Emma Lockerbie will present the Department of Biological Sciences seminar with a talk entitled, "A Comparative framework to support an ecosystems approach to fisheries in a global context".  

The removal of marine species through fishing has impacted marine ecosystems for thousands of years. The pressure of exploitation on marine ecosystems has now reached a point at which there is serious concern over ecosystem well-being on a global scale. There has, therefore, been a global move towards an ecosystem approach to fisheries management. The objective of this study was to develop a decision tree framework to assess the status of exploited marine ecosystems, which could be successfully applied to numerous ecosystems and guide decision support under changing conditions.  This work was based on that of the IndiSeas project, which makes use of indicators designed to detect the impacts of fishing on marine ecosystem around the world. Ecosystem specific suites of environmental indicators were also included to ascertain the impacts of environmental variability on ecosystem components. The framework was developed for the Southern Benguela ecosystem and then applied, with minor adjustments to account for ecosystem-specific characteristics, to the South Catalan Sea and North Sea. It is anticipated that the knowledge that this framework will add to current methods of generating advice for fisheries management will aid future decision support within these ecosystems.