Dynamic and durability of exploited marine ecosystems: The case of the Celtic sea

The Celtic Sea, located between France, Ireland and England, is an area of high biodiversity due to the diversity of its habitats and its geographical location between the Lusitanian and Boreal provinces. This North-East Atlantic ecosystem provides significant catches, taken by many European fleets

The presentation will summarise multi-disciplinary research projects carried out at local, national and international scales in the area over the last two decades. We combined taxon-based, trait-based and trophic network approaches to assess the relative effects of environmental variables and fishing activities on spatio-temporal distribution of species, community dynamics and ecosystem functioning. More recently, modelling work has explored the cumulative effects of fishing and climate change scenarios on ecosystem resilience by 2100. Results suggest that slight reductions in fishing effort could be enough to compensate the impact of climate change in the area.

From a management point of view, we highlight the benefits, for slow-living species, of temporary closures of fishing zones, initially designated to protect the spawning grounds of exploited species such as cod. Several applied projects on minimising the impact of fishing by improving the selectivity of fishing gears in order to reduce discards practices at sea were carried out. This work will be illustrated by an example of a practical low-cost technical solution that has been tested and approved and then implemented on certain fleets.