Bill Karp, President of ICES, welcomed the delegates of ICES Member Countries who gathered at ICES Headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark for the 112th Council meeting this week. The Council meeting serves as a key platform for strategic discussions that will shape ICES future priorities.
Discussions included the prioritization of offshore renewable energy throughout ICES Member Countries, the advisory processes, ecosystem-based fisheries management, and the recent cyber-attack. The Council approved an updated ICES policy on carbon emissions and a revision of ICES Observer Policy, which plays a pivotal role in defining the roles and responsibilities of observers within the organization.
Suspension of Russian Federation
Following the invasion of Ukraine, in March 2022, the Council placed a temporary suspension of Russian participation in ICES activities. In March 2024, the Russian Federation announced that the State Duma would vote to renounce the ICES Convention. Council was informed that, according to a news report on 22 October, the Russian Federation State Duma has voted to denounce ICES Convention and withdraw from the organization. According to another news report, this law will now be sent to the Federation Council.
ICES Convention allows a Member Country to renounce the Convention. Under Article 17 of the Convention, the Russian Federation will cease to be a delegate one year after the Danish government receives its written denunciation. The remaining 19 ICES member countries will continue to operate under the 1964 ICES Convention.
New President
Elections took centre stage at this year’s Council meeting. As Bill Karp closes out his 3-year term as President, Carl O ‘Brien, the current First-Vice President, was elected as his successor. O’Brien, Cefas and Defra’s Chief Fisheries Science Adviser, has been involved with ICES since 1995, serving as the UK Delegate to ICES since 2012.
“It’s going to be a busy three years” O’Brien said on being elected. “I fondly remember my attendance at my first ICES expert group meeting in February 1995 and I am strongly supportive of ICES and its role in the development of talented scientists. I have participated in and chaired many ICES groups and have served our community as Chair of the Resource Management Committee [2001–2004], ACOM Vice-chair [2009–2012], and still today, I remain active within our expert groups – earlier this month, I chaired the thirteenth ICES Workshop on data-limited methods. I have been one of the two UK ICES Delegates since 2012, Chair of the Awards Committee from 2016–2024, a former Vice-President [2018–2020] and First-Vice-President [2021–2024]".
New First Vice-President
Pablo Abaunza, Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) was elected as the next First-Vice President by the Council. Abaunza has a long-standing dedication to ICES and to the organization's ethical and scientific standards. Involved with ICES since 1990, he has been a member of many expert groups and has served as Spain's Delegate to ICES since 2015.
In further appointments, Thorsteinn Sigurdsson was elected to the Bureau as Vice-President. Christopher Zimmerman, Germany was approved as the incoming Chair of the Finance Committee, with Anna Rijndorf, Denmark, and João Figueiredo Pereira approved as new members of the Finance Committee.
