SeaSENSE ? Tools for changing practices of Northeast Atlantic fisheries for long-term sustainability

The main goal of the proposed project (SeaSENSE) is to combine the power of merging social and natural sciences to develop tools for evidence-based policy-making, to make a sustainable use of the Atlantic fisheries resources possible. SeaSENSE will provide: i) groundbreaking biosensor technology that can be used for marine management purposes, i.e., mapping, monitoring and surveillance of fragile ecosystems such as vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) ii) an adequate model for market and consumer change by mapping market and consumer practices including interrelated sets of outcomes of private and national/EU governance, institutions and imbedded cultures involved in shaping fisheries on the shelf as well as in the deep-sea and how these are connected to coastal and industrial development to obtain a behavioural change perspective as well as to facilitate innovations in a traditional market; iii) a thorough understanding of the impact of the different legal systems affecting management of the North Atlantic, including the deep-sea, in EU-waters as well as in international waters. SeaSENSE will pave the way towards solving other challenges related to fisheries and use of marine natural resources by innovative and multi-disciplinary approaches. The combined development of new technological tools for managers and new improved data for social sciences to address complex human-in-nature systems to promote management for long-term sustainability. The project fits very well in to the ?bluegrowth? topic because the project aims make impacts with respect to: i) improving Atlantic ecosystem management, ii) developing maritime policy making strategies as well as iii) developing international agreements to conserve VMEs