Skip to main content

​​ICES-MeCCAM Workshop on Fish biology, ecology and climate change

Workshop

Title: ​​ICES-MeCCAM Workshop on Fish biology, ecology and climate change
Date:
9-13 November 2026
Location:
Copenhagen, Denmark
Venue:
ICES Headquarters

Event Access

Website:
Event Link
This event is not hosted by Tethys. Please visit this link for official information.
Shoal of Fish

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Despite detailed knowledge of many oceanographic processes, ecosystem interactions, and increasingly, improved understanding of how these affect fish stock productivity and mortality, incorporation of such knowledge into fish stock assessments, forecasts and advice has been slow. This is considered a major limitation, particularly when considering one of the priority activities of the ICES Advisory Plan: further evolve our advice framework for fisheries to take account of ecosystem and climate change impacts. Part of the problem lies with the fact that ICES does not have a dedicated expert group working on approaches to embed ecological responses to environmental variation within the stock advice process.

Joining forces with the EU-funded project Measures for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in European Fisheries (MeCCAM), ICES will host a joint workshop on fish biology, ecology and climate change (WKFISHECO) to start addressing this limitation. This workshop is relevant to the ongoing work of many experts in the ICES network and beyond including, but not limited to the Methods Working Group (MGWG), Working Group on Impacts of Climate Warming on Growth Rates and Fisheries Yields (WGGRAFY), Working Group on Fisheries-Induced Evolution (WGEVO), Working Group on Integrative, Physical-biological, and Ecosystem Modelling (WGIPEM), ICES/PICES Strategic Initiative on Climate Change Impacts on Marine Ecosystems (SIICCME), and the Joint PICES/ICES Working Group on Sustainable Pelagic Forage Communities (WGSPF).

Specifically, WKFISHECO will:

  • Present the state of the art in our understanding of fish responses to environmental and oceanographic drivers which are relevant to the provision of advice on fishing opportunities
  • Collate the necessary data and provide evidence for the development of appropriate climate informed and/or ecosystem fishing reference points for a limited number of candidate stocks and/or case studies
  • Review and propose quantitative and qualitative ways for incorporation of the evidence developed above into advice on fishing opportunities, incl. communicating uncertainty of the observed and anticipated effects.​​