Victor Smetacek, Germany
Click on the picture to see Victor Smetacek outlining his keynote lecture from this morning |
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Possible effects of retreating sea-ice cover on sub-Arctic and Arctic ecosystems
The Arctic sea-ice cover has been shrinking over the past decades but the unexpected, drastic decline of ice volume during 2007 has brought the spectre of a totally ice-free Arctic summer forward by several decades. The accompanying loss of albedo during the summer months will lead to warming of the surface ocean and further acceleration of the rate of melting of the Greenland ice cap. Sea level is currently projected to rise by 1 m by the end of this century which will have a devastating effect on coastal ecosystems worldwide, particularly coral reefs and mangrove forests, apart from the human dimension.
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Funding from ICES is available to promote and encourage the participation (particularly first-time) of young scientists at the ASC. Young fishermen are invited to attend the ASC via the Regional Advisory Councils (RACs) in European countries, and fishermen's organisations in non-European countries. This year a programme, including an excursion to two small fishing villages nearby Halifax, was organised for them. The ASC is an opportunity for them to see the science being done in ICES and to learn the background for the scientific advice. We spoke to a few of the group. |
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Nuno Prista from Portugal (far left), Susa Niiranen from Finland and Charles A. Aas from Norway. |
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Nuno Prista, 30, is a PhD-student from the University of Lisbon, co-advised at Old Dominion University, Northfolk, Virginia. He is participating in the ASC for the second time, but this is his first time presenting a paper at the conference.
- The programme has been good; I have seen interesting talks, especially on size-based approach to fisheries research.
Nuno joined the excursion on Wednesday to the two Nova Scotian fishing villages, Port Mouton and Lower West Pubnico.
- It is very interesting to compare fisheries between Europe and North America. There is a big difference between the small scale fisheries in southern Europe compared to the more technical approach that they have here.
Another Young Scientist, Susa Niiranen, 26, is participating in the ASC for the first time. She has a Master's degree in marine biology from the University of Helsinki and has been working for the Finnish Institute of Marine Research for one year. She finds the ASC programme interesting and especially appreciates the opportunities for networking.
- It has been really nice to get to know people from different countries and to exchange ideas and views with them.
Susa has attended many lectures, and picks the plenary lecture on climate change as the best one so far. She has also found it interesting to hear and learn about fisheries, as her own research field concentrates on food web modelling for the Baltic Sea.
Charles A. Aas, 28, from Norway is participating in the Young Fishermen programme at the ASC. He comes from a family of fishermen and worked as one himself before and during his studies in the College of Fisheries Science. After graduation he has been working with the Norwegian Fishermen's Union in Tromso.
Charles would have wanted to see more young fishermen at the ASC, but nevertheless has found the conference to be a great opportunity to learn new things.
- The comparison between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Baltic cod fisheries was very interesting, as the situation is very different from the fisheries in northern Norway.
Naturally, the excursion to fishing villages, guided by a local fisherman as well as an industry representative, was an interesting learning experience for the young fisherman.
- The boats and equipment are pretty much the same, but the fact that the vessels here are specialized in just one species is very different from Norway.
All in all the young ASC participants have been enjoying their experience in Halifax: networking, learning new things, and not forgetting enjoying some fresh East Coast fish at dinnertime. |
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A group of young ASC-participants joined an excursion to a Nova Scotian fishing village on Wednesday. |
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The Deputy Premier of Nova Scotia, Mr Angus MacIsaac addressed the participants at the opening ceremony of the ASC on Monday 22 September. Click here to read his speech to the audience. |
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Valérie Harscoat, France
Yes. I work for fisheries data management, so I'm interested in seeing what science does with all the data, why to collect data and how you can use it in different fields. There has been lots of things to choose from and I have been able to find presentations which are relevant to my work. |
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Philip MacMullen, UK
Yes. As always, the wide range of sessions doesn’t interest everybody, but the ones I wanted to attend have had some exceptionally good presentations and they have also reassured me that I am going to the right direction. |
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Patrick Daniel, Belgium
Yes. For one part, I am here to discuss with ICES staff, as I am from the European Commission, in charge of organizing the advice requests together with ICES. Otherwise I have followed the workshop on fishing effort management schemes as well as learnt about research in stock evaluation, so the programme has been quite complete that way as well. |
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Theme Session D
New trends in diseases of marine organisms: causes and effects
The Theme Session clearly reflected the increasing scientific and regulatory interest in ICES member countries related to diseases of wild and farmed fish and shellfish as well as of marine mammals. Presentations given focused on a broad spectrum of relevant aspect, including the use of diseases of marine fish and mammals as indicators of ecosystem health in national and international environmental monitoring and assessment programmes, the potential population effects of diseases in wild fish and shellfish, the growing importance of diseases in the globally expanding mariculture, new trends in disease interactions between wild and farmed fish and shellfish, adverse effects of contaminants, climate change and other anthropogenic stressors on the prevalence and spread of diseases, and improved methodologies related to disease diagnosis. All of these issues will further be addressed by the ICES Working Group on Pathology and Diseases of Marine Organisms that initiated the Theme Session. |
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Theme Session I on
Fishing Capacity, effort and fishing mortality – the understanding of fishery dynamics and their links to management
This theme session has covered issues surrounding fisheries capacity and effort from the North Sea to South America, New Zealand to New England, as well as captured species ranging from anchovy to cetaceans. The session concentrates on the control and management of fishing effort, which is arguably the cutting edge of the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management. Key features emerging from the session includes the vital role of the “skipper effect” in understanding how vessels catch fish. Catching is not simply an amalgam of the vessel capabilities and the fish availability. Many of the studies took the analysis beyond simply the vessels, their effort and the resultant catches to the impact of various controls on revenues and profitability in the target fisheries. Many of the papers highlighted the potential for simple effort and capacity controls to result in in-intended consequences, emphasising the need to understand how fisheries really operate before applying control and management. |
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