Abstract
ecosystem based fisheries management (EBFM), co-design, marine policy, ecosystem modelling, stock assessment
Ecocentric fisheries management in European seas: Data gaps, base models and initial assessments, volume I Fisheries exploitation has historically been considered as the strongest driver of fish population dynamics (Jackson et al., 2001). Existing fisheries management practices have not always been successful in sustainably exploiting fish stocks (Froese et al., 2018) because of weaknesses in management approaches (Froese et al., 2021), the lack of consideration of ecosystem processes (Skern-Mauritzen et al., 2016), improper management implementation (Schnute et al., 2007), harmful government subsidies (Sumaila et al., 2021), and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (Agnew et al., 2009). Moreover, data deficiencies often constrain stock assessments and ecosystem model construction, tools that provide the basis for decision-making in fisheries management (Dimarchopoulou et al., 2017). Stocks that do not exhibit commercial interest have generally been given a low priority (Tsikliras et al., 2021), and the conservation status of marine megafauna is unknown in many European areas, especially in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea (Gremillet et al., 2022). Commercial and recreational fishing strongly influence all levels of biological organisation, from populations to ecological communities, directly affecting ecosystem structure and function (Pauly et al., 1998). Such circumstances raise the pressing need for a paradigm shift from the anthropocentric (=human-centred) perception of commercial stock surplus yield (Chapman, 1949) to an ecocentric (=ecosystem-centred) fisheries management that Frontiers in Marine Science frontiersin.org 01