EcoScope featured at convention celebrating 40 years of Ecopath

The EU-funded EcoScope project was featured and discussed at the Ecopath 40 Years conference hosted in Ostend, Belgium, in June 2024 by the European Marine Board and the Flanders Marine Institute, titled “The Ecosystem Continuum: From knowledge to decisions”.  The conference, endorsed as a UN Ocean Decade event, celebrated four decades of the Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) marine ecosystem modelling software, which organisers stressed is “an increasingly important tool for marine management and policy making”. 

Conference organisers noted that the event “supported the aim of the EcoScope project, namely to promote sustainable, ecosystem-based fisheries management”. 

“EcoScope is developing and implementing EwE models to assess and manage the impacts of fishing and environmental changes across European seas” they added.

Particularly relevant to EcoScope were two workshops held as part of the conference. In one workshop, titled “Data Lakes for Ecosystem Modelling”, participants discussed the roles of EMODnet and CMEMS, through EDITO-Infra, as well as integration and benefits of combined data services and the relevant challenges, opportunities and practical applications emerging in Digital Twins of the Ocean. In the second part of the workshop, participants took part in a demonstration of EDITO-Model Lab’s key features, capabilities and applications within specific scenarios related to ecosystem modelling. 

In the second workshop, entitled “Science – Policy workshop: Upscaling marine ecosystem models to implement EU plans and directives”, participants discussed the many project that use EwE to address policy questions in Europe. The outcomes from the EcoScope policy workshop and questionnaire  was highlighted. Examples were given of how EwE models have been used to improve the implementation of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and to keep human activities compatible with good environmental status (GES), for MSFD and the common fisheries policy (CFP). In the second part of the workshop, participants examined how EwE can be used for end-to-end modelling of marine ecosystems and to run climate change scenarios in the context of nature restoration legislation and biodiversity strategies. At the end of the workshop, participants discussed EwE model outcomes to address the CFP/WFD and MSFD GES/ maritime spatial policy (MSP) and the Action Plan for Fisheries, Nature Restoration Law and Biodiversity Strategy, as well as potential links with the European Digital Twin of the Ocean (EDITO). 

The organisers noted that EcoScope is also developing an interoperable platform, a decision-making toolbox, online courses and a mobile application, all available through a single public portal. 

“The four-year (2021-2025) project addresses ecosystem degradation and anthropogenic impact that cause fisheries to be unsustainably exploited in several European Seas and promotes efficient, holistic, sustainable, ecocentric fisheries management that will aid towards restoring fisheries sustainability and ensuring balance between food security and healthy seas” organisers told participants about EcoScope.