GOFORIT: Intelligent Oceanographically‐Based Short‐Term Fishery Forecasting Applications

The project investigated four economically important fish species from the North and South of Europe:

• North Sea sandeel
• Icelandic capelin
• Black Sea anchovy
• Black Sea sprat

These species are classified as short lived fish species. Fisheries for short lived species are highly variable because they primarily target a low number of age groups within stocks as well as irregularly recruiting year-classes. As a result, environmental fluctuations (e.g., temperature, food abundance), which cause major changes in fish productivity, can lead to rapid fluctuations in fishing opportunities and stock declines if fishing effort is not reduced accordingly. Such fluctuations are not foreseen or accommodated by management advisory frameworks for short-lived species, which generally assume environmental stability and constant productivity. The GOFORIT project used climatic and oceanographic process knowledge with the goal to improve short-term fishery forecasts.

Project partners:

• Technical University of Denmark - National Institute of Aquatic Resources
• Marine Research Institute, Iceland
• National Institute for Marine Research and Development “Grigore Antipa”, Romania

Sub-contractors:

• Central Fisheries Research Institute and Institute of Marine Sciences (subcontractor), Turkey 
• Institute of Fisheries and Marine Ecology, Ukraine (associated partner)