Acronym QUAESITUM
Category
Fisheries
Title Quantifying Environmental and Social Interactions for Tuna fisheries Management Programme FP7
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
FP7 - Intra-European Fellowships (IEF)
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
PEOPLE – Marie Curie Actions
Specific Programme (FP7)
People
Funding source European Coordinator Christine Courillon Coordinator email Christine.Courillon@ulb.ac.be
Coordinator institution
ULB - Universite Libre De Bruxelles (Belgium)
Institutions involved
NA
Start year 2012 End year 2014 Funding (€) € 169,800 Website https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/299519 Summary Despite the social and economic importance of fisheries, quantitative approaches capable of predicting the spatial distributions of different fish species and their variations with respect to human activities are still missing. The scientific community has reacted with interest to recent new proposals for an ecosystem-based fisheries management approach. This approach requires answers on fundamental questions of fish behaviour with regard to species population and environmental stimuli, as well as interactions among different fish species. This project will address some of these questions, and aims to quantify the effects of environmental and population interactions on the spatial distribution of tuna, an important issue for fisheries management due to the overexploitation of this species. We will base our analysis on acoustic data collected around Fish Aggregation Devices (FADs), a fishing gear employed worldwide in tuna fisheries. We will consider the role played by both intra- and inter-specific interactions to the tuna spatial distribution around FADs. This will require the development of dedicated analytical and modelling tools, capable of deducing social interactions from the experimental data. A multi-and inter-disciplinary approach will be adopted, based on knowledge on animal behaviour, fisheries science, statistical physics and modelling. This project will allow answering fundamental questions on gregarious fish behaviour in the presence of spatial heterogeneities. It will contribute to creating a quantitative approach for fisheries management. The Unit of Social Ecology offers strong expertise in animal behaviour and ecology, regarding the analysis of both social interactions and responses to environmental heterogeneities. It regularly produces cutting-edge research on collective animal behaviour, both at the modelling and experimental level. This combination is unique and perfectly matched to the proposed project.
Keywords
Population dynamic;
Fish aggregating device;
Fish biology;
Tuna;
Fish;
Marine Region
76
Not associated to marine areas
0
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