Its specific objectives are: (1) Defining the actual scope(s) of spatiotemporal closures potentially applied to Baltic and Eastern North Sea herring fisheries in the current context, compiling data that enable simulating the effects of spatiotemporal closures, and building precise closure scenarios; (2) assessing the implementation of spatiotemporal closures targeting specific stock components, based on individual markers (genetic and otolith microchemistry); (3) implementing a spatially explicit management strategy evaluation to assess the effects of different closure scenarios and the associated uncertainties, (4) assessing the socio-economic impacts of these effects, (5) synthetizing the outcomes of the different closures evaluated and provide recommendations.
If granted, the project will be carried out by a multidisciplinary team comprising researchers from the Natural Resources Institute Finland - who will coordinate the project -, the National Institute for Aquatic Resources (Denmark), the University of Tartu (Estonia) and the Institute of Marine Research (Norway).
Stakeholders will be involved in the proposed project from its early phase. This proposal should be considered as starting implementation of some key actions recommended by ICES regarding the status of two Baltic herring stocks.
