Biodiversity of North Sea fish: Why do the politicians care but marine scientists appear oblivious to this issue?

Abstract

Political drivers underpinning the development of an Ecosystem Approach to Marine Management (EAMM) focus on conserving and restoring biodiversity. However, the Element of Ecological Quality for Fish Communities that emerged from the 2002 Bergen North Sea Ministerial Conference relates to "Changes in the proportion of large fish and hence the average weight and average maximum length of the fish community". How did this apparent change in direction arise? Responding to advice requests from OSPAR, ICES established seven criteria for identifying "state" indicators capable of supporting indicator-based management. Application of these criteria underlined the merits of indicators of fish size, whereas diversity indices performed poorly against four of the criteria. These difficulties are examined here. Far from being oblivious to the issue of biodiversity, marine scientists recognized that they were not in a position to recommend Ecological Quality Objectives (EcoQOs) for fish biodiversity that would have relied on the use of biodiversity indicators. The use of indicators of size structure, for which the theoretical foundation was better developed, allowed the continued development of an EAMM in the short term. However, if the issue of biodiversity is to be addressed in the longer term, then shortcomings associated with the use of biodiversity indicators need to be addressed. © Crown Copyright/Fisheries Research Services 2008. Published by Oxford Journals. All rights reserved.