; ii), collaboration with commercial fishers in this project that will test integration of the new high-resolution benthic habitat maps into the SODENA navigation system to improve fishing accuracy while reducing the impact on the seabed structures; iii), habitat maps that can be used by managers in determining spatial allocation for areal protection (MPAs) and the MSFD D6 assessment of Good Environmental State (GES); iv), high-resolution maps of spatial pressure, fish distribution, sensitive habitats and species distribution and unwanted by-catch, as well as of core fishing grounds that are essential for trade-offs modelling, together with the improved knowledge based on the socio-economic structures of coastal and offshore fishing cultures. The trade-off modelling and evaluated fishing management scenarios will be valuable in the process of legal implementation of national and international policies; v), close collaboration with national managers and stakeholders is intended to close the gap between science and policy making, while encouraging compliance from stakeholders. The scenario outputs are designed to feed directly into the further development of the ecosystem-based management of the CFP and Denmark's Marine Spatial Plan; vi), Internationally, the data extraction and aggregation, and results from statistical analyses, developed indicators and developed models, and trade-offs models, as well as the experience gained from discussions with the Dialog Forum of managers, stakeholders and scientists, are communicated directly to ICES through the working groups WGFBIT and WGSAM.

The information generated in this project will, thus, provide input to trade-offs modelling of contentious issues and evaluation of potential ecosystem based management scenarios that maximize the resource use to restore and maintain healthy fish stocks, while at the same time minimizes the fisheries' impacts on the marine ecosystems towards their protection and restoration to achieve and uphold good environmental state (GES) of seabed habitats and ecosystem structure and functioning. Moreover, results from this project are exchanged directly with the international EU projects SEAwise and MARHAB, and knowledge and results from these two projects will be embedded in the fish and habitat distribution models, and trade-offs scenario models that are developed in this project.

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

Research area: Ecosystem based Marine ManagementResearch area: Marine Populations and Ecosystem Dynamics
Research area: Fisheries Technology
Research area: Marine Habitats
Research area: Marine Living Resources