Kennisbasis WOT Fisheries 2012 - Maintaining Excellence and Innovation in Fisheries Research

The KBWOT Fisheries programme is fundamental to the maintenance and development of the expertise that underpins the statutory obligations of fisheries monitoring and advice for the Netherlands. The structure of the KBWOT Fisheries programme for 2012 reflects the recent discussions on the research direction between IMARES, CVO and EL&I. One of the strengths of the structure of the KBWOT Fisheries programme was the bottom up approach to calls for projects to fulfil the research priorities, thus promoting innovation. This however was seen as giving the programme the potential to miss strategic needs of both the science development within IMARES and the research questions of EL&I, thus the programme now also contains a specific project request on an research subject relevant to IMARES and EL&I needs. The KBWOT Fisheries programme will fund 15 projects in 2012 which will focus on remote sensing of the pelagic system (acoustics, vessel monitoring, video imaging and satellites) and the interaction of ecology and fisheries. The programme will increase the ability of the WOT programme to respond to changes resulting from a variable environment and ensure that fisheries advice is responsive to ecological change. Plus a targeted project specifically designed to research needs of IMARES and EL&I will be continued into the trade-offs in FMSY targets for North Sea flatfish fisheries.