UNCOVER report : The potential for success of recovery strategies for fish stocks & fisheries - options and constraints ; final activity report

The UNCOVER project ‘Understanding the mechanisms of stock recovery’ has produced a rational scientific basis for developing Long-Term Management Plans (LTMPs) and recovery strategies for 11 of the ecologically and socioeconomically most important fish stocks/fisheries in the Norwegian and Barents Seas (Northeast Arctic cod, Norwegian spring-spawning herring, Barents Sea capelin), the North Sea (North Sea cod, Autumn spawning herring, North Sea plaice), the Baltic Sea (Eastern Baltic cod, Baltic sprat) and the Bay of Biscay and Iberian Peninsula (Northern hake, Southern hake, Bay of Biscay anchovy). UNCOVER’s objectives were to identify changes experienced during stock depletion/collapses, to understand prospects for recovery, to enhance the scientific understanding of the mechanisms of fish stock/fishery recovery, and to formulate recommendations how best to implement LTMPs/recovery plans. This UNCOVER report is aimed at a knowledgeable readership comprising, in particular, scientists, scientific advisors and administrators/managers in the fishery and environmental fields. The report provides an overview of the project’s aims and scope, approaches and methodologies, and detailed documentation of the deliverables and results which places these in relation to current and emerging challenges, constraints and opportunities. UNCOVER emphasizes that it is essential to set ‘realistic’ long-term objectives and strategies for achieving successful LTMPs/recovery plans. It is recommended that such plans ideally should include: 1) Consideration of stock-regulating environmental processes; 2) Incorporation of fisheries effects on stock structure and reproductive potential; 3) Consideration of changes in habitat dynamics due to global change; 4) Incorporation of biological multispecies interactions; 5) Incorporation of technical multispecies interactions and mixed-fisheries issues; 6) Integration of economically optimized harvesting; 7) Exploration of the socio-economic implications and political constraints from the implementation of existing and alternative recovery plans; 8) Investigations on the acceptance of the plans by stakeholders and specifically incentives for compliance by the fishery; 9) Agreements with and among stakeholders. UNCOVER has provided imperative policy support underpinning the following fundamental areas: a) Evolution of the Common Fisheries Policy with respect to several aims of the ‘Green Paper’; b) Contributing to the Marine Strategy Framework Directive with respect to fish stocks/communities; c) Furthering the aims of the 2002 Johannesburg Declaration of the World Summit on Sustainable Development regarding achieving Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) for depleted fish stocks. This has been done by contributing to LTMPs/recovery plans for fish stocks/fisheries, demonstrating how to shift from scientific advice based on limit reference points towards setting and attaining targets such as MSY, and furthering ecosystem-based management through incorporating multispecies, environmental and habitat, climate variability/change, and human dimensions into these plans.