MariFish selects three projects for funding through its “virtual common pot” programme

Following an earlier call for proposals, MariFish can now announce the projects that will be supported through its “virtual common pot” funding programme. A total of €3.7m is being committed by partners to support three projects which together will help develop the concept of operational indicators for fisheries management.

Marifish launched a call for proposals on 15 December 2008 with a closing date of 2 March 2009.  Nine partners – Cyprus, Denmark, France, Greece, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Spain and UK (Defra) – committed a total of just over €4 million to the “virtual common pot”. Under the “virtual common pot model”, all partners fund their own national research groups.

The research theme selected for the call was the development of the concept of operational fisheries management indicators that can assist managers in developing long term fisheries management plans; and exploring ways these indicators can be applied to selected fisheries through their inclusion in fishery management plans.

The specific criteria for all applications was that each proposals should involve trans-national consortia from at least three of the MariFish countries funding the research call.

Six proposals were received and following peer review by a panel of international experts the MariFish partners agreed to fund the following three projects:

REPROdUCE: Understanding recruitment processes using coupled biophysical models of the pelagic ecosystem. 

This project is led by the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) and involves research teams from Greece (HCMR), France (IFREMER) and AZTI also from Spain. Portugal (IPIMAR) is also involved in the project as member of the Marifish partnership, taking the option of participating at no cost in the call with research donated “in kind” as person/months.

REPROdUCE will develop life cycle models for sardines and anchovy in the Bay of Biscay and for anchovy in the Aegean Sea.  The models will be used to understand the main mechanisms and drivers of the recruitment process and help predict the abundance of new individuals entering the stock.  A series of assessment questions relevant to the management of each of the target stocks will be evaluated and indices for recruitment strengths will be produced to assist short, medium and long term management plans.  The total budget allocated is €1,066,569.

BADMINTON: Bycatch and discards: management indicators, trends and location. 

This project is led by the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) and involves research teams from France (IFREMER), the Netherlands (IMARES), Spain (IEO), UK (Cefas), Denmark (IFM and DTU-AQUA) and Iceland (MATIS).

BADMINTON will firstly quantify and analyse spatial and temporal distribution of EU discards.  Operational indicators will then be developed for both discard state – amounts and characteristics – and pressure – selectivity of fishing.  Important factors that determine discard amounts, including ecological, economic and social, will be investigated.  A simulation tool will help compare alternative management strategies aimed at reducing discards in mixed species fisheries.  The project will conclude with suggested mitigation measures.  The total budget allocated is €600,000.

DEFINELT: Developing fisheries management indicators and targets. 

This project is led by the Danish Technical University (DTU-AQUA) and involves research teams from the UK (Cefas, IC, USTAN), Netherlands (IMARES), Norway (IMR), Greece (HCMR), Iceland (MRI) and INE also from Denmark. Total budget allocated is €2,092,580.

The project has four main strands:  firstly to construct multi-species models that consider predator/prey relationships and interactions with fisheries and develop appropriate indicators; secondly identify the main causes of variation in recruitment patterns and develop stock-recruitment models which will be used to provide management advice; thirdly assess the effect of technical interactions on target and non-target species, in the context of bycatch and discards; and fourthly develop resource indicators that combine social, economic and biological elements.  A fifth strand will synthesise the results to ensure that the management advice is consistent with the ecosystem approach. 

Funding

The table below gives details of the funding commitment made by each of the participating partners. Cyprus withdrew from the funding agreement because their research organisations were not involved in the selected projects. The total budget provided through the MariFish ‘common pot’ amounts to €3,759,149. The Danish partner is contributing an additional €513,000, the Greek partner €463,000, and the French partner €293,000 through co-financing agreements with their participating research institutes.

Table detailing the budget contribution made by each MariFish partner.