The use of indicators for decision support in northwestern Mediterranean Sea fisheries

14 pages, 4 figures, 5 tables, supplementary data https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmarsys.2017.04.003.-- This study is a contribution to the project ECOTRANS (CTM2011-26333, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain)The Mediterranean Sea is an enclosed basin, with narrow connections to the Atlantic Ocean via the Strait of Gibraltar, to the Red Sea via the Suez Canal and to the Black Sea via the Bosphorus Strait. This results in restricted exchange between the water masses, with considerable consequences for both circulation and productivity in the Mediterranean basin. Along with the confined nature of the basin this creates the potential for the impacts of climate change to be even more rapid (Calvo et al., 2012). The Mediterranean Sea exhibits high levels of biodiversity, containing an estimated 7% of the world's marine species and with 67% of these species found in the western basin (Link et al., 2010; Calvo et al., 2012)This project is supported by South African Scientific Research Chair Initiative, which is funded through the South African Department of Science and Technology and administered by the South African National Research Foundation (NRF) (65238). MC was partially funded by the European Commission through the Marie Curie Career Integration Grant Fellowships – PCIG10-GA-2011-303534 - to the BIOWEB projectPeer Reviewe