Suchergebnisse

To achieve the goals of the EU Common Fishery Policy (EU CFP) of ecological and economic sustainable fishery and to meet the demands for protection of sensitive habitats under the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (EU MSFD), as well as to meet the demands from other marine sectors on occupation of specific sea areas for other uses under the EU Marine Spatial Planning Directive (EU MSPD), it is necessary to establish adequate management strategy evaluation (MSE) tools to evaluate the impacts of the different uses of the sea in a multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral context. Such tools are needed to evaluate scenarios of different management strategies in order to inform managers and stakeholders about the impacts and relative performance of different management options in achieving the policy objectives. This demands implementation of MSE tools which encompass the dynamic variability in distribution and abundance of fish resources with high resolution in time and space. Also, this demands integration of bio-economic MSE tools which can evaluate fishing patterns and fisher's decision making, i.e. human behaviour, in allocating their fishing effort with high resolution in time and space. Consequently, these tools must be highly spatial explicit and enable small scale time specific resolution in order to efficiently and realistically evaluating the integrated biological and economic effects of spatial management, and contribute to improving spatial management strategies also taking into account the footpring of the marine capture sector including energy use and efficiency to catch the available fishery resources. The MSPTOOLS project provides new and improved quantitative methods for evaluating stock abundances and distributions with high resolution in time and space by integrating different types of quantitative information as well as by linking biological and bio-economic models and evaluation tools. This has involved development of better tools, methods and integrated models to describe the resources, the fisheries and sensitive habitats/species distribution in relation to each other and identify sustainable fishing areas and conservation areas. The model developments under the project have resulted in a row of manuscripts published and submitted to high ranking scientific peer-reviewed journals and symposia, and those manuscripts are summarised in the present report with proper reference to the main manuscripts. The first summary highlight the main results that were obtained in Rufener et al. (2019a;b) which describes a statistical framework (hereafter LGNB) that was developed to combine commercial fisheries and scientific survey data, to ultimately improve the understanding of the spatio-temporal abundance dynamics of marine harvested species. This framework served, in fact, as the main basis for all other MSPTOOLS work packages. The second summary presents preliminary results to an economic extension that was included in the proposed framework where there was made coupling of a Data Development Analysis (DEA) to the LGNB model in order to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the commercial fisheries and scientific survey, with respect to their sampling size and accuracy in estimating abundance trends. Detailed results of this summary are reported in Rufener et al. (In Prep.1). The third summary provides the methodology and outline of the coupling process between the LGNB and the bio-economic management strategy evaluation tool DISPLACE. This, furthermore, includes a critical commenting on the main hurdles encountered in this process, and how this will be used to investigate the actual benefit of the coupled LGNB-DISPLACE framework within a set of hypothetical management scenarios. Further results of this summary are stated in Rufener et al. (In Prep.2). The fourth summary presents the dissemination of the second and third MSPTOOLS working tasks at the annual ICES Working Group on Spatial Fisheries Data (ICES WGSFD) meeting, and how the working group could benefit from the LGNB-DISPLACE framework. Finally, the fifth summary presents an initial pilot study under the MSPTOOLS project to combine fishery-independent research survey information on catch rates as well as commercial fishery catch and effort information from the targeted Danish Norway pout fishery in integrated analyses with very high spatial resolution to evaluate spatial fisheries management measures in form of a specific fishing closure. The results of this summary is published in ICES Journal of Marine Science (Bigné et al. 2019). The model improvements provided by the project has a high impact and news-value to both the current and future advisory and scientific stock evaluation development work within the scientific and management advisory communities under the International Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES). As such the models, their improvements and their implementation provides significant new fisheries and marine spatial management scientific knowledge, as well as improved management advisory methods, directly to and relevant also for the Danish fisheries industry and all stakeholders within the fisheries sector besides the ICES communities. The MSPTOOLS work has to high extent been targeted towards model application and implementation of the methodological developments made under the project through the ICES management advisory system and community, as well as the ICES scientific community and network. The project has as such contributed significantly to a row of ICES methodological development working groups such ICES WGSFD, ICES WGFBIT, ICES WKTRADE2 and ICES WGECON, as well as provided contributions to major ICES assessment working groups such the ICES WGNSSK with published pilot studies. Under those ICES working groups, the method developments under the MSPTOOLS project have been directly presented, evaluated and discussed among other through direct project (financed) participation in those working groups. This has also included provision of specific recommendations regarding future data calls, methodological further developments and directions, application to management advice, as well as management strategies in general under ICES according to important stocks, habitats and fisheries (among other for Danish fishery). Furthermore, the implementation of the models have been affiliated further through MSPTOOLS contributions to other EU projects covering the EU-COFASP ECOAST and EU-HELCOM ACTION projects, and not least conducting a full PhD Study co-financed between MSPTOOLS (1 year), EU-COFASP ECOAST (1 year) and a DTU Aqua internal PhD project (1 year) on further development of statistical models for coupling of commercial fishery and research survey data to describe fish stock distribution and abundance surfaces, as well as further development of a bio-economic fisheries model, in order to link the two models. This has involved direct cooperation between those projects and several contributions from the MSPTOOLS project to those projects with input to methodological reviews and improved methods. As such, the MSPTOOLS project has also been further implemented and disseminated through the international expert networks working under these international research projects, as well as implementation of the model developments under MSPTOOLS in the work conducted under those research projects. There has been conducted three project workshops held in cooperation between the EMFF MSPTOOLS and EMFF ManDaLiS projects. One of the workshops was international and was held in association with and just after an International Conference Special Session: IIFET Conference, Seattle, USA, July 2018, (IIFET 2018 International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade, https://www.xcdsystem.com/iifet/website/). This Special Open Session was directly arranged by the MSPTOOLS and ManDaLiS Projects with invitation of stakeholders and including stakeholder perspectives. Besides initiative taking, planning, arranging, organizing, coordinating, announcing, leading and carrying through this special session directly under the MSPTOOLS and ManDaLiS Projects the projects produced the session abstract and a full scientific publication reporting of the outcomes of the session (Nielsen et al., 2018): In accordance with several of the stakeholder perspectives and suggestions from the above workshops and the IIFET session there has directly in relation to the MSPTOOLS project been produced a follow up research project proposal and application (NORDFO) submitted to the EMFF project call in spring 2019. This project proposal has had a positive evaluation and is for the time being placed as number one at the waiting list for funding under the EMFF in 2019 for which final decision is pending.

The European Common Fisheries Policy recognizes the importance of accounting for heterogeneity in fishing practices, and métier-based sampling is now at the core of the EU Data Collection Framework. The implementation of such an approach would require Member States to agree on the standard regional métier definitions and on practical rules to categorize logbook records into métiers. Several alternative approaches have been used in the past to categorize landings profiles, but no consensus has yet emerged. A generic open-source workflow is developed to test and compare a selection of methods, including principal components analysis (PCA), hierarchical agglomerative clustering (HAC), K-means, and Clustering LARge Applications (CLARA), and to provide simple allocation rules. This workflow is applied to a unique regional dataset consisting of bottom-trawl logbooks of five North Sea countries. No method proved to be infallible, but combining PCA with either CLARA or HAC performed best. For 2008, a hierarchical classification with 14 species assemblages is proposed. Discriminant analysis proved more robust than simple ordination methods for allocating a new logbook record into an existing métier. The whole approach is directly operational and could contribute to defining more objective and consistent métiers across European fisheries

The member states of the European Union use multi-metric macrobenthos indicators to monitor the ecological status of their marine waters in relation to the Water Framework and Marine Strategy Framework Directives. The indicators translate the general descriptors of ecological quality in the directives into a single value of ecological status by combining indices of species diversity, species sensitivity and density. Studies and inter-calibration exercises have shown that the indicators respond to chemical pollution and organic enrichment, but little is known about their response to bottom trawling. We use linear mixed effects models to analyze how bottom trawling intensity affects the indicators used in the Danish (Danish Quality Index, DKI) and Swedish (Benthic Quality Index, BQI) environmental monitoring programs in the Kattegat, the sea area between Sweden and Denmark. Using year and station as random variables and trawling intensity, habitat type, salinity and depth as fixed variables we find a significant negative relationship between the BQI indicator and bottom trawling, while the DKI is related significantly to salinity, but not to trawling intensity. Among the indicator components, the species diversity and sensitivity indices used in the DKI are not significantly linked to trawling, and trawling only affects the BQI when species sensitivities are derived from rarefied samples. Because the number of species recorded per sample (species density) is limited by the number of individuals per sample (density), we expect species density and density to be positively correlated. This correlation was confirmed by a simulation model and by statistical analysis of the bottom samples in which log species density was highly significantly related to log density (r = 0.75, df = 144, p

Under the European Union's Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), management organisations are directed to evaluate measures for reducing the footprint of fishing on the seafloor. We applied a spatial modelling platform to evaluate the effects of spatial fishery management measures on the Baltic Sea. The evaluation includes restricting areas for fishing with the dual goal of reducing the impact on benthic habitats and minimising negative effects on fishery catch and profit. To redistribute the fishing effort realistically, the model simulates individual-vessel agents and behavioural rules. The model integrates benthic community dynamics by combining gear-specific depletion rates from fishing agents with habitat-specific trait-based recovery rates for the benthic communities. Our simulations showed that closing areas in the central Baltic Sea and condensing the fishing efforts into core fishing areas did not improve the relative benthic status (RBS). In addition, the fisheries were adversely affected by reduced fishing opportunities, further impacting their economic performance. The potential for improving the overall RBS with spatial management is dubious in the central Baltic, given that the area is dominated by relatively short-lived and rapidly recovering benthic species. By contrast, the Kattegat showed a substantial improvement in the RBS, as determined by measures combining the protection of long-lived benthic communities with the mitigation of high-impact fisheries. Our results and investigations provide different bio-economic scenarios on benthos and fisheries dynamics resulting from specific management measures. The developed knowledge base and modelling tool is expected to assist policymakers in identifying the most appropriate measures to achieve both a Good Environmental Status (GES) of the seafloor according to the MSFD and to maintain sustainable fisheries and stocks according to the CFP.

The present report is an EU-FP7-SOCIOEC Report giving an overview and critical evaluation of the current management measures implemented for the North Sea mixed demersal fisheries and the fish stocks involved in this. Also, this involves review and critical evaluation of the scientific advice supporting the fisheries management for the North Sea mixed demersal fisheries and the stocks involved herein. Management of the demersal roundfish and flatfish fisheries in the North Sea is conducted mainly through the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and the yearly EU-Norway Bilateral Fishery Agreements. The prevailing management system and principle has been landing quotas (TAC, Total Allowable Catch) mainly based on the EU principle of relative stability in the international sharing of the TAC. Also, general effort limitations and technical measures are set for the EU and Norwegian fisheries on top of the TAC regulations. Technical measures have mainly aimed at reducing the retention and discard of the juveniles through gear measures and to protect the spawners and/or recruits in the fish populations through closures. Furthermore, the management is based on a set of national measures especially concerning control and enforcement measures, national distribution of the overall TAC, individual special technical measures, allocation (distribution) of national TACs to different fisheries and vessels including the share to e.g. Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs) or Vessel Quota Shares (VQSs). The management of the North Sea demersal fisheries has changed quite a lot over the last decades following the need to rebuild the fish stocks, and in particular the North Sea cod stock in relation to the present case study. The CFP has increasing focus towards implementing multi-annual or long term management plans (MAMPs, LTMPs) partly to avoid the annual political battles over setting the TAC. There has furthermore been a trend during the last decade to move away from the Precautionary Approach and towards Maximum Sustainable Yield as the overarching management objective and Harvest Control Rules (HCRs) based on this. There have been introduced increasingly restrictive fisheries-based effort limitations with possibilities for exemption or for less drastic effort reductions provided that cod avoidance behavior can be demonstrated. Although the decision-makers under the CFP have had a reputation of consistently setting TACs way above the scientific advice, the development in recent years has been towards this gap being reduced. Management of the fisheries has undergone a number of structural and behavioral changes, and these have already yielded some positive results as the state of the demersal stocks in the North Sea have globally improved. The status of main demersal stocks has considerably improved over the last decade. Fishing mortality has globally decreased and biomass has increased, and most of the assessed demersal stocks are now within sustainable limits. Some issues remain with North Sea cod, for which recovery is slower. At present, cod is the limiting species for all the North Sea demersal fisheries. Over a time span from the 1960s landings of demersal stocks have declined with an accelerating decrease since the mid-1990s in line with the falling stock sizes and regulated reductions in total allowable catches (TACs). A clear decrease in the mean fishing mortality (F) is observed in the 2000-2010 period with current F values between Fmsy and Fpa, and the spawning stock biomass (SSB) has on average been above Bpa for the period 1983-2010 for the assessed stocks. The effort in the central North Sea and along the Norwegian waters has decreased as well as the number of operating fishing vessels (capacity). Overall, the nominal effort (kW-days) by European fleets using demersal trawl, seine, beam trawl and gillnet in the North Sea, Skagerrak and the Eastern Channel have been substantially reduced (-20% between 2003 and 2011). Since 2000, the total fish biomass for exploited stocks in the North Sea is about 4-5 million tonnes with an increasing trend in the most recent years. Despite the decrease of landings and fishing mortality in the last recent decade, the overall recruitment has shown a clear decreasing trend from 1985-2010. The recent increase in SSB during the last decase, which is likely due to lower landings and fishing mortality levels in the last 15 years, indicate inclinations of the North Sea ecosystem to recover. However, this has not converted in higher recruitment levels in the most recent years in which there may be a time delay. There is a clear trend that both the gross profit and the net profit has improved from 2008-2010 for the main fleets of the North Sea with the only exception of the Dutch beam trawlers 18-24m, for which the gross profit decreased by nearly 90%. The positive development in economic performance measures can be a result of the structural changes that have recently occurred in many fisheries. There are fewer vessels sharing the available resources (reduction in over-capacity). Especially, the movement towards right-based systems is expected to have had positive effects on reducing the over-capacity and improving the economic performance of many fleets. Historically, EU subsidies over the years have contributed to making the fleet more efficient, so the success of the CFP in the area of developing an efficient fleet has historically contributed to its failure in relation to conserve fish stocks, as overcapacity is consistently mentioned as one of the fundamental reasons for the conservation failure historically. Employment in fishing as a social indicator is shrinking, not least for the North Sea, and has been so for many years. There are multiple explanations for this: i) individual vessels are getting more efficient, ii) consolidation of fleets whereby fewer vessels catch the available resources with noticeable decrease in number of operating fishing vessels, and iii) decreasing fishing opportunities in the shape of lower quotass. The raw number of fishers tells a story of a sector that in reality, at least in the prosperous countries around the North Sea, provides only few jobs. Despite the above trends indicating positive effects of the most recent fisheries management of the North Sea mixed demersal fisheries there are a row of general problems in the present management. Population dynamics with respect to recruitment variations, sub-populations and changes in distribution of several demersal North Sea stocks influenced by environmental factors besides fishery are not fully understood and taken into consideration in management (and management advice). Also, biological multi-species interactions between the stocks are not fully taken into account in the management of the stocks when setting the MSY management and exploitation limits for the stocks. Management is not based on broader ecosystem and multi-species objectives, but based mainly on single stock objectives. Also technical interactions between fisheries are not taken fully into account in management of the North Sea demersal fisheries. The fisheries targeting cod, whiting, haddock, saithe, flatfish and Nephrops in the North Sea and Kattegat-Skagerrak are mixed demersal fisheries for towed gears. Mixed fisheries considerations are of primary importance for the management of North Sea species. Single stock management is a cause of discarding in mixed fisheries, because individual stock management objectives may not be consistent with each other. As such, the TAC of one species may be exhausted before the TAC of another, leading to catches of valuable fish that cannot be landed resulting in over-quotas discard. Overall, present management and fisheries policy is characterized by the CFP having in many ways taken form of a classical intergovernmentalist, state-centric command-and-control, top-down management system, where member states' ministers in the Council have exercised strong control over the fisheries management measures which have been developed and adopted on the background of proposals from the Commission and the Parliament, though since the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty the Parliament has assumed a role of co-legislator alongside the Council. EC has identified the lack of stakeholder involvement as one of the major weaknesses of the CFP, recognizing that this fact clearly undermine its legitimacy. Establishment of the Regional Advisory Councils (RACs) with the 2003 CFP can be seen as the first formal attempt to generate a network of multi-national, multi-interest advisory organizations with a strong regional focus among other involving resource users in the decision making. However, the RACs have at present only an advisory function on decisions and are not formally integrated directly in management on a regional basis, i.e. the RAC system is primarily intended to provide a regional stakeholder perspective to the Commission's deliberations rather than providing stakeholders with real decision-making authority. RACs constitute, nevertheless, a move towards regionalization of the fisheries policy. Present management is, furthermore, characterized by a high degree of complexity, bureaucracy, and examples of micro-management where different management systems and measures are implemented in parallel making evaluation of impact of the individual measures and systems very complicated and the system suffers from lack of transparency. With respect to the complexity the different management measures are acting top of each other with impact on the same fisheries and stocks at the same time (and with time overlap in their implementation) creating a very complex management and associated advisory system, where it is difficult to distinguish specific effects and impacts of each individual measures implemented. Accordingly, it is also very difficult to make scientific management evaluation and advice associated to the individual measures

The impacts of fisheries on ocean resources are no longer considered in isolation but should account for broader ecosystem effects. However, ongoing ecosystem-wide changes added to the inherent dynamics of marine ecosystems, create challenges for fisheries and fisheries management by affecting our ability to ensure future fishing opportunities and sustainable use of the seas. By reviewing a corpus of fisheries science literature, we contribute to informing managers and policymakers with considerations of the various threats to fisheries and the marine ecosystems that support them. We identify and describe 25 ecosystem challenges and 7 prominent families of management options to address them. We capture the challenges acting within three broad categories: (i) fishing impacts on the marine environments and future fishing opportunities, (ii) effects of environmental conditions on fish and fishing opportunities, and (iii) effects of context in terms of socioeconomics, fisheries management, and institutional set-up on fisheries. Our review shows that, while most EU fisheries are facing a similar array of challenges, some of them are specific to regions or individual fisheries. This is reflected in selected regional cases taking different perspectives to exemplify the challenges along with fishery-specific cases. These cases include the dramatic situation of the Baltic Sea cod, facing an array of cumulative pressures, the multiple and moving ecosystem interactions that rely on the North Sea forage fish facing climate change, the interaction of fishing and fish stocks in a fluctuating mixed fishery in the Celtic Sea, the bycatch of marine mammals and seabirds and habitat degradation in the Bay of Biscay, and finally the under capacity and lack of fundamental knowledge on some features of the EU Outermost Regions. In addition to these ecoregion specific findings, we discuss the outcomes of our review across the whole of European waters and we conclude by recognizing that there are knowledge gaps regarding the direction ...

The impacts of fisheries on ocean resources are no longer considered in isolation but should account for broader ecosystem effects. However, ongoing ecosystem-wide changes added to the inherent dynamics of marine ecosystems, create challenges for fisheries and fisheries management by affecting our ability to ensure future fishing opportunities and sustainable use of the seas. By reviewing a corpus of fisheries science literature, we contribute to informing managers and policymakers with considerations of the various threats to fisheries and the marine ecosystems that support them. We identify and describe 25 ecosystem challenges and 7 prominent families of management options to address them. We capture the challenges acting within three broad categories: (i) fishing impacts on the marine environments and future fishing opportunities, (ii) effects of environmental conditions on fish and fishing opportunities, and (iii) effects of context in terms of socioeconomics, fisheries management, and institutional set-up on fisheries. Our review shows that, while most EU fisheries are facing a similar array of challenges, some of them are specific to regions or individual fisheries. This is reflected in selected regional cases taking different perspectives to exemplify the challenges along with fishery-specific cases. These cases include the dramatic situation of the Baltic Sea cod, facing an array of cumulative pressures, the multiple and moving ecosystem interactions that rely on the North Sea forage fish facing climate change, the interaction of fishing and fish stocks in a fluctuating mixed fishery in the Celtic Sea, the bycatch of marine mammals and seabirds and habitat degradation in the Bay of Biscay, and finally the under capacity and lack of fundamental knowledge on some features of the EU Outermost Regions. In addition to these ecoregion specific findings, we discuss the outcomes of our review across the whole of European waters and we conclude by recognizing that there are knowledge gaps regarding the direction of causality, nonlinear responses, and confounding effects. All of the challenges we identify and characterize may guide further data collection and research coordination to improve our fundamental understanding of the system and to monitor real changes within it, both of which are required to inform an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFM). An European EAFM could build upon an array of management measures currently tailored for fisheries management only, including promoting funding interdisciplinary research and ecosystem monitoring. Such integrative management should reduce uncertainties in environmental, social and economic trends, and lower the risk for disruptive events or ecosystem effects with far-reaching consequences, including a shift toward less productive marine ecosystems.

Some of the research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union through the European Community's Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013) under Grant Agreement No. 266445 for the project "Vectors of Change in Oceans and Seas Marine Life, Impact on Economic Sectors (VECTORS)." Additional work resulted from the BONUS BALTSPACE project (Towards Sustainable Governance of Baltic Marine Space), supported by BONUS (Art 185), funded jointly by the EU and by national research funding agencies in the eight EU member states around the Baltic Sea. ; International audience ; The relationship between fisheries and marine spatial planning (MSP) is still widely unsettled. While several scientific studies highlight the strong relation between fisheries and MSP, as well as ways in which fisheries could be included in MSP, the actual integration of fisheries into MSP often fails. In this article, we review the state of the art and latest progress in research on various challenges in the integration of fisheries into MSP. The reviewed studies address a wide range of integration challenges, starting with techniques to analyse where fishermen actually fish, assessing the drivers for fishermen's behaviour, seasonal dynamics and long-term spatial changes of commercial fish species under various anthropogenic pressures along their successive life stages, the effects of spatial competition on fisheries and projections on those spaces that might become important fishing areas in the future, and finally, examining how fisheries could benefit from MSP. This paper gives an overview of the latest developments on concepts, tools, and methods. It becomes apparent that the spatial and temporal dynamics of fish and fisheries, as well as the definition of spatial preferences, remain major challenges, but that an integration of fisheries is already possible today. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Some of the research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union through the European Community's Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013) under Grant Agreement No. 266445 for the project "Vectors of Change in Oceans and Seas Marine Life, Impact on Economic Sectors (VECTORS)." Additional work resulted from the BONUS BALTSPACE project (Towards Sustainable Governance of Baltic Marine Space), supported by BONUS (Art 185), funded jointly by the EU and by national research funding agencies in the eight EU member states around the Baltic Sea. ; International audience ; The relationship between fisheries and marine spatial planning (MSP) is still widely unsettled. While several scientific studies highlight the strong relation between fisheries and MSP, as well as ways in which fisheries could be included in MSP, the actual integration of fisheries into MSP often fails. In this article, we review the state of the art and latest progress in research on various challenges in the integration of fisheries into MSP. The reviewed studies address a wide range of integration challenges, starting with techniques to analyse where fishermen actually fish, assessing the drivers for fishermen's behaviour, seasonal dynamics and long-term spatial changes of commercial fish species under various anthropogenic pressures along their successive life stages, the effects of spatial competition on fisheries and projections on those spaces that might become important fishing areas in the future, and finally, examining how fisheries could benefit from MSP. This paper gives an overview of the latest developments on concepts, tools, and methods. It becomes apparent that the spatial and temporal dynamics of fish and fisheries, as well as the definition of spatial preferences, remain major challenges, but that an integration of fisheries is already possible today. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

An Impact Assessment (IA) is a process aimed at structuring and supporting the development of policies. Besides the fact that IA assumes different features when applied to different sectors, really it should help policy makers in evaluating the contribution to the fisheries sustainability of new regulations. The recent improvements and development around the IA methodologies go more and more toward the concept of a Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA). The evolution of IA in the fishery sector has followed the general and increasing need in having a more and more integrated type of analysis, focusing on the three dimensions of sustainability (environmental, economic and social). This paper synthesizes the methodology developed under the EU FP7 SOCIOEC project,1 whose main objective was the application of the most recent EU guidelines on IA to the current (and future) EU fishery management. The result is an integrated approach taking into account the main pillars of sustainability and a strong stakeholders' involvement. A clear step-by-step procedure based on both qualitative and quantitative type of analyses has been defined, the last step being the "rating" phase, an essential step in a SIA, that provides the possibility to assess the results of different policy options (allowing policy makers to select the most appropriate one) in terms of acceptability, effectiveness, coherence and efficiency. The overall methodology has been tested on different EU regions, fisheries and management measures

An Impact Assessment (IA) is a process aimed at structuring and supporting the development of policies. Besides the fact that IA assumes different features when applied to different sectors, really it should help policy makers in evaluating the contribution to the fisheries sustainability of new regulations. The recent improvements and development around the IA methodologies go more and more toward the concept of a Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA). The evolution of IA in the fishery sector has followed the general and increasing need in having a more and more integrated type of analysis, focusing on the three dimensions of sustainability (environmental, economic and social). This paper synthesizes the methodology developed under the EU FP7 SOCIOEC project,1 whose main objective was the application of the most recent EU guidelines on IA to the current (and future) EU fishery management. The result is an integrated approach taking into account the main pillars of sustainability and a strong stakeholders' involvement. A clear step-by-step procedure based on both qualitative and quantitative type of analyses has been defined, the last step being the "rating" phase, an essential step in a SIA, that provides the possibility to assess the results of different policy options (allowing policy makers to select the most appropriate one) in terms of acceptability, effectiveness, coherence and efficiency. The overall methodology has been tested on different EU regions, fisheries and management measures.

An Impact Assessment (IA) is a process aimed at structuring and supporting the development of policies. Besides the fact that IA assumes different features when applied to different sectors, really it should help policy makers in evaluating the contribution to the fisheries sustainability of new regulations. The recent improvements and development around the IA methodologies go more and more toward the concept of a Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA). The evolution of IA in the fishery sector has followed the general and increasing need in having a more and more integrated type of analysis, focusing on the three dimensions of sustainability (environmental, economic and social). This paper synthesizes the methodology developed under the EU FP7 SOCIOEC project,1 whose main objective was the application of the most recent EU guidelines on IA to the current (and future) EU fishery management. The result is an integrated approach taking into account the main pillars of sustainability and a strong stakeholders' involvement. A clear step-by-step procedure based on both qualitative and quantitative type of analyses has been defined, the last step being the "rating" phase, an essential step in a SIA, that provides the possibility to assess the results of different policy options (allowing policy makers to select the most appropriate one) in terms of acceptability, effectiveness, coherence and efficiency. The overall methodology has been tested on different EU regions, fisheries and management measures.