About this website
Here you will find a description of the aims and activities of the Irish
research project to build an ecosystem approach for fisheries management. An
important part of the project is engaging with all interested parties - the
fishing industry, regulators, marine scientists and the public. This website is
one of the principal means for building a community of active participation in
the project.
What is the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries
Management?
It is a move away from traditional single stock fisheries management, with the
purpose of maintaining sustainable fisheries that do not damage the ecosystems
upon which they rely. EAFM recognises that the viability of every commercial
fish stock depends absolutely on the health of the ecological community within
which it lives and takes part. The aim of the fishery manager in EAFM is
therefore not merely to ensure a sustainable yield of commercial harvest from
the sea, but to ensure the long-term health, diversity and vitality of the
marine ecosystem. For example, if sand-eel stocks (one of the natural prey for
cod) are depleted, EAFM asks what impacts this has on both commercial species
like cod, and other marine creatures such as dolphins and seabirds which may
depend on sand-eels. Cod management under EAFM attempts to take all these
interactions into account.
Critically the EAFM also incorporates the socio-cultural and economic
determinants of 'real-life' management into its design. An important element of
this project is the study of sources of conflict in the current management
structure - whether and how greater participation by fishermen in management
can help to resolve conflict and improve the long-term viability of sustainable
management. Designing more participative, flexible and responsive management
systems is vital to EAFM development.
The Research Consortium
The project itself is a seven year, ¤3.9m research programme funded under the
Irish Beaufort Marine Research Awards (see logos on the left). The aim is to
develop an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management for Irish Waters that is
both directly useful for fisheries management under Irish responsibility and as
a worked example, which in collaboration with other national efforts will set a
new global best practice. The participants form a multi-disciplinary consortium
comprising research groups from University College Cork, Queen's University
Belfast, and the Marine Institute (institutions' links below). The work is
divided up into nine
work packages , each of which has its own
webpages on this site. The work packages integrate by focussing collectively on
a nested set of
case studies to develop biological and social
understanding of the combined human-eco system.