An introduction to the proceedings and a synthesis of the 2008 ICES Symposium on the Ecosystem Approach with Fisheries Acoustics and Complementary Technologies (SEAFACTS)

摘要

Overexploitation of a single aquatic species can result in significant changes in the populations of other living resources and the function and structure of their ecosystem. This situation led the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) to adopt an ecosystem-based approach to fishery management (EBFM). Such an approach requires efficient multidisciplinary monitoring with the main aim of understanding ecosystem processes by detecting significant changes in ecosystem components, determining whether these changes are attributable to harvesting or natural or anthropogenic changes in the biotic and abiotic environment, and managing the sustainable exploitation of living resources without causing irreversible changes to their ecosystem. Another aim of EBFM is to maintain or improve ecosystem health and productivity and thereby maintain or increase fishery production for both present and future generations. Monitoring of this kind requires acoustic and complementary measures of species at all trophic levels, as well as their biotic and abiotic environments, at ecologically important temporal and spatial scales. Relevant scales range from metres to ocean basins in space and from seconds to decades in time. Data must be collected and analysed efficiently, using a large variety of techniques to derive the information needed for effective implementation of EBFM policies. Also, uncertainty in the measurements and model parameters needs to be incorporated into management strategies.