Bio-economics, socio-biology and other mixes. The advantage of linking disparate data to gain new insights into the exploitation of marine fish resources.

Abstract

Recent and earlier changes in the fisheries management paradigm, forced fisheries scientists to look around for alternative ways of gaining insight into a very complex system, like the exploitation of marine resources by fishing. When leaving the comfort of single species management into ecosystem based management, coupled with mixed fisheries and mingled with stronger public and policy involvement, fisheries scientists realized that the world in not round after all, but multishape, depending on who's looking and from which angle. A change in mindset requires new approaches and their integration to be developed or reconsideration of traditional approaches, or a mix of everything. For example, the introduction of harvest control rules (HCR) allowed the operationalization of complex indicators and opened the way for a creative and extensive research path. A quick search for "harvest control rules" in google scholar gives more than 800 references between 2010 and 2014. Nevertheless, HCRs deal with one side of the management conundrum, the decision making process, though interesting perspectives remain to be found. Can common sense type of wisdom, limited understanding of complex system behavior or vagueness in objectives and system characterization be used to improve management decisions and possibly gain knowledge about the system? Can the distinct spatial domains be reconciled and is it needed? How can societal information be incorporated? Should fisheries advice be provided without considering economics? The session aims at providing a playground for those interested in having an alternative angle into the wide subject of exploitation of marine fish resources, making use of disparate datasets to build new insights into the fisheries system. Climate, genetics, fleet diversity, multi-objectives, are all issues for potential inclusion, with an emphasis on novel insights and integration of ideas and approaches. Fisheries science has the advantage of being intrinsically multi-disciplinary, involving, biologists, engineers, sociologists, ecologists, geneticists, economists, policy, etc. Merging, linking, embedding and visualizing data; are ways of gaining knowledge by efficient utilization of available information. The challenge is to formulate ways to improve the usage of our marine food resources.JRC.G.3-Maritime affair