Report of the ICES/PICES Workshop on Regional climate change vulnerability assessment for the large marine ecosystems of the northern hemisphere (WKSICCME-CVA)

The ICES-PICES Strategic Initiative (Section) on Climate Change Impacts on Marine Eco-systems (SICCME) workshop on climate vulnerability assessment (WKSICCME-CVA) took place on 19–22 July 2017 at ICES Headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. The event was attended by 19 scientists from 8 nations as well as representatives from ICES and PICES. The workshop was chaired by Myron Peck (Germany, ICES SICCME), Elliott Ha-zen (USA, PICES (S-MBM, co-Chair SG-CERP)) and Kathy Mills (USA, ICES). The event was co-sponsored by the EU H2020 project CERES (Climate Change and European Aquatic Resources).The workshop was convened to discuss and compare climate vulnerability assessments (CVA’s) that have been (or are currently being) conducted on fish and shellfish and the human communities dependent on these resources in various Large Marine Ecosystems. Participants discussed CVA frameworks and how best to integrate vulnerability ranking stemming from natural science (changes in fish and shellfish resources) and social science (socio-economics of human communities). In total, 25 CVAs performed on fisheries or aquaculture were compared and discussed. These encompass a wide range of spatial scales and methods employed (from rapid literature-based assessments to local community engagement). Most of these CVA’s were (are being) conducted for regions of North America, Europe and Australia but global-scale as well as local/regional efforts in developing nations were also included.