Targets and limits for long term fisheries management

ICES symposium on “Targets and limits for long term fisheries management” will be held during October 27th to 30th 2015, in Athens, Greece.

The goal of the symposium is to document and synthesise the best quality scientific approaches to management advice and implementation under potentially conflicting objectives. This will be done by facilitating exchange of ideas and the development of new and innovative solutions. The symposium will bring together scientific experts from across the world and in a variety of disciplines, with stakeholders and managers to enable the communication between suppliers and recipients of scientific management advice. The MSY and precautionary frameworks as well as Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management approaches (such as Good Environmental Status under the MSFD) already implemented by ICES have solved some of the initial challenges in implementation.  However, substantial issues remain particularly where objectives are in conflict, such as is the case in mixed fisheries, areas where prey and predators are both exploited, forage fish fisheries, divergence between e.g. MEY and MSY, where ecosystem goals are mutually inconsistent and in the exact implementation of the approaches in management plans.

The symposium will take a global approach to these topics under a series of themes:

• Identifying trade-offs and conflicting objectives, and identifying approaches to inform and resolve these.
• The role of targets and limits in a variable world
• Economically and socially feasible management tools
• Practical implementation of targets and limits in management

Symposium conveners:

Anna Rindorf (Denmark), Cathy Dichmont (Australia), Marta Coll (France), Jim Thorson (USA), Barrie Deas (UK), Niels Hintzen (The Netherlands),Olivier Thebaud (France), Phil Levin (USA), Petter Holm (Norway),Ernesto Penas-Lado (EC)

Keynote Speakers:

Eva Plaganyi (CSIRO), André Punt (University of Washington), Tony Charles (Saint Mary’s University Halifax), Pamela Mace (New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries), Poul Degnbol