IMAGE: Indicators for fisheries MAnaGement in Europe

The project ‘Indicators for fisheries MAnaGement in Europe' (IMAGE) seeks to develop an operational framework of candidate indicators to support ecosystem-based fisheries management, which is a requirement in the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Indicators can support the decision-making process by (1) describing the pressures affecting the ecosystem, the state of the ecosystem and the response of managers, (2) tracking progress towards meeting management objectives and (3) communicating trends in complex impacts and management processes to a non-specialist audience. IMAGE therefore seeks to develop an operational framework of candidate indicators, to elaborate these indicators into comprehensive dashboards to support management decision-making, to develop methodology to integrate this information into tools supporting the decision making process, to develop a framework that can evaluate management strategies based on indicators, and to test their applicability in regional case studies, taking into account the diversity of the fishery systems in Europe. The application of indicators in management systems requires that they are understood by, and therefore accessible to, stakeholders, and a major focus of the project will be to engage stakeholders through the emerging Regional Advisory Councils (RAC).

IFM is responsible for developing indicators for socio-economic operational objectives, and participates in the North Sea case study.

Coordinator: Wageningen IMARES, Institute for MArine Resources and Ecosystem Studies, The Netherlands