Specialized workshops

The specialized workshops included four half-day session over a two-day period. The workshops were intended for scientists with experience with Ecopath with Ecosim models. Participants were expected to have confidence with the Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) software. We also encouraged experienced EwE modelers to participate, and to contribute to the discussions, for instance by describing case studies or method development they have been involved in. We used the new version 6 of the software, which has been reprogrammed and redesigned in the .NET environment. The workshops discussed some of the more advanced EwE tools, with a focus on the use of ecosystem modeling as a part of the fisheries management and conservation activities.

Lecturers:

Villy Christensen, Sherman Lai, Jeroen Steenbeek
Guest lecturers

Documentation:

MS will be made available online before the specialized workshops

Workshop spatial optimizations

Guest lecturer: Zach FerdaÒa, The Nature Conservancy. Marxan-Ecospace linkages and comparative studies

The use of Ecospace and in particular two new approaches for spatial optimizations to search for optimum placement of marine protected areas (MPAs) maximizing an objective function considering ecological, social, and economic criteria. The selection process can incorporate a suite of conservation features, even such that are not included in the underlying ecosystem model.

This workshop covered the following topics:

Introduction and overview
Current implementation
Tutorial Exploring spatial optimizations through a case-study

Workshop economic modelling

A value chain approach has been incorporated as a brand new plug-in module of EwE6. It was developed to model and evaluate revenue and cost of fish products from landing through processing, distribution, marketing, and on to the consumer. The economic value chain is linked to the underlying ecological model, allowing its use for optimizations, e.g., through the EwE fishing policy optimizations and the spatial optimization module. This workshop was aimed to help participants understand the concepts of building value chain models, data requirements, how to run the model and extract results.

This workshop covered the following topics:

Introduction and overview
Current implementation
Implications for Maximum Economic Yield (MEY)
Implementation and integration in EwE6
Using value chain analysis and extracting values

Workshop interoperability and plug-ins

The EwE6 plug-in framework was developed to allow modelers and programmers to modify, extend and extract any aspect of EwE6, without having to modify the EwE6 source code. This powerful framework has the ability to create alternative means of basic parameterizations or computing fishing policy, to enable users to extract and output values from EwE6 in any manner, and to connect EwE6 to other programs.

Participants were requested to download and install Microsoft Visual Basic Express .NET, freely available from the Microsoft website. The EwE6 source code was made available at the workshop.

This workshop covered the following topics:

Introduction and overview
EwE6 plug-in framework overview
Model coupling capabilities
Plug-in demonstration
Tutorial Building a plug-in

Workshop using EwE for decision support

With version 6 of EwE, two major steps have been taken to (1) further develop modeling approaches, and (2) rethink how to communicate model results for decision-support. In EwE6, decision-support methodologies are used to facilitate the direct exploration of alternative future scenarios without having the scientist in the driver seat. For this, visualization technologies were developed that combine underlying scientific models with 3D gaming technology and simple decision-support interfaces. Or, in short, a scientific and interactive version of ëFinding Nemoí was made to help decision makers better understand and explore scientific scenarios through visualization.

This workshop covered the following topics: