Workshop on Kattegat Ecosystem Modelling Scenarios with Stakeholders Participation (WKKEMSSP)

The first Workshop on Kattegat Ecosystem Modelling Scenarios with Stakeholders Participation (WKKEMSSP) met on the 22 May at the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (SwAM) in Gothenburg, Sweden, chaired by Andrea Belgrano (Sweden), Andrew Kenny (UK), and Erik Olsen (Norway).

The main goal was to scope for key ecosystem interactions and future modelling scenarios for human use that are most relevant to stakeholders and managers in the Kattegat. Specifically, WKKEMSSP contributes to developing strata specific decision support tools (WGINOSE ToR d) by developing and exploring scenarios for future conditions and human use of the Kattegat sea area using the Mentalmodeller tool, a scoping tool that allows transparent stakeholder participation in identifying key links between the natural ecosystem, pressures, human activities and management objectives.

The group was composed of a variety of experts and stakeholders, including recreational fishers, NGOs, managers, and scientists. The Kattegat mental model was developed through the follow-ing stepwise process:

1. Identification of key management objectives for the region;

2.Identification of key human activities and linking these to the objectives;

3.Identification of pressures stemming from the human activities and linking these to theactivities;

4.Identification of management actions relevant to the objectives and human activities andlinking these to the activities; and

5.Identification of the ecosystem components (biological and physical) and linking these to the pressures and objectives.

Five future scenarios were developed at the very end of the meeting and briefly discussed:

1.Increase MPAs

2.Increase demersal fishery

3.Decrease pelagic fishery

4.Increase recreational fishery

5.Increase habitat restoration.

The mental model developed for Kattegat will be used to scope main issues and interactions between ecosystem components, and to define scenarios for future use that will be quantitatively explored using ecosystem models (e.g. EwE, EcoSpace).