Project Coordinator: Anna Rindorf

e-mail: ar@aqua.dtu.dk

Project Manager: Ole Henrik Haslund

e-mail: ohha@aqua.dtu.dk

Technical University of Denmark

National Institute of Aquatic Resources

Charlottenlund Slot Jægersborg Allé 1

2920 Charlottenlund

Denmark

www.aqua.dtu.dk

The initial definitions of MSY variants and constraints by scientists together with stakeholders in WP1 will be followed by stakeholder evaluations – to assure that only models of socially acceptable management measures are recommended. Models capable of describing biological interactions and related uncertainty will be investigated.

In WP2 the impact of different environmental and economic scenarios will be investigated through the use of the Decision Support Tables. Stakeholders will be consulted and provide their recommendations of MSY variants for these Decision Support Tables.

The social impact for individual fisheries is investigated in detail in WP3. This investigation is carried out in close cooperation with stakeholders and will include industry response to identify potential changes in fishing pattern and techniques aimed at avoiding limiting constraints. Information gathered from stakeholders in this work package will feedback into WPs 1 and 2

The results from WP1, 2 and 3 will be synthesised in WP4. Common patterns and guidelines will be drafted.

Knowledge transfer, including dialogue with managers, policy makers and stakeholders, demonstration and promotional activities take place in all workpackages. The tools used to ensure the efficient transfer and uptakes from stakeholders are set in WP5. All work packages will exchange knowledge and tools throughout the life of the project.

WP 1 - DEFINE

WP 2 - EVALUATE

WP 3 - IMPLEMENT

WP 4 - SYNTHETISE

WP 5 - DISSEMINATION

WP 6 - MANAGEMENT

The new Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) aims to provide EU citizens with a long term stable, secure and healthy food supply. To achieve the objective of the CFP the EU fisheries will be managed by multi-annual plans and governed by the ecosystem approach and the precautionary principle. The challenge therefore is to make fishing environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable.

Myfish will contribute to the CFP by defining management measures. The concept of Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) will be extended and integrated with the economic and social components of the society.

Nowadays, there is a lack of common agreement on the interpretation of the "sustainability" and "yield" components of the MSY concept and on the effects that achieving MSY for one stock may have on other stocks and the broader ecosystem, economic system and social system. The MYFISH project will address these ambiguities by evaluating different MSY objectives, conditional on different kinds of constraints (ecosystem, economic, social) and with different kinds of management measures to achieve the objectives.

Myfish aims at developing new MSY indicators that can ensure high levels of fishery yield while respecting ecological, economic and social sustainability thus contributing to achieve the Good Environmental Status (GES) foreseen in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).

Myfish will achieve this objective through addressing fisheries in all RAC (Regional Advisory Council) areas and integrating stakeholders (the fishing industry, NGOs and managers) throughout the project. Existing ecosystem and fisheries models will be modified to perform maximisation of stakeholder approved yield measures while ensuring acceptable impact levels on ecosystem, economic and social aspects. Implementation plans are proposed and social aspects addressed through active involvement of stakeholders.

The project will follow a regional approach with case studies in the Baltic Sea, North Sea, Western Waters, Mediterranean Sea and Wide Ranging stocks.

Title: Maximising yield of fisheries while balancing ecosystem, economic and social concerns

Programme: FP7, Knowledge Based Bio-Economy KBBE

Instrument: Collaborative project

Duration: March 2012 – February 2016

Coordinator: Danmarks Tekniske Universitet – DTU Aqua (Denmark)

Consortium: 31 partners from 12 countries.

MYFISH aims at developing new Maximum Sustainable Yield indicators that can ensure high levels of fishery yield while respecting ecological, economic and social sustainability thus contributing to achieve the Good Environmental Status (GES) foreseen in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).

THE CHALLENGE

The idea of managing fisheries to obtain the largest sustainable yield was formalised in the 1950s. It was mainly applied to single species stock without considering the trade-off between yields of different species. Defining Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY), by taking into account the ecological, economical and social complexity of the fishery EU sector is the current challenge to be addressed to assure an ecosystem based approach to fishery.

PROJECT OBJECTIVE

MYFISH will contribute to the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) by defining management measures.
The concept of MSY will be extended and integrated with the economic and social components of the society.

RESULTS

• Development of new indicators to define MSY merging ecological, economic and social constraints
• Development of an interactive Decision Support Table helping stakeholder to assess the yield released by moving limiting constraints
• Definition of long- term operational management plans
• Transfer of the results and knowledge outputs to the scientific communities and the end-users targeted.