On February 3rd 2016, the latest developments of the MareFrame West of Scotland case study were presented and discussed at the meeting of the North Western Waters Advisory Council (NWWAC). A set of management alternatives had previously been defined in cooperation with stakeholders at an earlier meeting on September 30th 2015. These alternatives were simulated with a food-web ecosystem model and the likely outcomes presented to the NWWAC. Results from the model provided inputs to a multi-criteria analysis (MCA), which will be used to compare and evaluate management alternatives and support the selection of the favored approach across a set of relevant criteria. In order to ensure the relevance of this evaluation, the structure of the MCA has been developed together with stakeholders. The MCA is now working and can be used as it is, although improvements will be made to the indicators and the MCA software in the coming months.
The MareFrame work on the West of Scotland case study was well received by the NWWAC, which will now plan the next steps to be taken. Once the MCA has been used to select the preferred management alternative, it will be discussed how this can be improved further. This alternative will ultimately form the basis of a proposal on how progress towards and ecosystem approach to fisheries management can be made within the case study area.
Picture from one of the short breaks of the NWWAC meeting.
More information:
The following presentation of case study was given at the meeting:
For more information about the case study, see http://mareframe.mapix.com/west-coast-of-scotland.html.
Contact:
Please contact Alan Baudron (alan.baudron@abdn.ac.uk – questions about the modelling approach
or Kåre Nolde Nielsen (kare.nolde.nielsen@uit.no – questions about the decision support approach).