Publication Abstract

Data use and information creation: Challenges for marine scientists and for managers

K. Hiscock, D. Laffolley, S. Rogers, and M. Elliott

In the coastal waters of European countries and in the offshore waters of the north-east Atlantic, there is an increasing need for managers and scientists to meet challenging ecosystem objectives, such as to identify meaningful measures of ‘quality’, and to recommend ‘indicators’ to underpin implementation of directives, conventions, statutes and other more informal national and international initiatives. These may relate to particular species, to habitat changes, to changes in physical and chemical characteristics and even to the anthropogenic use of the system. The problems to be overcome are complex, but new criteria to identify ‘sensitivity’ and ‘importance’, and electronic information resources to access recently developed data will make a significant contribution.

The real challenge is to make the results of the various scientific initiatives relevant to and understandable by a wide range of customers with similar overlapping requirements, and thus make a genuine contribution to protecting the marine environment. Beyond that is the need for scientists to enable real and lasting progress to be made towards ecosystem-based management. This will require a rational consideration of the often conflicting needs of nature conservation and managed exploitation of marine resoruces, and an interpretation of what ‘sustainability’ may mean in the marine environment.

Reference:

K. Hiscock, D. Laffolley, S. Rogers, and M. Elliott. 2003. Data use and information creation: Challenges for marine scientists and for managers. Marine Pollution Bulletin 46: 534-541pp