Putting fishing communities on the map in ICES ecoregions

This paper highlights the importance of identifying fishing communities for fisheries and ecosystem-based management, which often focuses on fleets and ecological impacts rather than on the communities where fishers live and land their catches. Fishing communities are key to understanding the broader impacts and benefits of fishing, as they support many livelihoods in fleet and trade-related activities. Recognizing these communities, allows for better data collection, analysis, and informed policy-making. ICES WGSOCIAL developed a method to identify fishing communities across ICES ecoregions, first applied in the Celtic Seas and North Sea ecosystem o verviews. These o verviews describe ecosystems, identify human pressures, and assess their impact. Using fishing ports as proxies, our method links socio-economic indicators (e.g. landings value) to communities. We identify limitations to our methods and explore the complexities of defining a ‘fishing community’ due to its dynamic, multidimensional nature. We discuss next steps for improving our mapping approach and deepening our understanding of the social, cultural, and economic value of fishing, and why these matter for applied marine science in support of policy and management.

Keywords

Fishing communities Ecosystem overviews Ecosystem-based management Fisheries management Marine social-ecological systems Social data

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.2/20005

Citation

Marloes Kraan, Amber Himes-Cornell, Debbi Pedreschi, Arina Motova, Katell G Hamon, Cristina Pita, Marta Ballesteros, Fanny Barz, Tereza Fonseca, Alfredo García-De-Vinuesa, Angel Guitierrez, Emmet Jackson, Mimi E Lam, Karma Norman, Sonia Seixas, Nathalie A Steins, Putting fishing communities on the map in ICES ecoregions, ICES Journal of Marine Science, Volume 82, Issue 7, July 2025, fsaf103, https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsaf103