Marine Aggregate Integrated Assessment – A method to quantify ecosystem sustainability
- Reference:
- 08/P02
- Organisation:
- Cefas (with ABPmer)
- Amount Funded:
- £180,981
- Status:
- Complete
With the adoption of the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries
management (EAF) and the Marine Strategy Directive (MSD) there is a
need to evaluate the potential wider scale (regional) and
longer-term (e.g. 20 years) effects of dredging on the marine
ecosystem in combination with other human pressures. This project
will examine historic data sets going back over 20 to 30 years in
relation to dredging activities (off take, licensed area, dredged
area, total hours dredged, newly dredged area, dredging intensity),
fish stocks (pelagic and demersal fin fish stock metrics e.g. CPUE
and spawning stock biomass), fisheries (commercial landings, TACs,
fishing effort by fleet and gear), shipping (vessels density,
mapping, vessel type and cargo, routes, anchorages and reported
incidents), benthos (benthic macrofauna species densities),
plankton (phyto- and zooplankton species densities), seabirds
(species densities) and climate forcing in a region off the East
coast of England (Cross Sands area). The correlation (or
relatedness) between the above groups of data (or ecosystem
components) will be explored at different spatial and temporal
scales using recently developed and evaluated methods which allow
an assessment of the relative significance of multiple pressures
(e.g. ocean climate, fishing, dredging & shipping) to be made
in relation to the status off the marine ecosystem (fish stocks,
benthos, plankton, seabirds) off the East coast.