Samenvatting

The EU funded research project BENTHIS has produced a large amount of knowledge and insights on the effects of bottom impacting fisheries on benthic ecosystems. Therefore the Good Fish Foundation wanted to know how and to what extent the knowledge of the BENTHIS project could change the Common Assessment Methodology (The Common Wild Capture Fishery Methodology & the GuidanceDocument). It is important to update the CAM to make sure that the fishery assessments are based on the most recent and scientific knowledge. A revised CAM affects fishery assessments worldwide. Based on the publications of the BENTHIS project, it is possible that the advice in seafood guides as the FISHguide will change. The FISHguide is an important tool for fisheries managers, consumers, fisherman and policy makers to make fisheries sustainable. Eventually this will have (possible) positive effects on the ecosystem (De Vos, 2011). The CAM is the basis of the FISHguide and therefore contributes to interaction between actors and improvement of sustainable fisheries. This research focused only on the questions of Category 2 (ecological effects of the fishery) of the CAM, because Category 1 & 3 are focussed on other aspects (stock status and management). It is unclear to what extent and how the knowledge of the BENTHIS project will affect the Common Assessment Methodology. The aim of this research is to provide the Good Fish Foundation with an advice on a revision of the Common Assessment Methodology to include the knowledge from the BENTHIS project. The research question is: to what extent does the knowledge of the BENTHIS project underpin and/or affect the Category 2 questions in the Common Assessment Methodology (CAM) of the Good Fish Foundation and how will the revised questions affect the outcome of the CAM Assessments?