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The Living North Sea project will solve problems surrounding the management of fish species which rely on moving between the North Sea and freshwater systems of partner countries. These species are under considerable threat, some even in hazardous decline.
Living North Sea brings together representatives from across the NSR country, in a project that which will make long lasting changes to the way that migratory fish species, whose stocks are shared between nations, are managed in the region. The project will create a permanent management group for migratory fish of these habitats which will continue to work collaboratively, but will also tackle decision making processes ensuring project results can be integrated in future policies on the national and EU level.
Duration
01/03/2009 - 30/09/2012
Priority
2 - Promoting the Sustainable Management of our Environment
Area of Intervention
2.1 Sustainable development of the coastal land and sea areas through integrated coastal zone management
Centre for Marine & Coastal Zone Management (CMCZM), University of Aberdeen
The Netherlands
Regional Water Authority Hunze en Aa's
Regional Water Authority Noorderzijlvest
Regional Water Authority Waternet
Royal Dutch National Angling Organisation
Belgium
INBO Research Institute for Nature & Forest
Sweden
Municipality of Falkenberg
Denmark
Odense Municipality
DTU Aqua National Institute for Aquatic Resources, section for Inland Fisheries
Norway
Norwegian Institute for Nature Research - NINA
Germany
Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institute, Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries Institute for Fisheries Ecology
Background and Aim
Aim To use Sustainable Coastal Zone Management techniques for key migratory species of the North Sea countries, share existing knowledge between countries and sectors and on populations and migratory routes to identify the essential gaps in knowledge that must be answered. LNS will prioritise geographical locations for work across the North Sea countries based on potential abundance and important habitats and zones for particular species. The project will create a permanent management group for migratory fish of these habitats which will continue to work collaboratively and tackle the decision making processes to ensure that the results of the Living North Sea project are firmly integrated into future national and European policies.
Background The Living North Sea project has been constructed to solve the problems surrounding the management of fish species which rely on moving between the North Sea and freshwater systems of partner countries. This is of particular importance where in some countries, authorities are spending vast sums of money artificially propagating fish, when the real solution, may be in marine, or even the waters of another country. A second problem relates to the continued threat for migratory fish in freshwater ecosystems and includes artificial barriers, pollution and habitat loss.
Expected Outcomes
Online open source GIS mapping system and a fish migration database to visualise migratory routes in the NSR
Demonstration sites and expertise on how to solve key barriers for migratory fish
Expert management group for migratory fish
Recommendations on sustainable migratory fish management for the integration into EU, national and regional policies
April - September 2010
Knowledge from around the partnership is being collated into online Geographic Information Systems, while research has been carried out to fill some apparent knowledge gaps: Some young sea trout have been tracked for nearly 400km down the UK North Sea coast, and salmon, extinct from the River Meuse in the Netherlands for over 100 years, have been tracked trying to migrate downstream, to identify the critical problems.
The partners are working on a number of innovative solutions to fish migration barriers in transnational teams so that knowledge is shared across the region. The project activities included new approaches to dealing with pumping stations, tackling the acidification of waters as well as the management of tidal barriers to allow fish migration.
The progress achieved resulted in national press attention in many countries that has far exceeded expectations. Main reasons for this are the current plight of the European eel, and the highly visual nature of the fish tracking work.
October 2009 - March 2010
The LNS highlight has been the public and media launch in Gent, Belgium in March 2010. The event attracted a broad range of attendance and included contribution from European Commission representatives of DG Mare and DG Environment, and the Flemish Environment Ministry. The Ministry made a significant contribution to the project by committing ceremonially, to deal with the issues that the project was highlighting.
This period has been dominated by activities in preparation for the implementation of an action plan to fill essential knowledge gaps in key migratory fish species and development of a number of innovative solution demonstrations for key migratory fish barriers. Practical work has begun, for example, with a number of fish tagged this season to elucidate migratory routes and to examine behaviour at barriers, particularly hydropower schemes and pumping stations.
Throughout the activities partners are working transnationally in sub-groups not based on their geographic origins but rather on the topics of interest, their particular skills or the required knowledge.
The project has attracted external publicity on the basis of these activities, the outcome being that the project is now well known amongst professionals, decision and policy makers within the sector, and there is a strong interest at public level in the issues.
April - September 2009
In its first months after approval, the LNS project has conducted preparatory work for tracking sea trout migration across the North Sea, for designing for a tide flap to allow fish migration, collating current knowledge on fish migration in the region, assessing environmental barriers to fish migration, and development of a start of the art web Geographical Information System.
Strategic links have been made to a group of professionals working on policy matters for the International Council for the Exploitation of the Seas (ICES), and SALSEA MERGE a pan-Atlantic 7th Framework funded project for migratory fish.
The project has received some favourable publicity with TV, radio, and newspaper coverage in the Netherlands and Sweden. In the UK, the project was mentioned in a ministerial speech, and announced at a professional conference.
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