“Best available” is not good enough - addressing shortcomings in the current scientific advice

The briefing identifies three primary shortcomings in the ICES scientific advice used by the EU and UK: a lack of focus on rebuilding stocks above sustainable levels (BMSY), insufficient precaution to prevent stocks from falling below biological limits (Blim), and a failure to integrate ecosystem health objectives such as food web integrity. It calls for a formal roadmap to address these flaws and recommends that fishery managers apply additional precaution by setting catch levels below the ICES 'headline' advice until recovery-focused and ecosystem-based advice is available.

• The current ICES advisory approach fails to prioritize the rapid recovery of fish populations to levels above biomass capable of producing maximum sustainable yield (BMSY). Instead, it relies on MSY Btrigger as a proxy, which can be significantly lower than BMSY and often targets levels that only prevent a stock from falling outside safe biological limits.
• ICES 'headline' advice often fails to ensure that overfished stocks increase toward MSY Btrigger in the short term. An analysis of 2024 advice showed that for all 21 stocks estimated below MSY Btrigger, the headline advice was not projected to increase them to or above that level in the projection year, despite other more precautionary catch options being available.
• The advisory framework does not provide sufficient precaution to minimize risks to stock health, often resulting in headline advice that exceeds the legal 5% probability limit of a stock falling below the biomass limit (Blim). Furthermore, ICES may provide catch advice for stocks already below Blim if there is only a 50% probability that the stock will be above Blim after the fishing year.
• Scientific stock assessments frequently overestimate productivity and recovery trajectories, leading to 'phantom recoveries' where biomass increases are projected but do not materialize in reality.
• ICES headline advice is provided on a single-stock basis and does not explicitly integrate ecological objectives, such as those required for 'Good Environmental Status' (GES) under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). This means advice does not account for healthy population age/size distributions or the maintenance of food web integrity.

APA

ClientEarth (2025). “Best available” is not good enough - addressing shortcomings in the current scientific advice. https://www.clientearth.org/media/wbbfl1cq/joint-briefing-series-recommendations-on-fishing-opportunities-briefing-3-addressing-shortcomings-in-the-current-scientific-advice.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. “Best available” is not good enough - addressing shortcomings in the current scientific advice. 2025. https://www.clientearth.org/media/wbbfl1cq/joint-briefing-series-recommendations-on-fishing-opportunities-briefing-3-addressing-shortcomings-in-the-current-scientific-advice.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=ClientEarth |title=“Best available” is not good enough - addressing shortcomings in the current scientific advice |date=July 2025 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/wbbfl1cq/joint-briefing-series-recommendations-on-fishing-opportunities-briefing-3-addressing-shortcomings-in-the-current-scientific-advice.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{clientearth2025best, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{“Best available” is not good enough - addressing shortcomings in the current scientific advice}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2025}, month = jul, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/wbbfl1cq/joint-briefing-series-recommendations-on-fishing-opportunities-briefing-3-addressing-shortcomings-in-the-current-scientific-advice.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }