Final Report of the Working Group on Ecosystem Assessment of Western European shelf Seas (WGEAWESS)
The WGEAWESS meeting was held in Belfast, Northern Ireland (UK), on 14–18 March 2016, with nine participants from five countries. The meeting was chaired by Steven Beggs (UK (NI)) and Eider Andonegi (Spain (Basque Country)). This was the final year of the ongoing three-year terms of reference during...
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| Tipo de recurso: | otro |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2016 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/318933 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/318933 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Centro Oceanográfico de Cádiz Medio Marino EBFM IEA WGEAWESS ICES |
| Sumario: | The WGEAWESS meeting was held in Belfast, Northern Ireland (UK), on 14–18 March 2016, with nine participants from five countries. The meeting was chaired by Steven Beggs (UK (NI)) and Eider Andonegi (Spain (Basque Country)). This was the final year of the ongoing three-year terms of reference during which the group have had three meetings and one by correspondence in 2014. During the three-year period, the group has made good progress in all ToRs. The initial activity of the group has included the cataloguing and identification of datasets that would be potentially valuable in an IEA. As well as environmental data the identification of the main sector/human activity linkages to pressures imposed on the region have been identified through the ODEMM1 linkage framework. This has been developed for a number of regions and subregions. Using datasets identified by the group integrated trend Analysis (ITA) has been developed for a number of subregions. This approach depends on suitable time-series has been useful in identifying and exploring ecosystem states and trends, while revealing biotic and abiotic drivers, such as fishing and climate. During the current three-year term, the group has been active in both collaborating with related ecosystem groups and providing advice to other activity in ICES. The work of the group has contributed significantly to the development of the ICES Celtic Seas and Bay of Biscay and Iberian Seas ecosystem overviews, published in 2016. The group have also contributed to the efforts of the Benchmark Workshop on the impact of ecosystem and environmental drivers on Irish Sea fisheries management (WKIRISH) initiative. In 2013, the group met back-to-back with the Working Group on Integrated Assessments of the North Sea (WGINOSE) in Lisbon, Portugal, while in 2015, the group met back-to-back with the ICES/HELCOM Working Group on Integrated Assessments of the Baltic Sea (WGIAB) in Cádiz, Spain. The work of the group was also presented at the ICES ASC in A Coruña, Spain, 2014. This is the last of our first three-year Terms of Reference period, and the meeting was hosted by AFBI in Belfast, making good progress for each of the ToRs defined. For the final meeting a review of the ToRs was made. An implementation of the Options for Delivering Ecosystem-Based Marine Management (ODEMM) framework was presented for the Irish Sea as a nested example of the previously developed Celtic Seas Ecoregion (ToR a). The process highlighted the impact of scale on the emerging key components and pressures identified by the ODEMM approach, while also demonstrating the flexibility as a tool for identify linkages and pressures in other ecosystem regions. As with the regional level Celtic Sea analysis, the Irish Sea specific ODEMM analysis identified species extraction and bycatch as the main pressures across all ecosystem components. The human activity most associated with these pressures was fishing and in particular bottom fishing. This preliminary analysis is particularly relevant to the WKIrish group, and may be applied in similar regional and case study format to other areas of the Western Shelf Seas area. Recent developments from the ODEMM project were presented, such as linking the risk assessment to potential management options, ecosystem services and valuation of those services, and discussion ensued as to their relevance and potential use and application in future WGEAWESS IEAs. For further development of the ODEMM framework, a clear interaction need has been identified with economist, social scientist, and stakeholders, and with researchers dealing with ecosystem services, such as the members of the ICES Working Group on Resilience and Marine Ecosystem Services (WGRMES). Integrated Trend Analyses were further developed and presented during the 2016 meeting and results from these are reported in ToR b. The ITA work presented for the Irish Sea is in also related to the activity carried out for WKIrish. The group completed a review of the Ecosystem Overviews (EOs) recently published by ICES for Celtic Sea Ecoregion and the Bay of Biscay and the Iberian coast Ecoregion. The past work of the WGEAWESS group has contributed extensively to these overviews, which are considered living documents. Recommendations for adjustments to the present content were made. Additionally two developing IEAs were presented: one in the Gulf of Cadiz and the other one in the Bay of Biscay, both aiming at progressing towards the implementation of the Ecosystem-based Fisheries Management in these subregions. The project of the Gulf of Cadiz is focused on the Guadalquivir estuary, an important nursery area for many species including anchovy. The estuary is subject to human pressures including intensive agriculture and aquaculture. The analysis is exploring how these pressures affect the local anchovy nursery area that is located in the river mouth. Knowledge and support from marine, social scientists, and stakeholders is paramount to the successful delivery of the project. Finally, during the meeting the group discussed the new ToRs for the next 3-year-period. The group will continue working with the following groups and will also establish relationships with the stock assessment groups in the area. • Workshop on the impact of ecosystem and environmental drivers on Irish Sea fisheries management (WKIrish); • Working Group on Resilience and Marine Ecosystem Services (WGRMES); • Working Group on Multispecies Assessment Methods (WGSAM); • Working Group on the Ecosystem Effects of Fishing Activities (WGECO); • Other IEA ICES groups like the ACOM/SCICOM Workshop on Integrated Ecosystem Assessment Methods (WKIDEA). |
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