KB WOT Fisheries 2018: maintaining excellence and innovation in fisheries research

The KB WOT Fisheries programme is developed to maintain and develop expertise needed to carry out the Dutch statutory obligations in fisheries monitoring and advice. The KB WOT Fisheries programme developed for 2018 reflects the scientific and management needs of the WOT fisheries programme. The strength of KB WOT Fisheries lies in the top-down development of the programme while allowing bottomup input, with calls for proposals, to ensure innovation and improvement. To avoid missing research priorities relevant to WOT and LNV needs, the programme is built from a closed call for proposals to WOT Fisheries project leaders. But these WOT project leaders are requested to seek input from other Wageningen Marine Research scientists to ensure innovation. The KB WOT Fisheries programme will fund 17 projects in 2018 which will focus on monitoring and remote sensing of (shell) fish in marine and freshwater ecosystems, new methods and tools for surveys, discard and catch sampling and investigating the effects of fisheries. International exchange of new expertise and developments, as well as continuous quality assurance (for collecting, storage and analyses of data), forms a major part of the programme