Report on the Fifth Dialogue Meeting, 4 October 1985

The Fifth Dialogue Meeting was held at Church House, London on 4 October 1985 and was chaired by the President of ICES, Professor W.S. Wooster. The General Secretary and Statistician served as Rapporteurs. The meeting was attended by about 70 scientists, administrators, managers, and fishing industry representatives. A list of participants is given in Annex 1. The President opened the meeting at 09.30 hrs, welcomed the participants, and presented a brief introductory statement (Annex 2). He indicated that fishery management consists of three levels of activity: 

1) establishing harvest levels and structure, 

2) allocating the harvest, and 

3) enforcing regulations. ICES is concerned only with the first of these levels, but scientists alone cannot set harvest levels. 

The tasks of the Dialogue Meeting are to: 

1) explore the extent to which managers and scientists agree on the kind of scientific advice to be provided; 

2) consider how best to improve the quality and timeliness of stock assessments and predictions; and 

3) examine ways to improve communications between scientists and managers. Written presentations and discussion focused on five main topics which are listed in Annex 3. Eight papers were submitted to the meeting, five prepared by ICES scientists and three by representatives from the management and industry sides.