An ecosystem approach requires that the data base about fishers'situation, catch, effort and stocks of target fish species that is needed for fisheries management is extended with information about the mutual influence that fishing and the ecosystem exert on each other and that the effects on the aquatic ecosystem of other human activities than fishing are considered.

In this course participants will bcome familiar with the ecosystem approach and learn to appraise and analyse information that is essential for management. Techniques to analsye catch-effort data, to collect socio-economic information and monitoring and evaluation methods will be discussed