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Public hearing
Public hearing the 16th and 17th of November 2001 in Garðabær.
The Icelandic Ministry of Fisheries holds a public hearing on 16 and 17 November 2001 in Garðabær, Iceland
Last spring the Marine Research Institute came to the conclusion that it had overestimated the size of the Icelandic cod stock to a considerable degree. This was the second year in row that the Institute reached a conclusion of this nature and, as a consequence, the Ministry of Fisheries has greatly reduced the total allowable catch for cod as compared with previous allocations. These are the circumstances prompting a public hearing on the matter.
The public hearing will be a forum for discussing the assumptions and methodology of scientists in the field of size assessment of fish stocks from various perspectives for the purpose of contributing to an open criticism and well-grounded discussion on this matter of paramount interest to the Icelandic people. The Ministry believes that it is of extreme importance to establish a still sounder knowledge foundation for a science which the authorities must rely on in these matters, and at the same time to reaffirm the belief of the general public and the fishing industry in that science as the best there is.
The public hearing will be in four sessions. In the first session the MRI specialists will explain the methodology of stock size assessments, both from biological and statistical points of view. The second session will cover theoretical criticism that has been laid against the work of the MRI in this respect, with biologists and statisticians discussing points they believe require improvement. The third session will deal with results of stock size assessments and the ways these are utilised in fisheries advice, for determining total allowable catch and implementing catch rule. Finally, an independent American specialist, employed by the Ministry to make an audit of the methodology and assumptions used by the MRI in its assessments of the cod stock, will give a summary of his work and present an interim evaluation.
In addition to the above keynote speeches, each session of the hearing will include questions to the speakers by selected persons from different places, near and far. Questions from the audience will also be permitted under special programme items. Among the selected questioners are fisheries biologists, mathematicians, geneticists, a population ecologist, economists, a captain of a fishing vessel, a fish processor and a small-boat fisherman. The public hearing will be open to the general public.
In the forefront of the public hearing there will thus be a discussion of the methods used in the biological aspect of Icelandic fisheries mangagement, while some apects relating to the economic side of these issues will also be touched upon. However, the actual economic organisation of fisheries management in Icelandic waters will not be part of the issues under discussion. Instead, the focus will be on the scientific assumptions underlying decisions on the total allowble catch.
programme for the public hearing