Joanne is one of the ACOM Vice-Chairs overseeing advisory processes focusing on fishing opportunities advice, and the benchmark process, as well as contributing to further integration of fisheries advice into ecosystem-based management advice.
She has 30 years of experience as a research scientist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, including stock assessment and provision of advice on groundfish stocks nationally (Canada) and internationally (Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization - NAFO). Her research focus is on the ecology and productivity of fish populations, which will give much needed background as ICES continues to move towards an ecosystem approach. She has a long history of involvement with ICES including many years on ACOM.
As ACOM Vice-chair, Henn has a responsibility to oversee the delivery and further development of ecosystem, fisheries and aquaculture overviews, viewpoints and further advancement of ICES knowledge base for ecosystem-based management.
His main scientific interests are related to biology, ecology, assessment and management of non-indigenous species, but also studies in temporal dynamics of intermediate and upper trophic levels of marine ecosystems in relation to natural and human factors. Henn has previously chaired ICES Strategic Initiative on Biodiversity Advice and Science (SIBAS) and Human Activities, Pressures and Impacts Steering Group (HAPISG). He is involved in the UN World Ocean Assessment II and IPBES Invasive Species Assessment.
Morten is the senior scientific advisor at the Technical University of Denmark, National Institute for Aquatic Resources (DTU Aqua) in Copenhagen, Denmark. His role is to provide scientific advice on issues related to fish and fisheries both nationally and internationally.
His main scientific work focuses on the development and application of multispecies stock assessment models including predator-prey interactions, and evaluation of the effects of closed areas and other management measures.
Email; Researchgate; Google Scholar
Robert Aps, Estonia
Robert is a Senior Research Fellow in ecology at the Estonian Marine Institute, University of Tartu. He is also acting as the head of Marine Systems Department at the institute. He is supervising the systems theoretic approach based sustainability science developments by focusing on the interactions between natural and social systems, and how those interactions affect the challenge of sustainability. This transdisciplinary research incorporates the processes, methodologies, knowledge and goals of stakeholders from science, industry and politics and is contributing to science-policy interfaces and social processes where the exchange between scientists, decision makers and stakeholders takes place.
Robert was the Estonian Delegate to ICES Council in 1998-2018, and since 2019 the Estonian representative to ACOM.
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Youen Vermard, France
Bio coming soon.
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Jari Raitaniemi, Finland
Jari is a Senior Scientist at the Natural Research Institute of Finland (Luke). His main research interests include pelagic (mostly herring) and coastal fish species in the northernmost Baltic Sea (mainly the Finnish coast and nearby sea areas) with emphasis on economically valuable species or those that have potential to be economically valuable. His research also focuses on the methods and validity of fish age determination.
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Christopher Zimmermann, Germany
Christopher is the head of the Thünen Institute of Baltic Sea Fisheries in Rostock, Germany. Thünen is a Federal Research Institute dealing with rural areas, forestry and fisheries. Chris is specifically interested in innovative approaches to fisheries management and the communication of scientific advice to stakeholders and a wider public. His background is in ecophysiology of fishes of Polar Seas, acoustic surveys and assessment of pelagic fish. He is also one of the German Delegates to ICES.
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Bjarki Thor Elvarsson, Iceland
Bjarki is a senior scientist at the Demersal Division of the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute, Iceland. Currently he is the project manager of the advisory process within the institute and is reponsible for presenting the advice to stakeholders. Bjarki's research focuses mainly on quantitative population modeling and development of assessment tools.
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Colm Lordan, Ireland
Colm is the Integrated Fisheries and Ecosystems Advice Manager in the Marine Institute in Galway, Ireland. He has been involved in ICES assessment and advice work since 1999, chairing over 20 expert groups, he was a member of ACFM in the early 2000s and ACOM vice chair between 2018 and 2021.
He currently co-ordinates the Marine Institute's sea fisheries assessment and advice team who input to a wide range of ICES, ICCAT, OSPAR and STECF expert and advice groups. He works closely with government departments and stakeholders to communicate the advice and to ensure that the scientific advice, underpinning data and evidence address their needs.
He has a broad range of research interests with over 100 publications on topics including; mixed fisheries, Nephrops, cephalopods, spatial fishing activities, industry data collection and reference points.
Email, Twitter, Researchgate, Google Scholar, ORCID
Didzis Ustups, Latvia
Didzis is the Head of Fish Resource Research Department in the Institute of Food Safety, Animal Health and Environment (BIOR) in Riga, Latvia. In his research, he's interested in the understanding of ecosystem functioning of the Baltic Sea and its coastal rivers. Didzis has been involved as a fishery expert in the development of maritime spatial planning on the national and pan-Baltic levels.
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Linas Ložys, Lithuania
Linas is the Head of Laboratory of Fish Ecology at the Nature Research Centre in Vilnius, Lithuania. The laboratory is the premier research group with expertise on marine and coastal freshwater as well as inland fish communities in Lithuania. The laboratory is involved in research and monitoring to fulfil Lithuania's obligations regarding species and habitat protection in accordance with EU directives or other international conventions. It also provides scientific advice for sustainable exploitation and management of fish stocks. Arising from intensive development of various industries and economic activities that affect aquatic ecosystems, the laboratory assesses their impacts and development plans for mitigating the effects on fish stocks, as well as facilitating the recovery of already affected stocks.
Linas' research focuses, among other fish species, on European eel, percid fish population dynamics, and their behavioral and physiological responses to changing environment.
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Thomas Brunel, the Netherlands
Bio coming soon.
Bjarte Bogstad, Norway Bjarte is senior scientist at the Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway where he works in the Demersal Fish section, and has been the Norwegian member to ACOM since 2019.
His scientific work focuses on stock assessment and trophic interactions including diet studies, and his research has focused on the main fish stocks in the Barents Sea, in particular cod and capelin. He has previously chaired ICES Arctic Fisheries Working Group and Co-Chaired the Working Group on Multispecies Assessment Methods. He also provides advice to Norwegian authorities on fisheries management and takes part in negotiations on annual fisheries agreements between Norway and other countries.
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Jan Horobwy, Poland
Jan is the head of the Department of Fishery Resources at National Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Gdynia, Poland. The role of the department is to provide scientific basis for rational exploitation of fishery resources and to provide advice on fish stock management. Jan's research interests focus on ecological modelling, quantitative population dynamics including multispecies interactions, fish stocks assessment and management, and interactions of fish and parasites. Recently he has been working on biological reference points related to MSY, taking into account environmental influences and data-limited situations.
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Ivone Figueiredo, Portugal
Bio coming soon.
Francisco Velasco, Spain
Francisco is Senior Researcher at the Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO) in Santander, Spain. Currently he is the Chief Scientist of the programme on assessment of Fishery Resources in ICES Area, coordinating the team of IEO scientists working in these matters. He is also the lead scientist on the Spanish Bottom trawl surveys in the Northeastern Atlantic, northern Iberian shelf and Porcupine surveys, and has been a member of ICES International Bottom Trawl Survey Working Group (IBTSWG) since 2002. He has worked on fish trophic relationships of demersal fish, marine ecology, deep fisheries, and biodiversity conservation.
Email, Google Scholar, Research Gate
Massimiliano Cardinale, SwedenMasimiliano has extensive experience in marine fisheries stock assessment and management and international cooperation in the fisheries ecology sector with more than 20 years of professional experience in the field of fisheries biology and ecology and the management of fisheries at national regional and global levels. He is currently Associate Professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Science (SLU), and he has more than 120 publications on international journals, including books, on numerous aspects of fisheries ecology as stock assessment, modelling and analysis of historical data but also bird migration ecology and ecophysiology.
Email; Researchgate; Twitter
Ewen D. Bell, United Kingdom
Bio coming soon.
Scott Large, USA
Scott leads the Ecosystem Dynamics and Assessment Branch at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA-Fisheries). His research group aims to incorporate climate change and ecosystem considerations into the fish advice process - including single-species models, risk assessments, ecosystem threshold analyses, and full end-to-end ecosystem models. Prior to his time at NOAA-Fisheries, Scott was a Professional Officer with ICES Advice Department and focused on Fishery Overviews and North Sea stocks.
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