SEASIDE
Seaview Network members are applying to H2020 Blue Growth Call, under the proposal SEASIDE, "Strategies of Eco-viAbility for fiSherIes Development and management in a full Ecosystem context ".
Preserving marine biodiversity whilst maintaining the provisioning, cultural and regulating ecosystem services associated with marine fisheries in a context of global changes is a key challenge. While the need for Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM), to ensure fisheries sustainability and resilience, is widely accepted, ecosystem-based approaches are still not operational for the management of European fisheries. SEASIDE will develop an innovative set of socio-ecosystem modeling, evaluating and projective tools to advise the next generation EBFM. Combining a participatory approach, Eco-Viability Analysis with the use of Models of Intermediate Complexity, SEASIDE will provide an integrated and
transdisciplinary decision-support approach, enriching the evidence base and support the translation of science into advice. We will account for the multi-species, multi-sector, dynamic and uncertain nature of fisheries systems, as well as the tradeoffs between the multiple ecological, economic and social objectives underpinning EBFM. We will identify and compare ecoviable management strategies in eight contrasting European case studies ranging from the Arctic through temperate to tropical seas, drawing on the multidisciplinary expertise in ecology, social sciences, modelling and participatory research of its 26 partners from 12 countries, also including JRC, ICES, FAO and WWF. We will endeavor to integrate this work within both existing regional advisory bodies, and relevant local stakeholder arenas, to bridge the gap between knowledge on the dynamics of marine social-ecological systems and EBFM. Effective dissemination and take-up of project methodological, modelling and quantitative results will be achieved via the production of generic software, data sets and evaluations, as well as guidelines adapted to the need of stakeholders at multiple scales. SEASIDE outputs will thus help improve policy coherence and implementation for sustainable European fisheries.
