At a special meeting of the ICES Council at the end of February, 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. The first Chair of the new ACOM will be Dr Michael Sissenwine, 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.
The Council of ICES and the new ACOM Chair say that they 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.
