Commercial fishing operations worldwide can have deleterious effects on the ecosystem, in
particular, catch and discard of non-target species as well as the destruction of sensitive habitats. Throughout the world's oceans the damage caused by fishery operations can be substantial. A thorough scientific understanding of these impacts is required in order to help mitigate the negative aspects of commercial fishing operations while protecting the right to fish. Such an understanding also requires that both biological and socio-economic issues be addressed.
Fishing gears are also used in non-commercial situations to conduct annual scientific surveys to measure abundance of fishery resources. Many assumptions are made about survey gear performance and efficiency, some of which may be erroneous and which may bias results. The accuracy and reliability of survey data is a major concern in stock assessment which provides scientific advice to fishery managers whose decisions have socio-economic consequences. Therefore, a rigorous examination of the performance and effectiveness of fishing gears as scientific sampling tools is especially important.
ICES 2006 will consist of a five-day symposium with invited keynote and plenary speakers, who will provide perspective, insight, and challenges to the participants. The conveners encourage scientific contributions from all around the world dealing with technological, ecological, and socio-economic facets of mobile and static gear fisheries for finfish and shellfish on the following topics:
- Ecosystem sensitive approaches to fishing: reconciling fisheries with conservation through improvements in fishing technology.
- Current status of mobile and static sampling gears used in resource surveys.
- Fishers' responses to management measures and their socio-economic effects.
- Stakeholder forum: Integrating fishers' knowledge with science and stakeholder needs: the future of fisheries management.
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