Registration will open on Monday 16th June. From Tuesday through Thursday there will be oral and poster sessions. Morning and afternoon sessions will be opened by key-note invited speakers. At the end of each day a plenary discussion will be held on management implications. On the final afternoon a plenary will be held in which the proceedings of symposium will be drawn together. In total 30 oral presentations (20-25 min) and 6 key-note addresses (45 min) are scheduled. Friday will be dedicated to a mid-summer excursion in the Norwegian arctic.
The symposium program will be structured around fisheries impacts on different seabed types and communities. The sessions will be divided into the following themes:
Soft bottom/infauna (macrobenthos) community composition
Mixed bottom/epifauna and habitat forming megafauna
Gear effects and development
Posters and oral presentations are encouraged on the following topics:
Instantaneous and physical changes to the benthic ecosystem caused by fishing activity
Change in the extent of habitats impacted by bottom trawling – how big is the problem?
Effects of fishing on marine faunal biodiversity
Effects of fishing on nutrient recycling and benthic-pelagic coupling
Effects of fisheries discards on the benthic ecosystem
Effects of seabed protection measures; total or partial fishing gear modification and technical conservation measures.
Development of indicators of ecological and community change
