WGFE09.pdf (4.78 MB)
Download fileReport of the Working Group on Fish Ecology (WGFE)
In 2009, WGFE (Working Group on Fish Ecology, D. W. Kulka, Chair) met at ICES Headquarters from 26-30 October. Sixteen participants from eight countries (Annex 3) addressed six Terms of Reference (ToR – refer to Annex 1). The work of the group was accomplished by subgroups assigned to each ToR and the report is structured as a single chapter for each ToR. Below, the results linked to the Science Plan (Annex 2).ToR a (Science Plan links: 2, 3, 7, 8, 13)It was demonstrated that the Large Fish Indicator could be modelled using a subset of species from a full demersal assemblage, thus the LFI is not a true community in-dicator.A satisfactory fit to North Sea landings, recruits, stock biomass, population length distributions and diet data was achieved using FishSUMS, a length-structured mul-tispecies fish community model. Future work should incorporate recruitment vari-ability and environmental drivers.Work on recovery of the North Sea demersal fish community to the EcoQO (fish community target state indicative of health) used a size-based model to explore tradeoffs between fisheries and conservation objectives and examined how state indi-cators respond to fishing pressure. Future work could include the implementation of observation and process error into the modelling frameworks, spatial processes, comparisons across ecosystems and/or spatially distinct areas within ecosystems.
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