At the end of February, the meeting of the ICES Working Group on Integrated Assessment of the Barents Sea (WGIBAR) was held at the Bergen Institute for Marine Research (Norway), which was attended by employees of the Polar branch of VNIRO.
The group's activities are aimed at assessing the current state and projected changes in the Barents Sea ecosystem, making recommendations on the use of ecosystem information in the assessment of fish stocks and invertebrates, as well as managing fisheries.
The meeting was attended by 23 scientists from Bergen, Tromsø and Murmansk, specializing in oceanography, estimates of water biological resources, ecosystem modeling and pollution.
According to the observations of scientists, in 2019, the increased temperature background remained at the level of warm years and quite low ice cover. The state of zooplankton communities in the Barents Sea creates favorable conditions for feeding pelagic fish, as well as young bottom fish. The stocks of the main commercial species of bottom fish are satisfactory.
In addition to discussing the current and projected state of the Barents Sea ecosystem, the meeting also addressed methodological issues related to the implementation of integrated ecosystem analysis. Presentations were made on the use of trend analysis methods and scenarios for model assessments of ecosystem risks related to both climate change and various economic activities.
Press service VNIRO, press service PINRO
