Acronym NA
Category
Fisheries
Title Indicator-based assessment of commercial North Sea fish stocks according to MSFD Descriptor 3 Programme National Programme
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source National Coordinator Nikolaus Probst Coordinator email nikolaus.probst@ti.bund.de
Coordinator institution
TI SF - Thünen-Institute of Sea Fisheries (Germany)
Institutions involved
Thünen Institute - Thunen Institute, Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries (Germany) ,
Start year 2011 End year 2013 Funding (€) € NA Website NA Summary The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is structured into eleven descriptors of good environmental status (GES). For each descriptor the current status of the marine environment should be assessed against its GES using ecosystem criteria and indicators. Within Descriptor 3 (D3) the MSFD addresses the status of exploited fish stocks according to three criteria (exploitation rate, stock size and size structure). This study performed an MSFD-compliant assessment of exploited fish stocks in the North Sea by aggregating data from analytical stock assessments and scientific research surveys to calculate indicator metrics for each criterion within each stock time-series. A stock achieved GES, when each indicator for each criterion had a good status. Of 43 assessed fish stock suggested by the EU Data Collection Framework, 63% (27) achieved GES. Though the MSFD explicitly demands that all exploited fish stocks achieve GES, this demand may be challenged by reality, because the status of exploited stocks depends not only on fishing impacts, but also on environmental conditions and ecological interactions. Therefore an alternative approach based on binomial distributions is presented to define limits for GES at the descriptor level. The implications and pitfalls of the applied assessment methods are discussed.
Keywords
Fish stocks;
Indicators;
Stock assessment;
Marine Region
5
Southern North Sea (27.IVc)
13
Northern North Sea (27.IVa)
6
Central North Sea (27.IVb)
3
Marine Region Map
