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Since the 1980s, the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) has shaped European fisheries. It has often been criticised for being too prescriptive and, above all, for failing to protect either fishermen or ecosystems. The last reform dates back to the early 2010 s and has led to a slight but slow improvement in the state of ecosystems. Given that the CFP is in the process of evaluation, a group of French fishery scientists set up an initiative to add to the debate on what should be retained, reinforced or added to a possible new reform. This initiative came 10 years after a previous manifesto that presented their vision for fisheries in Europe. Four major issues emerged from the current initiative: (1) a need for transparency and simplification in fisheries management, (2) a need for more consultation and dialogue between stakeholders, (3) the urgency of the situation in the Mediterranean Sea, and (4) the necessity of putting into practice all research developments for an ecosystem approach to fisheries. Compared to 10 years ago, the response of scientists shows that the focus is no longer on achieving the maximum sustainable yield, but rather on the following steps to protect ecosystems and fisheries. An ecosystem approach to fisheries remains indispensable for both ecosystems and fishing activities. To this end, scientists put forward numerous proposals to improve the CFP, acknowledging that the final solutions should emerge from consultation with stakeholders. Climate change, an issue raised much more than in the manifest, reinforces the need to act. • 10 years after writing a manifesto, a group of French Fishery Scientists gathered proposals for the Future of the CFP. • It resulted in an ordered list of proposed measures, highlighting measures considered a priority by the scientists. • They ask for more simplicity, transparency and consultation, and for addressing the situation in the Mediterranean Sea. • They also identify the need to move forward into the Ecosystem-Based Approach to Fisheries. • Efforts are still needed to protect ecosystems and fisheries, especially in a context of climate and global change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The move toward an ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) requires new operational tools in order to support management decisions. Among them, ecosystem- and fisheries-based models are critical to quantitatively predict the consequences of future scenarios by integrating available knowledge about the ecosystem across different scales. Despite increasing development of these complex system models in the last decades, their operational use is still currently limited in Europe. Many guidelines are already available to help the development of complex system models for advice yet they are often ignored. We identified three main impediments to the use of complex system models for decision support: (1) their very complexity which is a source of uncertainty; (2) their lack of credibility, (3) and the challenge of communicating/transferring complex results to decision makers not accustomed to deal with multivariate uncertain results. In this paper, we illustrate these somehow theoretical "best practices" with tangible successful examples, which can help the transfer of complex system models from academic science to operational advice. We first focus on handling uncertainty by optimizing model complexity with regards to management objectives and technical issues. We then list up methods, such as transparent documentation and performance evaluation, to increase confidence in complex system models. Finally, we review how and where complex system models could fit within existing institutional and legal settings of the current European fisheries decision framework. We highlight where changes are required to allow for the operational use of complex system models. All methods and approaches proposed are illustrated with successful examples from fisheries science or other disciplines. This paper demonstrates that all relevant ingredients are readily available to make complex system models operational for advice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deporte, N., Ulrich, C., Mahévas, S., Demanèche, S., and Bastardie, F. 2012. Regional métier definition: a comparative investigation of statistical methods using a workflow applied to international otter trawl fisheries in the North Sea. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 69: 331–342.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. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Mahévas, S., Vermard, Y., Hutton, T., Iriondo, A., Jadaud, A., Maravelias, C. D., Punzón, A., Sacchi, J., Tidd, A., Tsitsika, E., Marchal, P., Goascoz, N., Mortreux, S., and Roos, D. 2011. An investigation of human vs. technology-induced variation in catchability for a selection of European fishing fleets. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68: 2252–2263.The impact of the fishing effort exerted by a vessel on a population depends on catchability, which depends on population accessibility and fishing power. The work investigated whether the variation in fishing power could be the result of the technical characteristics of a vessel and/or its gear or whether it is a reflection of inter-vessel differences not accounted for by the technical attributes. These inter-vessel differences could be indicative of a skipper/crew experience effect. To improve understanding of the relationships, landings per unit effort (lpue) from logbooks and technical information on vessels and gears (collected during interviews) were used to identify variables that explained variations in fishing power. The analysis was undertaken by applying a combination of generalized additive models and generalized linear models to data from several European fleets. The study highlights the fact that taking into account information that is not routinely collected, e.g. length of headline, weight of otter boards, or type of groundrope, will significantly improve the modelled relationships between lpue and the variables that measure relative fishing power. The magnitude of the skipper/crew experience effect was weaker than the technical effect of the vessel and/or its gear. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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