North Sea resource distribution and fishery opportunities (39710/102588)

The purpose of the project is to improve management of valuable Danish fishery resources in the North Sea by describing large and fine-scale variation determining the fishing opportunities and caused by physical-biological environmental factors and fisheries dynamics.

This project evaluates long-term trends and changes in geographical distribution and small scale, short-term spatiotemporal variability in fish stock abundance patterns by applying an advanced statistical analysis and modelling framework. This covers 1) high-resolution integration of combined fisheries and research survey data; 2) estimating correlations to high-resolution environmental factors including hydrographical, physical habitats and biological benthic community data; 3) integrating with high-resolution fisheries dynamics in a broader fisheries management evaluation framework for benchmarking fishing opportunities and scenarios constrained by ecological sustainable and economic efficient use of marine living resources.

Taking the estimated changes in resource distribution into consideration, the project will be built upon the knowledge and existing tools developed during EMFF MSPTOOLS, EU COFASP ECOAST and EU-FP7 BENTHIS to apply specifically to North Sea fisheries and management and will support the implementation of a sustainable CFP and a sustainable blue economy strategy in North Sea waters. The evaluation framework and the North Sea implementation will directly support the implementation of the CFP by measuring the past and current natural and fishing pressures on important Danish fisheries resources and on by-catch stocks, as well as on the different MSFD relevant benthic habitats.

The project will integrate knowledge and dynamics on key factors determining and regulating the occurrence and distribution of many important fish stocks in the North Sea ecosystem, and the implications for change in fisheries economic incomes of both on offshore and coastal fisheries. We expect to improve the coherence in a shared framework for analyzing how data and methods are applied in with outcomes presented to 3 conferences/expert groups, and disseminated internationally through a closing workshop.

The project is a frontrunner applying spatial approaches to fisheries management and to frame fisheries bio-economic assessment contributing to DTU Aqua's strong interdisciplinary and international networks for ensuring an effective implementation to policy.

Funding
The project is funded by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) and Danish Fisheries Agency.

Research area: Fisheries Management
Research area: Marine Living Resources