Marine

ICES publishes advice on fishing opportunities in 2016

July 20, 2015 by Marine Directorate Communications No Comments | Category Marine News from other Organisations

Last week, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) issued advice on fishing opportunities in 2016 for southern horse mackerel, anchovy, and sardine stocks in the Northeast Atlantic. ICES has now issued advice for more than 150 stocks this year.

Together with this advice release, ICES has published a supplementary document that presents the context of, and approach to, advice in an understandable and transparent way. This document comprises a general introduction to ICES advice and will be followed by a set of more technical guidelines later this year.

The updated introduction outlines the international agreements and policies that form the background of the advice before explaining the advisory products and processes, the ecosystem and precautionary approaches, catch advice and fishing opportunities, as well as providing information on the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) rule.

Chair of ICES Advisory Committee (ACOM), Eskild Kirkegaard explains the importance of the new introduction, “ICES produces advice that is based on the best available scientific knowledge and is characterized as unbiased and politically neutral. To fully understand the advice, it is important that the reader knows the context under which it has been developed. The introduction which we have issued today gives this context and explains the approaches used in the advisory process. It is my hope that it will serve its purpose and make the process even more transparent.”

The new addition to the advice follows on from adjustments made earlier in the year to the format of recurrent advice deliverables – ecosystem, fisheries, and fish stock – for each of the Northeast Atlantic ecoregions.

The latest advice can be found on the ICES website.

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