Fishing communities are essential for understanding the broader social and economic impacts of fisheries. “These communities are the anchors of fishing activities at sea and related activities on the shore", says Nathalie Steins, Chair of ICES Human Dimensions Steering Group and co-author, “They reflect the social and cultural importance of fishing, resulting in well-being, identity formation, knowledge, and (im)material cultural heritage."
Yet, traditional fisheries and ecosystem-based management have mostly focused on fleets and ecological outcomes, rarely asking where the people behind the fisheries live, work, and land their catch.
Now, a collaboration between four ICES expert groups—the Working Group on Social Dimensions, the Working Group on Economics, the Working Group on Ecosystem Assessment of Western European Shelf Seas, and the Working Group on Integrated Assessments of the North Sea—has delivered an innovative, spatially explicit workflow that makes fishing communities more visible. By integrating vessel monitoring data, landings records, and regional boundaries, this method links human activity directly with ecosystem-based management units.
Instead of treating fishing effort and coastal communities as secondary to biomass and mortality rates, this approach embeds fishers and communities within the spatial context of ICES stock assessments and ecosystem overviews.
Pilot study
The Celtic Seas and Greater North Sea are the first ecoregions to have this method applied. For each area, researchers mapped fishing communities and connected socio-economic indicators, such as landings value and port activity, with ecosystem pressures and characteristics. Fishing ports act as spatial proxies for community presence and economic reliance on marine resources.
“We chose these ecoregions because of data, expertise, and capacity", says Katell Hamon, co-author of the study and member of the Working Group on Economics and the Working Group on Integrated Assessments of the North Sea. “We realised we had the RDB data with harbours for all EU countries and the UK, which meant that we could use those as a pilot for the Celtic Sea."
By mapping fleet activity over time, the study also explores how coastal community resilience and adaptability may vary. Are fishers tied to fixed locations or shifting with species distributions driven by climate change?
The method has clear policy implications. It can support more adaptive management, such as designing area closures with local livelihoods in mind, coordinating across ecoregions, or anticipating socio-economic impacts of effort displacement.
Community impact
Looking ahead, the authors propose embedding these community maps into ICES ecoregion-based assessments and coupling them with socio-economic impact models to better inform decision-making.
Steins notes that policy-makers are increasingly asking for social data and impact analysis of at-sea policy developments on the fishing industry. So how do the authors see this mapping method being used by managers or decision-makers?
“By connecting activities at sea with land-based communities, communities with strong ties to an ecoregion can be identified", says Hamon, “As a result, changes in the ecoregion (environmental, political, or economic) will be expected to impact not only the fishing fleets but also those communities on land. Decision-makers can anticipate impacts by involving the stakeholders identified with this method. The mapping can be extended to look at specific gears (if we anticipate technical measures) or species. As an online tool it could allow managers to rapidly work with the most affected stakeholders towards tailor-made adaptation or mitigation measures."
This research exemplifies the strength of ICES network in integrating social science into operational marine advice, bridging ecology and economy, fish and fishers, data and community.
Read the full article "Fishing communities as spatially explicit socio-ecological units in ecosystem-based management" in ICES Journal of Marine Science.
