PRIME TRADEOFFS

Extensive multispecies and ecosystem research has been done in the Baltic, North Sea, Barents Sea/Norwegian Sea, Bay of Biscay and the Black Sea in the past about 30 years. There has been invested substantially in the research on multispecies interactions, and ecosystem functioning. In parallel, significant knowledge on the environmental impacts on recruitment processes, movements or migrations, and species interactions has been accumulated, but not yet consequently integrated in multispecies and ecosystem models and management concepts. The major questions raised in PRIME TRADE OFFS are hence, (i) how the integration of environmentally-driven variability in population and ecosystem dynamics affects short- and long-term predictions of economically important fish species, and (ii) how the inclusion of environmental variability changes our perceptions of tradeoffs between utilization of different resources, including for example fuel cost due to changed resoure distributions in space and effects on targeted species, as well as socio-economic efficiency. There have been several initiatives to improve multispecies and ecosystem modelling in order to make it operational for both tactical and strategic assessment and ecosystem-based fisheries management. PRIME TRADEOFFS is the logical continuation of these initiatives and will make the concepts of multi-species maximum sustainable yield and environmental impact on biological key process such as distribution, growth and recruitment operational for ecosystem-based management of marine resources, as demanded in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the reformed Common Fisheries Policy.