Status and progress in WP6 by month 36

Summary

In work package 6, Managing and assessing social, economic, and biological impacts and risks, the partners have further investigated the economic efficiency and stakeholder concerns with regard to mesopelagic fishing; and further developed the bioeconomic models to evaluate the management strategies of a mesopelagic fishery.

Results from the MEESO work package 6 have been published in a paper  comparing the economic performance of a potential mesopelagic fishery to the current pelagic fishery conducted by the large-vessel Danish pelagic fishing fleet (doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.720897). It provides new methods and insights into the fishery dynamics, catches, costs and revenues with a very high resolution in time and space for a current large-scale pelagic fleet and for evaluating potential future mesopelagic fishery. Also, work package 6 results have been presented at the 2021 ICYMare conference, and the 2022 conference of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade (IIFET).

An environmental cost-benefit analysis has been carried out for a potential mesopelagic fishery in the Danish, Basque, and Irish fleets, taking into account private costs and benefits and the public costs of reduced carbon sequestration through the potential impact on the biological ocean carbon pump. Stakeholder workshops were held to understand the various concerns regarding a mesopelagic fishery, and an automated content analysis of Twitter feed and scientific abstracts has been finalized that maps out the public debate on mesopelagic fishing and compares this with existing ocean policy.

Substantial work has also taken place on the parameterisation of the bioeconomic models DISPLACE and FLBEIA, and the development of harvest scenarios and management strategies. This is work in progress that will eventually deliver modelling tools to assess mesopelagic management strategies.

Two public e-learning-webinars have been produced under work package 6. This is partly an E-Learning-Webinar-Video on 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 (See the e-learning webinar and find link to slides from the webinar).  Additionally, an E-Learning-Webinar-Video on the cost-benefit analysis of mesopelagic fishing  has been produced. This webinar explains the approach taken to include the climate risks of mesopelagic fishing in a tractable cost-benefit analysis from a private and a social perspective (see the e-learning webinar).

Highlights

• Stakeholders are primarily concerned about the ecological impacts, climate impacts, governance, economics, and bycatch of mesopelagic fishing, as well as its potential contribution to food security.
• The ensemble of models employed in the MEESO project are equipped to address various stakeholder questions, however no single model can address all stakeholder questions at once. 
• Within the European Union there is considerable interest in a mesopelagic fishery among Danish, Spanish, and Irish fishing fleets. A mesopelagic fishery is potentially commercially viable for these fleets, but this depends heavily on catch rates and ex-vessel prices, which remain highly uncertain.
• Due to the role of Maurolicus muelleri and Benthosema glaciale in the oceanic carbon pump, the climate impacts of their exploitation potentially outweigh the fishery benefits in an environmental cost-benefit analysis.
• The quality of the catches will define the income from the mesopelagic fishery, and in specific areas catches could degrade rapidly, so on-board management must be optimised.
• The Danish large-vessel pelagic fleet is currently fully optimised and profitable and would therefore likely invest in new fishing vessels for mesopelagic fishery rather than switching from a current fishery. Their current on-board conservation methods limit the time between first catch and landing to 3-5 days before deterioration of the catch.
• So far the public debate on fishing the mesopelagic zone is strongly led by scientific research as the wider public is unfamiliar with it and the ecosystem is not yet subject to formal governance.