Development of a Decision Support Framework for a Competitive European Seafood Sector

One of the key outcomes of the Horizon 2020 PrimeFish project is the development and delivery of an innovative decision support framework (PrimeDSF) designed for public use. PrimeDSF collects and makes accessible to the scientific and other communities, economic methods, models, studies and other resources, but first and foremost a decision support system called PrimeDSS. PrimeDSS will be an interactive, user-friendly web-based tool that supports private (and public) stakeholders in improving the competitiveness of their operation and sector. PrimeDSS bases its decision support mechanisms on the Fisheries and Aquaculture Competitiveness Index (FACI) developed by the PrimeFish project, but also on aggregated and detailed data from selected case studies, consumer studies and economic modelling. In its current definition, PrimeDSS has seven different components or "tools" ranging from a collection of success and failure studies over a competitive position analysis to the detection of boom and bust cycles and a product success check. In this contribution, the tools are explained in detail with a view to solicit feedback from key stakeholders to ensure sector relevance. To formalise this process, PrimeFish will implement a consensus process such as Delphi to develop robust and fully considered opinions to avoid stakeholder confusion and or rejection of the final product, and to ensure the long term viability and usefulness of the data generated by the system for the fishing industry.Proceedings of the Eighteenth Biennial Conference of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade, held July 11-15, 2016 at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Center (AECC), Aberdeen, Scotland, UK

Moving from ecosystem-based policy objectives to operational implementation of ecosystem-based management measures

The aim of ecosystem-based management (EBM) is to maintain an ecosystem in a healthy, productive and resilient condition through the implementation of policies and management measures. Although cross-sectoral planning may be led by a planning competent authority, it is up to the sector competent authority to implement the necessary management measures within their operations to achieve EBM goals and objectives. We suggest that scientific impediments to EBM are no longer significant to implement EBM operationally. Instead, we consider that approaching EBM within current policy cycle approaches would provide the necessary policymaking process step to operationalize EBM. In addition to enabling and facilitating collaboration, exchange, understanding as promoted by EBM, policymaking processes also require that policy is to be implemented through programs, measures, procedures and controls that have expected outcomes to "carry into effect" the policy objective. We are of the view that moving EBM from planning and objective setting to operational implementation is a management problem solving issues instead of a scientific one

Moving from ecosystem-based policy objectives to operational implementation of ecosystem-based management measures

The aim of ecosystem-based management (EBM) is to maintain an ecosystem in a healthy, productive and resilient condition through the implementation of policies and management measures. Although cross-sectoral planning may be led by a planning competent authority, it is up to the sector competent authority to implement the necessary management measures within their operations to achieve EBM goals and objectives. We suggest that scientific impediments to EBM are no longer significant to implement EBM operationally. Instead, we consider that approaching EBM within current policy cycle approaches would provide the necessary policymaking process step to operationalize EBM. In addition to enabling and facilitating collaboration, exchange, understanding as promoted by EBM, policymaking processes also require that policy is to be implemented through programs, measures, procedures and controls that have expected outcomes to "carry into effect" the policy objective. We are of the view that moving EBM from planning and objective setting to operational implementation is a management problem solving issues instead of a scientific one

WhiteFishMaLL North Atlantic Whitefish Marine Living Lab

Cod and haddock products from the North Atlantic come primarily from sustainably harvested stocks, are healthy to eat and have comparatively low environmental impact. In an ideal world these favourable characteristics should provide these products with a competitive advantage and higher prices in the market, but currently this is not the case. A key reason for this is the lack of differentiation of cod and haddock products from the N-Atlantic compared to other whitefish species, for example similar products from Asia – e.g. pangasius and tilapia. The products are homogeneous, they do not stand out in comparison with competing products and there is little done to try to highlight the many positive properties that they have. The WhiteFishMaLL project was initiated to address these challenges. WhiteFishMaLL, which stands for North Atlantic Whitefish Marine Living Lab, was a three year research and development project that ran from beginning of year 2012 untilearly 2015. The primary objective of the WhiteFishMaLL project was to build a branding platform for whitefish from the North Atlantic that facilitates market differentiation in termsof sustainability and superior consumer benefits. The project had also a secondary objective, which was to demonstrate how a Living Lab can be established in the marine sector, dealingwith a specific innovation challenges, where the solution is co-created, explored, demonstrated and evaluated with a user-centric approach in real-world environments. This meant applyingLiving Lab approaches to meet with the main objective, and using that process to demonstrate how Living Lab can be applied in the Nordic marine sector