ICES journey to integrated advice for ecosystem based management

Presented at the 2024 ICES annual science conference. ICES through its advisory committee ACOM has a long track record of providing management advice on sustainable fisheries. Guided by the 10 advisory principles, frameworks, and guidelines ACOM produces management advice on over 250 fish stocks. Over the last decade there has been a trend towards ecosystem services and effects advice on issues such as Endangered Threatened and Protected (ETP) by-catch, Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (VMEs), conservation advice, innovative fishing gears, benthic impacts and trade-offs, and spatial management. In parallel, there have been several major challenges including quality assurance, data governance, data integration, data limited approaches, spatial scale issues, incorporating socio-economic dimensions, estimating risk and implementing the precautionary approach. Currently, the triple challenge of climate change, biodiversity loss, and safe and sustainable seafood production necessitates new approaches to reconcile sometimes conflicting management objectives at multiple scales. This new reality requires increasingly integrated advisory products and services to support a new range of management and policy support demands as Ecosystem Based Management (EBM) becomes a reality. Ecosystem, fisheries, and aquaculture overviews are a first step towards contextualising the status, pressures, and trends at an ecoregion level scale. This presentation will focus on the key learnings for the last decade of integrated advice development in ICES. The future opportunities and directions for next generation of integrated advice to support EBM will be also discussed.

1. The ICES journey towards
integrated advice to support EBM
Colm Lordan Advisory Committee Chair
Co-authors: Mark Dickey-Collas, Lotte Worsøe Clausen, Dorleta Garcia,
Simon Jennings, Henn Ojaveer, Joanne Morgan

2. …by employing the knowledge of ICES to effectively
meet the societal needs for impartial evidence, and
to generate state-of-the-art advice on meeting
conservation, management and sustainability goals.
Mission & Vision

3. Advice published 2023
https://www.ices.dk/advice/
Key requesters of advice
Fishing opportunities
198
Special requests
17
Overviews +
guides
6
Technical
services
7

4. ICES. 2023. Guide to ICES advisory framework and principles. In Report of the ICES Advisory Committee, 2023.
ICES Advice 2023, section 1.1. https://doi.org/10.17895/ices.advice.22116890
Integrative Elements
Guidelines for ICES groups
Code of ethics and professional conduct
Data Policy
Data calls
Best practice guidelines for Data Management
Guidelines for advice drafting groups(ADGs)
Stakeholder engagement strategy
ICES Guidelines on the ​​formulation of advice requests​
Transparent Assessment Framework
Definition and rationalefor ICES ecoregions
ICES Guidelines for Benchmarks​
ICES Aquaculture Overviews Technical Guidelines​
ICES Ecosystem​Overviews Technical Guidelines​
ICES fisheries management reference points for category 1 and
2 stocks​
ICES fisheries overviews Technical Guidelines​
AdviceXplorer

5. Integrated Advice for EBM
2. Impact of fisheries &
aquaculture on the
ecosystem
1. Influence of a
dynamic ecosystem
on fisheries
3. Put fisheries into context
of other maritime activities
& pressures
https://www.ices.dk/community/advisory-process/Pages/fisheries-overviews.aspx
https://www.ices.dk/community/advisory-process/Pages/Ecosystem-overviews.aspx
Aquaculture &

6. Introduction
of non-indigenous
species
from shipping
mainly through
ballast water and
hull fouling
53%
18%
Energy transition
Pressures from oil and
gas are expected to
decline as pressures
renewable energy
production are
expected to increase.
Most commercial stock
managed at levels
consistent with
achiev ing maximum
sustainable y ield (MSY).
Seabird abundance
appears to be declining.
Changes in migration
patterns, reductions
in breeding success,
and lower surv ival are
possible causes.
Two main seal species
— grey seal and harbour
seal — have increased
in numbers from an all-
time low in the 1970s.
Eutrophication
has reduceddue to
measures to reduce
nutrient input from
rivers.
Seabed litter
is widespread and
increasing. The most
common items are plastic
sheets, synthetic ropes,
lines, and plastic bags.
Fishingcontinues
to be the main
activ ity impacting
ecosystem health,
despite a decline in
decades.
State of the ecosystem
bottom-towed gears
Reduction of the extraction
Reduction of the disturbance
of seabed habitats
Shif t towards less
such as gillnets
Increased bycatch risk of
seabirds and marine mammals
Regional importance in
terms of employ ment
Oil and gas industries
remain one of the main
activ ities impacting
the marine ecosystem,
primarily through
contaminant pressure.
Environmental and
socio-economic
context
Increased fuel
prices lead to:
Climate change
An increase in sea
surface temperature
in the southern North
Sea of between 1 and
2 degrees compared to
the 1951–1980 average
temperature.
This has changed the
spatial distribution of
species within the
ecoregion. This trend is
likely to continue.
of value landed
10%
Full-tim e em ployment
18%
Revenue
11%
from aquaculture
Fishing related
phy sical disturbance of
the seabed is the main
pressure resulting in
an overall decrease in
invertebrate biomass.
There is a decrease of
20–90%
areas, depending on
how heav ily the area is
Grey Seals
Seabirds
Scot land
France
Germany
Net herlands
Belgium
Norway
Sweden
Denmark
Nort h Sea
Wales
England
Invertebrate
benthic
biomass
Stock
species
ECOSYSTEM OVERVIEW 2022
GREATER
NORTH SEA

7. Fishing gears
used in the area
Species caught in the ecoregion
Landings by species
in 1950–2020
Who is
FISHERIES OVERVIEW 2022
BAY OF BISCAY
AND IBERIAN COAST
Countries with the
largest landings:
Spain, Portugal,
and France
Countries with minor landings:
Th e Netherlands, Ireland,
Belgium, and UK
Mi dwater trawlstake
the highest landings in
the area and target blue
whiting and mackerel.
Bottom trawlsare the
most common gear used
in the area and targets
demersal species.
This ecoregion
includes areas of
the deeper eastern
Atlantic Ocean, as
well as coastal areas
from Brittany in the
north to the Iberian
Peninsula and Gulf of
Cadiz in the south.
ICES provided
advice in 2022
on 73 stocks
Bay of
Biscay
Gulf of
Cadiz
Spain
France
7
countries
currently have
the many marine
stocks within the
ecoregion.
26
Elasmobranch11
Pelagic
10
Benthic6
Crustacean20
Demersal
Sardine gives the highest
proportion of the total landings
followed by blue jack mackerel
and horse mackerel.
Sardine landings show
a decreasing trend
since the 1980s.
Blue jack mackerel
Horse mackerel
Pelagic
species
Demersal
species
Deep-sea
species
Elasmobranch
species
Ecosystem Biomass removal
Abrasion
Damage to benthic
fauna
Bycatch of
marine mammals,
elasmobranchs, and
seabirds

8. Aquaculture practices
and species cultured
within the Celtic Seas
ecoregion are varied
and consist of a range
production practices.
Main aquaculture
species
Primary
environmental
interactions
relating to habitats
and species
Recommendations
for sustainable
aquaculture grow th
Considerations
for future aquaculture
development and
management
AQUACULTURE OVERVIEW 2022
49%
34%
CELTIC SEAS
ECOREGION
Other important
environmental interactions
Main threats to
wild salmon populations
Average price
changes for
cultured taxa in
the last decade
Share of total European
aquaculture production
within the Celtic Seas
ecoregion in 2018
Mussel prices
decreased by
Largely produced
in Scotland
Relatively small
production
volumes
Dominates in number of
licensed sites and enterprises
increased by
Disease transmissions,
emissions of dissolved
nutrients, pollutants,
particulate organic matter,
and therapeutants
Sea lice and genetic
introgression from
farmed salmon
Promoting innov ative
production technologies
to reduce environmental
impacts
Policy
and legal
foundation
21%
by volume
Interactions
with other human
activitiessuch as
recreation/tourism,
and the designation of
marine protected areas.
Climate change
hampers sustainable
growth and existing
capacity for
aquaculture
in the ecoregion and
alters interactions with
other sectors.
34%
by value
Application
of diver se and
innovative delousing
techniques
Developm ent
aquaculture
Expansion
of seaweed
aquaculture
of existing
culture system s
Ireland
Nort hern
Ireland
Scot land
Celt ic Seas
England
Wales
species
Aquaculture
production requires
licences and is
regulated. but
aquaculture policy
the ecoregion.
Atlantic salmon
>34%
total production
by volume
Invertebrates
and seaweeds

9. Key learnings for the last decade of integrated advice
Data QA, QC, Governance,
pipelines & infrastructure
Building understanding with
requesters and stakeholders
Planning and Resourcing
Process
Develop, improve - >
Benchmark

10. Emerging Advice Needs
Climate
change
Sustainable
Seafood
Biodiversity
Crisis
Ecosystem Based Management
Precautionary
Approach

11. •Thank you
Colm Lordan, Mark Dickey-Collas, Lotte Worsøe Clausen, Dorleta
Garcia, Simon Jennings, Henn Ojaveer, Joanne Morgan
Keywords
integrated advice, EBM, fisheries, ecosystems, sustainability,
management objectives
Many Thanks to ACOM and all the
experts who contribute to ICES
advice