Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM) is an approach to fisheries management that recognises the need to enhance their derived social and economic benefits whilst actively minimising the impacts that fisheries have on the environment. While the benefits of EBFM are widely recognised, several core challenges pose barriers to its effective uptake in fisheries across Europe – from complexity and interdependencies to uncertainties and values.
Co-convened by SEAwise and key partners, including the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) and the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM), the Operationalising European Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management Symposium will be held from 30 June to 3 2025, in Brussels, Belgium, to document and synthesise available and new approaches to producing operational ecosystem based fisheries management advice in a European setting.
Co-organised by the Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO) and Denmark’s National Institute of Aquatic Resources (DTU Aqua), the symposium will bring together experts from across the world with fisheries policymakers, managers and stakeholders to exchange ideas and innovative solutions in support of practical implementation of EBFM.
The symposium will provide an opportunity to review, discuss and evolve progress on operational EBFM in Europe, via a mixture of scientific oral and poster presentations, interactive and policy sessions, offering a unique opportunity for knowledge sharing and advancement in support of sustainable management of fisheries socio-ecological systems and operationalisation of EBFM.
Opening soon for submissions, presentations and posters are invited across the following dedicated theme sessions:
To review the seven sessions and further information on the symposium download the full programme.
Abstract submission will remain open until 1 May 2025.
Registration will remain open until 1 June 2025.
Registration for the interactive policy sessions will remain open until 20 June 2025.
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Sponsored by DTU Aqua, ILVO and the SEAwise project, the symposium is being co-convened with the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES), the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM), sister EU project Ecoscope, and Norway’s Institute of Marine Research (IMR).
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