The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) coordinates and promotes marine research on oceanography, the marine environment, the marine ecosystem, and on living marine resources in the North Atlantic.
ICES provides scientific analyses and advice for client Commissions, and ICES’ member governments, for management of marine affairs such as fishing, conservation and pollution. ICES advice is committed to:
Objectivity and integrity
Openness and transparency
Quality assurance and peer review
Integrated advice – based on an ecosystem approach
Efficiency and flexibility
National consensus
At a special meeting of the ICES Council today, February 20, the final details of ICES’ new advisory process were agreed.
Previously ICES advice was delivered by the three Advisory Committees on Fisheries Management, Ecosystems and the Environment. Facing an increasing demand for more integrated and ecosystem based advice for management of all of the maritime activities, ICES embarked on a process to bring its advice under one committee.
A single Advisory Committee (ACOM) will now produce all of ICES advice, based upon analyses from its many expert working groups. We are particularly pleased to announce that the first Chair of the new ACOM will be Dr Michael Sissenwine. Mike is a former President of ICES. He has extensive knowledge and experience of the science and management of marine resources through his job as Chief Scientist at the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service of NOAA from where he recently retired. He is also very familiar with many aspects of marine management in Europe and beyond.
The Council of ICES and the new ACOM Chair are committed to making this evolution of the ICES Advisory Services successful by applying professionalism and integrity to formulate ecosystem based scientific advice to serve marine managers, users and other stakeholders.
