Since the reform of the EU Common Fisheries Policy in 2002 (EC, 2002), considerable effort has been devoted to addressing the governance, scientific, social and economic issues required to develop and introduce an ecosystem approach to European marine fisheries. Fisheries management needs to support the ‘three pillars of sustainability’ (ecological, social and economic). In practice this is difficult to achieve and tradeoffs have to be considered. However, the economic and social pillars should be considered subsidiary to the ecological pillar since the loss of an ecological resource base will mean that no social and economic benefits can be derived for the seas. Thus an understanding of the links between ecological, social and economic systems will ensure that management decisions are appropriately informed. The core concept for the Making the European Fisheries Ecosystem Plan Operational (MEFEPO) project is the delivery of an operational framework for three regional seas. MEFEPO has 3 specific and verifiable scientific and technical objectives. These are: 1) To show how an ecosystem approach to fisheries can be made operational within three major European regions by identifying the management objectives, and the operational strategies required to achieve those objectives, using economic, social and ecological approaches 2) To evaluate the different modes of fisheries governance, and their combinations, and their implications on the development of the institutional frameworks used to manage the fisheries to provide a transitional framework towards a mature ecosystem approach to fisheries management
3) To develop operational FEPs for three major European marine regions targeted at an audience of non-scientists with managerial, policy and RAC roles, and which provides a vision of an mature ecosystem approach and a description of how it can be delivered.
In achieving these objectives, we will also: 1) Integrate the results of disparate information sources into a single framework to provide a practical, pragmatic and robust approach to delivering an ecosystem approach to the fisheries. 2) Apply a level of quality control to the large body of research that has been undertaken to develop an ecosystem approach for the fisheries.
3) Identify and prioritise the research and governance needs required for the transition to an ecosystem approach. 4) Fill some of the scientific gaps in knowledge.5) Improve understanding of the social, economic and environmental issues in the three marine regions at a grass roots level by developing products which have direct relevance to marine stakeholders.6) Develop operational FEPs which link directly to existing and proposed legislation affecting the marine environment.