2017 ACTIVITIES
In March 2017 the Council scoped a potential Fishery Ecosystem Plan initiative to take up in the coming years. They asked the Ad Hoc Ecosystem Workgroup (EWG) to report back in September 2017 with more information to choose between a combined initiative on the socioeconomic effects of fisheries management practices on fishing communities (A.2.7) and on human recruitment to the fisheries (A.2.6), and an initiative on the effects of near-term climate shift and long-term climate change on our fish, fisheries, and fishing communities (A.2.8).
The EWG presented a report in September that identified specific objectives of the initiatives, inventoried available information, and proposed a timeline for completing either or both initiatives. Based on this scoping the Council decided to begin work on the Climate Shift Initiative with an emphasis on the wellbeing of dependent fishing communities.