UNCOVER: Understanding the mechanisms of stock recovery

The purpose of UNCOVER is to develop recovery strategies for EU fish stocks which are outside of safe biological limits. In order to develop these recovery strategies, the principle objectives of UNCOVER are to 1) identify changes experienced during stock decline and their consequences for the prospects of stock recovery 2) enhance the understanding of mechanisms of fish stock recovery. 3) provide recommendations for the recovery of EU fish stocks, which are outside of safe biological limits. To fulfill these objectives, UNCOVER will, utilizing a multidisciplinary approach, synthesise and integrate relevant information from previous and ongoing research programs to evaluate and develop strategies for the rebuilding of stocks. Findings will identify changes experienced during stock decline as well as key processes impacting upon the potential for stock recovery. Results will be integrated into a modelling framework in order to evaluate and develop management strategies incorporating biological and environmental factors as well as technical and socio-economic constraints. UNCOVER will investigate the failures and successes of previous stock recovery activities and will try to define optimal strategies for recovery plans for the future. Syntheses of these activities will result in the development of recommendations for rebuilding, as well as alternatives to existing recovery plans, if severe unforeseen problems in achieving their goals have been identified. Recovery strategies developed in UNCOVER will be area- and ecosystem-specific and tuned to key species and their fisheries in the Barents Sea, North Sea, Baltic Sea and Bay of Biscay.

Coordinator: Federal Research Center for Fisheries, Germany