Nine e-learning courses and webinars have been produced under the MEESO project. Get an overview here.
The goal of the MEESO project was to fill in major knowledge gaps on mesopelagic organisms and their role in and interactions with the full marine ecosystem and to evaluate whether they can be exploited in an ecologically and economically sustainable way.
To disseminate the knowledge and provide capacity building and training from the project, the project has developed and produced a row of e-learning courses and webinars presenting the models, methodological approaches and developments applied in the MEESO project.
The target audiences are applied researchers in fisheries science, resource assessment and management advice and university students enrolled in marine resource and fisheries research, assessment and management advice programmes.
The e-learning courses and webinars on main methods applied in the MEESO project are:
Learn more about each e-learning material from the MEESO project
The TropFishR Package
This webinar provides an introduction to the TropFishR Package and the model estimation of growth, mortality and gear/fishery selectivity and its application to mesopelagic fish species.
The video presents
- the background and motivation for a potential fishery targeting species in the mesopelagic layer.
- length-based methods for population dynamic parameters and stock assessment.
- estimation of growth and mortality parameters with the TropFishR model and software package.
- application of TropFishR to estimate life-history parameters of mesopelagic fish species.
- further steps in relation to estimation of stock status with TropFishR.
This is the first model needed for providing population dynamic parameters and initial stock assessment. The output from this model provides input to other length-based assessment models such as the S6 model and the broader trophic models under MEESO.
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The StrathSPACE Model
This webinar provides an introduction to the StrathSPACE Model: a discrete-time and discrete-space single-species population model.
The presentation outlines
- the technical challenges in modelling populations that are both physiologically and spatially structured.
- the technical innovations deployed in StrathSPACE in order to produce a model that is computationally efficient and hence fast-running enough to carry out parameter explorations
- an example of the model outputs (spatial distribution, length distribution and biomass time series) for in implementation involving Benthosema glaciale, including a forecast of stocks up to 2050 under an RCP8.5 climate change scenario.
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The s6 Model
This webinar introduces the s6 model: An introduction to the ‘single species, size structured, steady state’ (s6) stock assessment model and the application to two unexploited mesopelagic fish species.
The video presents
- an introduction to the theory behind the model.
- the benefits and limitations of size-based stock assessment methods for data-poor stocks.
- the model structure, input data and parameters and output parameters of the s6 model.
- an application of the s6 model to estimate preliminary biological reference points according to Maximum Sustainable Yield for two unexploited, mesopelagic fish species considering uncertainty in their population dynamics and total biomass estimates.
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The NORWECOM.E2E Individual Based Model
This webinar provides an introduction to the relationship between observations and models, with their strengths and weaknesses, and exemplifies this through a presentation of Individual Based Models in general, as a tool for studying individual life cycles and population dynamics.
A new Individual Based Model for the mesopelagic fish, Benthosema glaciale, has been implemented in the ecosystem model NORWECOM.E2E, and the model has been used for simulations in the Nordic Seas.
The presentation illustrates how individual behaviour depends on the physical conditions such as light and temperature, and thereby varies in both time and space, and gives examples of how an ecosystem model can quantify processes that are impossible to measure through observations.
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The DISPLACE Model
This webinar provides an introduction to the DISPLACE Model: A Spatial Bio-Economic Model to support Economically Viable and Sustainable Fisheries – Application to Potential Mesopelagic Fishery.
The video presents
- the background and motivation for potential fisheries targeting species in the mesopelagic layer.
- bio-economic models for fishery management strategy evaluation (MSE).
- the DISPLACE model covering model structure, input parameters, output measures and estimates, model demonstration.
- an application of DISPLACE to evaluate different management strategies of potential mesopelagic fishery under biological uncertainty.
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Cost-Benefit Analysis of Mesopelagic Fishing
This webinar explains the approach taken to include the climate risks of mesopelagic fishing in a tractable cost-benefit analysis from a private and social perspective. Mesopelagic fish populations represent an opportunity for fishing companies and food production, but their exploitation also carries substantial environmental risks, not least because these populations play an important role in the oceanic carbon pump.
In this e-learning module, we explain the methodological approach taken to assess the economic viability of mesopelagic fishing from private and public economic perspectives, which includes impacts on society at large, notably the climate.
The video explains the line of reasoning behind the method, its core assumptions, and some results of an application to four EU fishing fleets.
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Can Mesopelagic Fish become a Safe, Sustainable and Profitable Food Source?
This webinar summarizes MEESO results to address the question “Can mesopelagic fish become a safe, sustainable and profitable food source?”.
The video assesses the potential sustainability of opening a fishery and considers two common mesopelagic fish Maurolicus muelleri (mueller’s pearlisde) and Benthosema glaciale (glacier lantern fish). It presents FAO recommendations for sustainability and uses an ecosystem-based approach to assess the potential for a sustainable mesopelagic fishery.
Due to large uncertainties about environmental and social impacts along with governance and management challenges, the webinar points to the need for applying a precautionary approach to fishing the mesopelagic. Moreover, the webinar shows that a mesopelagic fishery would today be unprofitable.
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Vertical Capture Strategies of Mesopelagic Resources
This webinar discusses different capture strategies for capturing or quantifying mesopelagic resource levels. Mesopelagic resources are unevenly distributed and often echo sounders are used to direct sampling.
The video presents results suggesting that such a strategy may lead to large errors since backscattering levels are a biased estimator of mesopelagic biomass.
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E-Learning Document for Data Handling in the MEESO Project
This document provides guidance on and gives
- an introduction to the data portal and data management in the MEESO project.
- a description of the ICES acoustic and biotic data formats including acoustic data formats, biotic data formats, acoustic data model, and vocabulary validation and submission.
- a presentation of ICES oceanographic data.
- an outline of cruise summary reports.
- the details of the ICES metadata catalogue.
- a guidance on the MEESO metadata record format.
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