OVERVIEWS: AN INTRODUCTION

Our ecosystem, fisheries, and aquaculture overviews are central to our approach to support evidence-based ecosystem-based management, the primary way of managing human activities affecting marine ecosystems.

Informed by the expertise of our many working groups and workshops, these products provide an annual snapshot of the status and trends of marine ecosystems, helping to guide decision-making processes towards sustainable and integrated management practices.

Ecosystem overviews set the broader ecosystem context for our other advice products, such as fishing opportunities, special requests, and fisheries overviews. Ecosystem overviews increase our capacity to provide the integrated ecosystem advice that is required to meet the current and future needs of clients and stakeholders. They link the key pressures and trends, including climate change, to changes in different ecosystem components.

Fisheries overviews provide the ‘fisheries narrative’ for each ecoregion. National fishing fleets in the ecoregion, including their fishing gears and spatiotemporal patterns, and the status of the fisheries resources are described. The level of exploitation relative to the agreed objectives and reference points, mixed-fisheries considerations of relevance to the management of the fisheries, and the impacts of fishing gear on the ecosystem in terms of the seabed and the bycatch of endangered, protected. and/or threatened species are also provided.

Aquaculture overviews provide a summary of aquaculture activities within ecoregions. Information on the species cultured, the level of production, the socio-economic importance, and environmental interactions are provided. The overviews also include available information on aquaculture systems used in an ecoregion, the history of production, and as the regulatory and management frameworks in different areas of that ecoregion.

Our ecosystem, fisheries, and aquaculture overviews are continuously evolving and developing to address new information as well as changes in the ecosystem, legislation, and the drivers of human pressures.

The inclusion of new topics depends on a topic’s relevance to requesters of advice and stakeholders, the scientific maturity, data availability and quality, and capacity of expertise in ICES science network.