Mapping sensitive habitats and species

In addition to improving the impact of fishing on sensitive species and juvenile fish, ECO-CATCH focuses on impacts on sensitive habitats and key nursery areas.

Under this Work Package, ECO-CATCH’s solutions will help to:

Understand where fish live during critical life stages, by providing high-resolution maps of key habitats for fish spawning and juvenile development for species in the Baltic and North Sea.

Map the location of sensitive habitats and species across basins, helping to reduce interactions with fishing gears and improve spatio-temporal measures.

Assess the state of fisheries, via up-to-date species-fisheries maps. As part of this, ECO-CATCH will help to understand the species-specific resilience and sensitivity to fisheries in the Baltic and North Sea.

Collate the latest information and evidence bycatch risk by conducting a bycatch and habitat risk assessment (ByHRA).

How will ECO-CATCH deliver ‘Mapping sensitive habitats and species’?

Important habitats for fish spawning and early and juvenile life stages

IMR, ILVO

ECO-CATCH will identify and map important habitats for fish spawning, and early and juvenile life stages. Mapping will focus on fish species that are vulnerable to climate change, and or commercial fishing pressure, including: cod, saithe, Norway pout, haddock, whiting, lesser sandeel, herring, mackerel, and blue whiting; as well as flatfishes such as common sole, European plaice, lemon sole, and turbot.

Sensitive habitats and habitats of sensitive species

IMR, ILVO, SLU

In addition to focal fish species, ECO-CATCH will identify and map important habitats and core habitats for sensitive (ETP) species. Sensitive species subject to bycatch in ECO-CATCH’s case study fisheries include: elasmobranchs such as spurdog, porbeagle, greenland shark, basking shark, flapper, and common blue skate; bony fishes like Atlantic bluefin tuna; marine mammals such as harbour porpoise; and seabirds. ECO-CATCH will also collect environmental DNA (eDNA) data to help improve our understanding of where fish and sensitive species live during critical life stages.

ocean wave water surface with cloudy sky

Exposure

ILVO, IMR, DTU

Under Work Package Two, ECO-CATCH will combine the fish, habitats, and sensitive species maps with updated fisheries effort maps, to assess areas of overlap and to identify high-risk areas for bycatch of juvenile fish and sensitive species. ECO-CATCH will also consider other external factors affecting fisheries such as climate change, and human induced changes to the environment.

Consequence and ByHRA assessment

Thunen Institute, IMR, ILVO, DTU, SLU

Building directly on the above work, ECO-CATCH will bring together species experts to conduct a bycatch and habitat risk assessment (ByHRA) based upon a set of agreed upon habitat and species risk scores. The results will support policy recommendations across the North Sea and Baltic Sea basins.

Results