MEESO industry workshop on mesopelagic fishing

EFFOP is partner of the MEESO project: “Ecologically and economically sustainable mesopelagic fisheries (MEESO)” funded by the EU Horizon 2020 (Blue Growth), 2019-2023. Read about the MEESO project at the website here

The overall objective of the project work package 6 (wp6) is to analyse the economic, social, and biological trade-offs and risks involved in mesopelagic exploitation, and to develop strategies to manage those risks.  To contribute to  wp6, the EFFOP secretariat and EFFOP members participated in a MEESO industry workshop on Monday 29 March, 2021 organized by the wp6 leader Rolf Groeneveld, Wageningen University. Read the workshop programme here

As an introduction to the workshop, “The experiences so far with mesopelagic fisheries” were presented by a representative of the Norwegien  Lie Gruppen, see the presentation here

From EFFOP, Anne Mette Bæk and Jette Kristensen gave a presentation on “State of affairs in processing and using mesopelagic catch”, see the presentation here

The outcome from the workshop:

The MEESO project wp6 team gained many valuable insights about some of the characteristics of mesopelagic fishing, and collected a wide variety of questions on this emerging fishery. Many of these questions are expected to be answered in the project. The workshop organizers are now in the process of writing the workshop report which they expect to distribute before May the 15th.

The MEESO project will continue for the coming 2-3 years to produce further insights into the social, economic, and ecological opportunities, impacts, and risks associated with fishing the mesopelagic. The  aim is for continued interactions and knowledge exchange with stakeholders in future workshops. Outcomes from the workshops will be availeable here