Maximising yield of fisheries whilst balancing ecosystem, economic and social concerns - Final outputs of the Myfish project now available
The European Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) has made a commitment to direct management of fish stocks towards achieving MSY. However, managing fisheries to obtain MSY in practice is challenging because achieving MSY for an individual stock can hamper the achievement of MSY for other stocks and compromise ecological, environmental, economic, or social aims. The objective of the Myfish project was to address these difficulties. The project concentrated on the five main areas for European fisheries: the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, western waters (Celtic Sea, Irish Sea, Bay of Biscay and Iberian Sea) and widely ranging fish (encompassing the pan-regional pelagic stocks such as tuna and herring). Social aspects were integrated throughout the project by active involvement of stakeholders in the definition and evaluation of MSY variants. The final outputs of the project, including the Myfish Legacy booklet, the third Myfish Newsletter and a Policy Brief are now available to download from the project's website: www.myfishproject.eu The third Myfish project newsletter was intended to inform fisheries managers and stakeholders of the advantages and disadvantages of different options for fisheries management within the framework of MSY. The newsletter summarises updates and project outcomes for the five regional Myfish case-studies. Simplified versions of the Myfish “Decision Support Tables”, which are user-friendly guides to help fisheries stakeholders with making decisions on how much fish can be caught considering economic, ecosystem and social aspects, are also included. The Myfish Policy Brief outlines how the results of the project are relevant to fisheries management, which challenges have been solved and which challenges still remain. This document was presented to fisheries policy stakeholders at the Myfish Policy Information Meeting on 25 February 2016, where the use of the results obtained in the project were discussed. The Myfish Legacy booklet highlights the key outcomes of the project, recommendations made for fisheries management and reflections from stakeholders regarding their experience engaging with the project. Myfish Project Coordinator, Anna Rindorf said: “The Myfish project has been a journey into the unknown, attempting to satisfy the broad range of ecosystem, economic, social and governance objectives while the new CFP was only just entering into force. We have challenged ourselves and the NGO, industry and management stakeholders joining us in the process with high aspirations to provide the scientific advice needed to make relevant, effective and informed policy decisions.” More information about the Myfish project can be found on its website: www.myfishproject.eu. For press queries please contact the Project Coordinator, Anna Rindorf (email: ar@aqua.dtu.dk). Notes for Editors: The Myfish project ran from March 2012 to February 2016 and received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 289257. Myfish involved 31 project partners from 12 EU countries. The Technical University of Denmark Institute of Aquatic Resources (DTU Aqua) was the coordinator of the project, with AquaTT as its dissemination partner. DTU-Aqua provides research, education and advice concerning sustainable exploitation of living marine and fresh water resources. DTU-Aqua conducts research on the interactions between the aquatic environment, productivity and variation in fish stocks, methods for fish stock assessment, development of methods for sustainable fisheries management and stock enhancement. The institute conducts the Danish national monitoring on fish and fisheries for the EU. DTU-Aqua has extensive experience in coordinating and managing scientific programmes, including the coordination of EU framework programmes. Detailed partner profiles are available on request or from www.myfishproject.eu
Keywords
operational framework, MSY, Maximum Sustainable Yield, fish stocks, fisheries management
Countries
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Finland, France, Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, United Kingdom