The Working Group on Economics (WGECON) was established to address the challenge of bringing fisheries economics into ICES science and advice, with the growing recognition that this can facilitate the understanding of marine ecosystem uses, their drivers and responses to changes, and assessment and communication of trade-offs that include economic, social, and ecological dimensions. The first cycle of the group highlighted the importance of integrating eco-nomics in ICES science and the importance of identifying and reviewing specific problems that can be addressed, as this leads to a more concrete discussion on the applied contributions of economic research. Building on this perspective, the group has progressed in two complemen-tary directions: reviewing current research and future needs for economic science and advice in ICES, leading to the publication of a review article in the ICES journal of Marine Science in 2023; and developing demonstrators of how economic information and analyses can help inform trade-off analysis. The latter included the integration of economic and social information in Eco-system Overviews, a review of the approaches, data, methods and tools used to assess the eco-nomic and social dimensions of interactions between offshore wind development and fisheries, the identification of information and evaluation tools useful to address the economic conse-quences of rights-based management, and the development of a set of guidelines regarding the conduct of trade-off analyses.
In order to increase the capacity for economic analysis in ICES work WGECON has actively sought to develop links with other ICES working groups and initiatives, and to reach out broadly to the economic community through international conferences and meetings.
Future WGECON work will continue to elevate economic issues as an integral part of marine science and scientific advice regarding the use and conservation of marine resources, in order to meet the growing demand for such analyses. WGECON will thus continue to build additional capacity for economic science in ICES; identify and report on economic data-related needs and priorities for data collection, access and analysis and where possible propose systems to collect missing data; demonstrate processes needed to provide analysis of trade-offs relating to science-based fisheries management advice; assess and report on economic aspects of selected fisheries systems and their management; and coordinate economic analysis for integrated social-ecologi-cal evaluations in support of ecosystem-based fisheries management.