Poissons et invertébrés au large des côtes de France : Indicateurs issus des pêches scientifiques. Bilan 2002

The scientist community, the fishing organisations and all involved parties show a growing interest in an integrated project management of the sea space exploited by fishing communities. A key to reach such a target is to make available reliable and precise scientist data on the different components of the fishing systems. For about twenty years, and in its mission to support the development of an integrated management for a sustainable use of marine resources, Ifremer has been organising monitoring campaigns of fishery resources along the shores of France. These campaigns aim at providing abundance indicator on species of interest. They consequently provide an essential knowledge base to characterize and trace the status of exploited fish and invertebrate communities. To use the results of the monitoring campaigns, operating reports should be formalized. The international scientist community is currently looking for the most suitable methods to design these specific reports. Ifremer's approach relies on the most recent and advanced scientist technologies in this area. By the end of 2005, Ifremer published a first bulletin with an assessment on demersal biocenosis from the southern plateaux of the North Sea to the eastern coasts of Corsica, and on estuarian hatchery areas in the English Channel, the Bay of Biscay and the Cape of Flamanville (English Channel). The results, based on dynamic indicators collected during the fishing monitoring campaigns organized by Ifremer, explain the status of the ecosystem evolution. These indicators are calculated for a set of species peculiar to each area. The bulletin includes two sections. A presentation of markers on the biogeography of the covered area which aims at providing contextual elements that could help in interpreting the estimated indicators. A set of Synthetic sheets that show the results obtained for each area. These sheets describe the abundance trends, and the average size and weight of the studied populations and communities. Species are more detailed for each area. This bulletin is a first step in an evolutionary process. We seek to update it every year and insert the available data of the last campaigns. In addition, it is also planned that future editions will be enriched from the most recent methodological developments in indicator design, on condition that they are supported by the scientist community. Finally, the bulletin will be progressively extended to other fields covered by the Ifremer fishing campaigns, especially the pelagic resource, and the shell banks in the North Sea and the Bay of Biscay.