Within fisheries, the ecosystem approach to management is a principle ascribed to, and adopted, by many governments, international organisations and agreements (Bianchi and Skjoldal 2008).
The current and expected state of the Barents Sea ecosystem and implementation of ecosystem considerations into stock assessments and to the fishery management in the Barents Sea has been considered routinely by the ICES Arctic Fisheries Working Group (AFWG) since 2002. The main aim is to include data on environmental and trophic interactions into management advice. Some ecosystem considerations are included in the estimation of catch quotas. For instance, the consumption of capelin by cod is considered before the catch quota for capelin is estimated.
