Nutzungskonflikte zwischen Windparks und Fischerei in der Nordsee – was die marine Raumordnung noch nicht berücksichtigt

The current approval procedure for wind farm proposals in the German EEZ only considers site specific conflict analysis between the wind farm and fisheries. Due to the relatively small spatial coverage of single sites potential opportunity losses to the fisheries are always considered as low or negligible. Cumulative effects on fisheries that will occur once all proposed wind farms are in place are not yet considered adequately. However, those cumulative effects will be quite substantial because, in particular, opportunities to catch such valuable species as flatfish will be considerably reduced

Broad-scale distribution of the winter protozooplankton community in the North Sea.

Protozooplankton (PZP) (here size range: 12–200 μm) are rarely sampled over a broad scale, especially in ecosystem monitoring programs, despite their trophodynamic importance as grazers in the microbial loop and as prey for larger zooplankton and early life stages of fish. In this study we sampled PZP from Dutch, French,German and Norwegian research vessels taking part in the annual ICES coordinated International Bottom Trawl Survey (IBTS) which provides data on fish stock abundances and status for the entire North Sea. The abundance,biomass, composition and distribution of PZP were examined at 39 stations across the North Sea (from 3.2°W to 7.6°E and 50.5 to 59.8°N) in mid-winter (January–February 2014), a period of the year which is under-investigated so far. Twenty four taxa of dinoflagellates and ciliates were identified. Two groups comprised 89% of the total abundance of PZP: Gymnodinium spp. and other athecate dinoflagellates (68%) and Strombidium spp. and other naked ciliates (21%). The biomass of PZP at each station ranged between 0.08 and 2.4 μg C L−1, which is much lower than that reported for spring or summer (≥100 μg C L−1) in the North Sea. Relatively small-sized (< 40 μm) PZP contributed 46% of the total biomass. No significant spatial pattern in the composition of the PZP community was found, although the total abundance of tintinnids was highest in the southern North Sea, an important over-wintering area for marine fish larvae. Using this fish survey (IBTS) as a sampling platform allowed us to obtain a synoptic view of the PZP community over a large area. The present collaborative effort provides an example of how existing monitoring platforms can be augmented in the future to collect relevant data and potential ecological indicators needed to advance the ecosystem-based approach to managing marine systems.Broad-scale distribution of the winter protozooplankton community in the North Sea.publishedVersio

Marine Spatial Planning and Fisheries: the Potential Economic Losses for Fisheries in the Context of Competing Interests in Coastal Zones

There is an increasing demand for marine space from many different economic sectors in the German coastal and exclusive economic zone: sand and gravel removal, wind farms, fisheries, shipping or oil and gas exploration. Additionally, the Natura 2000 directive requires the declaration of areas for nature con-servation. Opposite to other economic activities, fishing is not connected with distinct rights on areas or on specific fishing grounds. First assessments show that fishermen may face heavy losses in case of the exclusive allocation of space to other activities. In the first part we depict the different economic activities in the German EEZ and the current process of spatial planning. Then we give an overview on the legal framework including the property rights system in the fishing sector. In the third part we calculate pro-spective losses in the scenario of the closure of huge areas for fishing. It will be shown that the approval process for wind farms underestimates the consequences for fisheries due to the lack of data. In many cases a reallocation of fishing effort will not be viable because of the dependency of certain species on specific habitats and their low abundance in surrounding areas. Especially small scale fishermen can only fish near the shore. Their individual quota can be interpreted as a strong property right. A closure of areas may have the same effect as a dispossession. Finally, we give an outlook on the possible process in marine spatial planning in the coming years.Keywords: Fisheries and Coastal Zone Management, Fisheries Economics, Fishery Managemen

Climate change-related changes in cephalopod biodiversity on the North East Atlantic Shelf

Global studies imply that cephalopods have benefited from climate change. However, in most areas, species-specific long-term cephalopod data sets do not exist to support this implication and to analyse the response of cephalopods to environmental changes. Our results illustrate that historical studies, in combination with recent data sets, can fill this gap, enabling descriptions of ecological changes over a long time. We show substantial changes in the cephalopod biodiversity of the North Sea at species level over the past 100 years. Some species, which seemed to migrate into the North Sea only for spawning or foraging in the nineteenth century, occur permanently in the North Sea nowadays. This applies, for example, to the loliginids Loligo forbesii and Alloteuthis subulata. The ommastrephids Todaropsis eblanae and Illex coindetii, now constantly present as well, had been described only as accidental migrants 100 years ago

International Bottom Trawl Survey Working Group (IBTSWG). ICES Scientific Reports, 04:65

The International Bottom Trawl Survey Working Group (IBTSWG) coordinates fishery-independent bottom trawl surveys in the ICES area in the Northeast Atlantic and the North Sea. These long-term monitoring surveys provide data for stock assessments and facilitate examina-tion of changes in fish distribution and relative abundance. The group also promotes the stand-ardization of fishing gears and methods as well as survey coordination. This report summarizes the national contributions in 2021–2022 and plans for the 2022–2023 surveys coordinated by IBTSWG