Perceptions et attentes des professionnels de manche est vis a vis de l'ecosysteme qu'ils exploitent

The development of an ecosystemic approach to fisheries management requires the clear formulation of management objectives that make it possible to develop criteria to evaluate indicators. For an ecosystem, targets and limits are a matter of societal choice. Work to formulate these objectives is necessary. Within this perspective, this report presents a survey of the perceptions of Eastern English Channel fishing professionals on the state of the "marine ecosystem" resource. 29 people were polled during the month of June 2006 about their perceptions of the ecosystem as it was at a baseline time in the past, as it is today, and as it should be in future. Diagrams made it possible to formalise these perceptions. The people who were polled noticed a diminishing of the resource over the last 5 to 6 years and the presence of various problems, such as pollution, the degradation of the ocean bottom, and the harmful impact of certain human activities, including fishing. The indicators taken into consideration by the people interviewed match those that scientists routinely use (average fish size, CPUE, fished biomass...), but there seems to be disagreement about the way to evaluate the indicators.