The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) aims at protect the marine environment and to achieve Good Environmental Status (GES) by 2020 and explicitly requires fishing activity to be managed to ensure that conservation objectives for the broader marine ecosystem might be achieved.
The Commission Decision (EU) 2017/848 sets out that populations of commercial fish and shellfish (MSFD Descriptor 3 (D3)) are within safe biological limits and exhibit a population age and size distribution that is indicative of a healthy stock.
The operational list of commercially-exploited fish and shellfish species compiled by the European Commission (EC) for each MSFD region and subregion and the lists of commercially-exploited fish and shellfish species reported by Member States according to (EU) 2017/848 form the basis for D3 assessment.
This workshop will review both the ECs operational list and the lists reported by Member States in 2018 against the reference list. Among others, the workshop will identify important small scale fisheries species and stocks under national management plans.
Building on previous ICES advice, (2015, 2016), WKD3Lists will evaluate and if required propose revisions to the criteria used to define commercially-exploited fish and shellfish species and propose changes to the D3 reference lists to fully meet the requirements of the Commission Decision in the next round of reporting.
This workshop is part of the formal ICES advisory process in response to a request from the EU. As such, the workshop report will be peer-reviewed, after which an advice drafting group will be convened to draft advice for approval by ICES Advisory Committee (ACOM).
WKD3Lists will take place online from Monday 22 –Tuesday 30 June 2020. The workshop is intentionally spread over a longer period with short plenaries to allow ample time for individual/sub-group tasks.
Registration
This workshop is now full.
Note: If the workshop is oversubscribed, ICES reserves the right, in consultation with the workshop chairs, to select the final workshop participants based on their expertise and geographical distribution.