Interim Report of the Working Group on Integrating Ecological and Economic Models (WGIMM)

WGIMM met in December 2016 via WebEx to sum up the work done in the group sofar and to discuss the work to be performed in 2017. One specific issue was the challenge to organize physical meetings with the group. Besides exploring opportunitiesto meet aside other meetings to increase the opportunities for physical meetings thegroup agreed that there is also the need for more intersessional work. The group decided to have a physical meeting in November 2017 and prepare that meeting duringa WebEx in summer 2017.In the meeting the group further:a) followed up on the existing ToRs for WGIMM and their status,b) discussed additional initiatives and approaches for further implementation anddissemination of integrated management models - also in the context of ICES,c) discussed the venue, time and main issues to be covered by a physical WGIMMmeeting in 2017 – potentially associated with relevant conferences or stakeholderevents or similar, andd) discussed the link to related initiatives and groups, ICES/IIFET/NAAFE/etc.The main achievement is the white paper “Integrated Ecological-Socioeconomic Fisheries Models – Evaluation, Review and Challenges for Implementation” in whichWGIMM presents a global review and comparative evaluation of 35 integrated ecological–socioeconomic fisheries models (IESFMs) applied to marine fisheries andmarine ecosystem resources to identify the characteristics that determine their usefulness, effectiveness and implementation in fisheries advice. This manuscript is nowaccepted in a top ranking scientific peer reviewed journal and the final manuscriptwill be disseminated as soon as it is available (published) from the publisher.