NAFO WGESA meeting, 18th-27th November, Halifax

From 18th to 27th of November took place the 7th WGESA (Working Group on Ecosystem Studies and Assessment) meeting, in the headquarter of NAFO in Halifax (Canada). This working group is co-chaired by Mariano Koen-Alonso from DFO-St. John´s and Andy Kenny, from CEFAS-Lowestoft.

The WGESA currently operates within a set of long term Themes and Terms of Reference that were approved by NAFO Scientific Council (SC) in June 2010 and will be systematically addressed by the group over several meetings.

Theme 1: Take stock of past and planned WGEAFM related work
ToR 1. Update on identification and mapping of sensitive species and habitats in the NAFO area.
Theme 2: Status and functioning of NAFO marine ecosystems (empirical evidence)
ToR 2. Synthesis of current understanding of the dynamics of Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) in the NAFO area.
ToR 3. Scope of Marine Protected Areas and VMEs in the context of habitat and spatial functioning.
Theme 3: Practical application (synthesising the evidence and theory)
ToR 4. Systems level modelling and assessment approaches.
ToR 5. Ecosystem indicators and how they can be used in management advice
ToR 6. Methods for the long-term monitoring of VME status and functioning.

These Themes and ToRs build on the “Roadmap for Developing an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries for NAFO” proposed by WGEAFM in its 2nd meeting (Vigo, 1-5 February 2010). In addition, WGEAFM also provides guidance to SC on specific ecosystem-related issues and requests from Fisheries Commission.

Multispecies modelling are among the key components of the WGESA roadmap, to be developed for an ecosystem approach to fisheries management.

Schematic representation of a possible structure to develop Fisheries Assessments in NAFO proposed by the WGESA in its 4th meeting, 2011

 

One of the main motivations of GADCAP is the need of multispecies models in this roadmap and hence, participation in this WG is one of the main milestones. GADCAP was presented during this meeting, with detailed description of Gadget, databases employed, participant institutions and monospecies models structure up to date. Feedback from WG participants was of great utility, and the results from estimates of total Ecosystem and Fisheries Production Potential (EPP and FPP respectively) seems promising. In the coming years, results from EPP and FPP estimates, as well as Ecosystem Production Units (EPU) delineation, will be merged with results from multispecies models, as the one that will be produced with GADCAP project.

 

Participants in the 7th NAFO-WGESA meeting, 2014 in Halifax (Canada)

Report of WGESA 2013: Report_WGESA_2013

Stock Assessment Advanced ICES Course, Copenhagen 3rd-7th November 2014

From 3rd to 7th of November in the ICES headquarter in Copenhagen, Jan Jaap Poos (IMARES, Netherlands) and Arny Magnusson (MRI, Iceland) imparted the course on Stock Assessment, advanced level. This is the continuation of the Introductory course to Stock Assessment and is mostly focused on parameter estimation and managment of uncertainty.

Theory was put into practice as much as possible by working on examples from different angles. These example sessions were completed in different software environments such as R and AD model builder. Besides building assessment models and estimating uncertainty using various tools, we also discussed closely related analytical techniques to improve scientific advice for managers.

Participants in the Advanced Stock Assessment ICES course

Report of the course: Report_Stock_Assessment_Advanced

ICES-WGSAM meeting, 20-24th October 2014, London

From 20th to 24th of October took place in London the WGSAM (Working Group on Multispecies Assessment Methods), chaired by Daniel Howell (IMR, Norway) and Steve Mackinson (CEFAS, UK). During this meeting, request from other ICES WG or Fisheries Comission are treated, as well as dealing with the own terms of reference (ToRs) of the Group. For the next 3 years, WGSAM ToRs are:

1) Report on further progress and key updates in multispecies and ecosystem modelling throughout the ICES region

2) Report on the development of key-runs (standardized model runs updated with recent data) of multispecies and eco-system models for different ICES regions.

3) Develop standards for ‘Key Runs’ of other modelling approaches (e.g. Size spectra, TGAMs)

4) Develop and compare foodweb and ecosystem indicators (e.g. from the MSFD) and advice produced by multispecies key runs

5) Explore the consequence of multispecies interactions and environmental factors in practical multispecies advice for fisheries management (MSY related and other biological reference points)

6) Compare methods used to include spatial structure (predator prey overlap) in multispecies prediction models (preferably together with WGIPEM

7) Work towards providing ecosystem advice consistent with species and technical interaction in mixed fisheries (preferably together with WGMIXFISH)

Despite GADCAP is focused in NAFO waters and hence it is not of direct interest for ICES, it is still very interesting to interact with scientist from different regions and to spread modelling in different systems. Traditionally there is a strong interaction among scientist from NAFO and ICES, represented in cooperation of different working groups like NIPAG, WGNARS or the past and present participation of scientist working usually in NAFO in ICES working groups (like for example the WGSAM). In addition, for GADCAP project it is very convenient to get feedback from researchers other than from NAFO organization.

The 4th day of the meeting there was a joint meeting of scientist from WGSAM and WGMIXFISH with the intention of starting to envision how to deal with the issue of not just multispecies but multifleet fisheries, which is very convenient in terms of splitting fishing mortality for each species among the different fleets. This kind of approaches will be probably needed in the future also in NAFO.

 

36th Annual Meeting of NAFO

The 36th Annual Meeting of NAFO was held at the Palacio de Congresos Mar de Vigo (Spain) from 22nd to 26th of September. This is the most important meeting of NAFO, where the Fisheries Commission, Scientific Council and stakeholders (like fishing sector or non-governmental organizations) meet with the intention of fixing next year TACs (Total Allowable Catches) for all commercial stocks, all well as some other meassures of interest related with regulation of fishing activity in this area (Report_General_Council_September_2014).

During this meeting, the GADCAP project was presented to the Scientific Council, which received the project very positive feedback (Report_SC_September_2014). The multispecies and ecosystem approach to fisheries management is being a very important part of Scientific Council discussion in the last years, and any contribution to these approachs in NAFO waters is always encouraged. It was agreed that at the end of next year, results from GADCAP project will be presented to NAFO, via the September SC meeting or the November WGESA (WG-Ecosystem Studies and Assessment) meeting.

Presentation of GADCAP to the Scientific Council of NAFO

Second stay in Vigo

As part of project GADCAP a second stay in Vigo and Lisbon took place from 1st to 26th of September. The main goals of this stay were:

1) Getting feedback from Antonio Ávila (IPMA, Lisbon) and Fran Saborido (IIM, Vigo) in relation to the redfish model.

2) Presenting the results from cod model to Fernando González and Diana González from the IEO of Vigo.

3) Start to design the structure of the shrimp model, for which, feedback from Mikel Casas (IEO centre of Vigo) would be very important.

4) Attending to the 36th Annual Meeting of NAFO and present GADCAP to the scientific council.

All these goals were successfully fulfilled, and when I left Vigo to Bergen, cod model was ready for the multispecies model, the redfish model was better suited and the shrimp model was already running.

From left to right, the IIM-CSIC, the IEO of Vigo and the IPMA of Lisbon

In addition, extra collaboration was get from the Marine Research Institute of Iceland (http://www.hafro.is/index_eng.php). Size distribution of shrimp catches by Iceland fleet was provided by Ingibjörg G. Jónsdóttir, fisheries ecologist in charge of shrimp at the MRI.

 

 

 

FLR-a4a Course. Ispra 25-29 August

From 25th to 29th August took place the FLR-a4a course, at the EU Joint Research Centre of Ispra (Italy). The course was taught by Iago Mosqueira and Ernesto Jardim, with the collaboration of Finlay Scott and Nekane Alzorriz. Stock assessment researchers from different nationality, like Ireland, Greece, Spain, Italy or Germany  attended to this course.

 

Participants of the FLR-a4a course in Ispra (Italy)

 

The a4a (assessment for all) is an initiative supported by the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) with the aim to develop, test, and distribute methods to assess a large numbers of stocks in an operational time frame, and to build the necessary capacity/expertise on stock assessment and advice provision.

The long-term strategy of a4a is to increase the number of stock assessments by reducing the workload required to run each analysis and by bringing more scientists/analysts into fisheries management advice. This is achieved by developing a working framework with the methods required to run all the analyses a stock assessment needs. Such an approach should make the model exploration and selection processes easier, as well as decreasing the burden of moving between software platforms.

The model chosen was a statistical catch-at-age model implemented in R (R Core Team, 2014), making use of the FLR platform, and using automatic differentiation implemented in ADMB as the optimization engine (for more information read Jardim et al, 2014) .

The goals of the course were:

1. Introduction to FLR
2. Loading data, plotting and EDA
3. Stock-recruitment and reference points
4. Modelling M and growth with a4a
5. Stock assessment using a4a
6. Short term forecasting for advice
7. Forecasting scenarios
8. From stock assessment to MSE

 

Participation in the Flemish Cap 2014 survey

From June 23rd to July 28th, Alfonso Pérez Rodríguez participated in the 2014 Flemish Cap survey (FC14). On June 24th, the Vizconde de Eza, the research vessel used in the EU NAFO surveys in three different areas (3NO, 3L and 3M), lefth St. John´s harbour (Newfoundland) toward the Flemish Cap, located eastern and outer of the 200 miles that encompass the Canadian exclusive economic zone.

Research vessel Vizconde de Eza

The European Union Flemish Cap survey started in 1988, and provides the basic information (in addition to the comercial fleet catches database) in the scientific advice for the management of commercial species in NAFO. Scientific staff from the Institute of Marine Research, the Oceanographic Centre of Vigo and the Portuguese Institute of Sea and Atmosphere have collaborated to develope the 2014 survey.

Vizconde de Eza crew and scientific staff involved in the 2014 Flemish Cap survey

In relation to GADCAP, the Flemish Cap survey provides basic and esential information about stock abundance, size distribution, growth, maturation, trophic interactions and oceanographic conditions. Collaboration of Alfonso Pérez Rodríguez in the 2014 Flemish Cap survey has been centered in the stomach content sampling of the most relevant fish demersal species from 120 to 1400 meters depth.

 

Estibaliz Martínez de Lagos and Alfonso Pérez Rodríguez, responsibles of stomach content analysis during the EU Flemish Cap survey

In addition to collaborate with the Flemish Cap survey time series, the attendance of Alfonso Pérez pursue the collection of predator-prey size information, specially in relation to the cod-redfish, cod-shrimp and redfish-shrimp trophic interactions. Furthermore, some skills acquire in the 2014 MEDIT survey as using otoliths, mandibles, spines or other  hard structures to identify at the maximum taxonomic level highly digested organisms.

Example of samples of stomach content. Left: Euphausiacea; Right: otolith of Chiasmodon niger.

 

 

 

Participation on MEDIT 2014, from Castellón to Cap de Creus

From May 23th to June 3rd Alfonso Pérez Rodríguez participated, as part of the scientific team, in the 21st bottom trawl survey in the Mediterranean (MEDIT 2014), stage from Castellón de la Plana to the limit with France in the area GSA6. MEDIT is an international survey programme intended to produce basic information on benthic and demersal species in term of population distribution as well as demographic structure, which is used, among other purposes, to provide scientific advice to the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM).

From the 150 species that have been registered in the MEDIT time series, sampling effort is more focused on thirty-height different species, for which the total number of individuals, length frequency distribution, sex (including sexual maturity stage) and total weight are meassured. For all the other sampled species of fish, crustacean and mollusc, the total number and total weight are reported for each haul. Stomach content analysis for the most important fish demersal species is also conducted in a trawl by trawl basis with the intention of having an annual picture of trophic interactions.

Scientific team is mostly constituted by staff from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography, from the centres of Murcia and Baleares, but from the oceanographic centres of Malaga and Madrid and the Centre of advanced studies of Blanes (CSIC).

Alfonso Pérez with part of the scientific staff of MEDIT 2014

Alfonso Pérez Rodríguez collaborated in common tasks during the survey, like splitting and clasifying different species of catches, size structure and biological sampling. However, the major benefit for GADCAP was related with the feed back from Miguel Vivas and  Encarnación García in relation to the methodology employed for general stomach content analysis and prey species identification.

Miguel Vivas and Encarnación García, from the oceanographic centre of Murcia. Scientist in charge of the stomach content analysis.

First stay in Vigo

As part of the project GADCAP, short stays at the Institute of Marine Research (IIM-CSIC) and the Oceanographic Centre of Vigo (IEO) are planned. Both the Fisheries Ecology group at the IIM and the Distant Fisheries Department in the Oceanographic Centre of Vigo IEO are key collaborators for GADCAP since these institutions are in charge of the development of the EU annual surveys in the Flemish Cap and have been implied in stock assessment for all commercial species modelled in GADCAP since early 1980’s (see Participant Scientist and Institutions). Main goals of these stays are the presentation of advancements of the project to researchers from these institutions to obtain feedbacks from them, both in relation to the model itself and the input data.

From 1st to 30th of April the first stay in Vigo has taken place. Alfonso Pérez Rodríguez has been working in tight collaboration with Fernando González and Diana González from the Oceanographic Centre of Vigo, but also with Antonio Vázquez and Rosario Domínguez from the Institute of Marine Research. Important issues related with databases have been solved or clarified. In addition, other researchers from both institutions have collaborated during this stay:  Santiago Cerviño and Camilo Saavedra from the Oceanographic Centre of Vigo have been of great help with technical issues related with Gadget, and Mónica Mandado from the Institute of Marine Research has provided support with databases from the Flemish Cap Survey. These extra collaborations highlights the importance of these short stays for the development of GADCAP.

Collaborator research scientists in Vigo. In the left photography, from the IIM : (left to right) Rosario Domínguez, Alexandre Alonso and Mónica Mandado. In the right photo, from the IEO , Fernando González and Diana González.

During this first stay the main advancement have been:

– Improvement of databases employed in the Gadget monospecific model for the Flemish Cap cod.

– Collection of databases related with cod maturation state.

– Gathering information about relevant parameters for the model, like natural mortality or stock-recruitment relationship.

– Continuation with the development of the monospecific model for the Flemish Cap cod.

GADCAP project begins

Bergen is the second biggest city of Norway, with a long history and a strong interaction with the sea. Its harbour has been historically of great relevance for fishing and bussiness, but nowadays it is also important for companies with oil platforms at sea. In the Fløyen, one of the seven mountains that sorround the city, there is an excellent viewpoint to observe the city, and it also permits to identify the location of the Institute of Marine Research (IMR), distributed in four different buildings across Nordnes peninsula.

View of Nordnes peninsula (in the center of the photo) from the viewpoint of the Fløyen mountain

The headquarter of the IMR was the starting place for the project GADCAP past 13th January of 2014, and will be the working place of Alfonso Pérez Rodríguez during next two years, until 12th January 2016. At the IMR most part of the project will be developed, with the exception of the three short periods (one month duration each) that Dr. Alfonso Pérez Rodríguez (the EU Marie Curie Postdoc researcher in charge of GADCAP) will stay every year between the Oceanographic Centre of Vigo (IEO), the Institute of Marine Research (Vigo) (IIM-CSIC) and the Portuguese Oceanic and Atmospheric Institute (IPMA).

Headquarter of the IMR in Bergen and Alfonso Pérez´s IMR ID card

Upto early April, when the first stay at the IEO and IIM is planned, in the IMR (Demersal fish group) Dr. Daniel Howell will be the main supervisor of the work, although we will also have the valuable cooperation of Dr. Bjarte Bogstad. Both researchers have long experience related with the aims of GADCAP, both are part (as scientist collaborators or chairs) of different ICES working groups for multispecies modelling and stock assessment.

From left to right, Daniel Howell, Alfonso Pérez and Bjarte Bogstad

Across the first stage of the workplan of GADCAP, the main main goals are:

– Getting started and experiencing with GADGET

– Last arrangements of the databases from surveys and commercial sampling and accommodation to GADGET requirements.

– Start with the development of cod stock monospecific model.