Presentation by Mark Dickey-Collas of Sam Shephard's led work on the development of surveillance indicators.

1. Samuel Shephard, Simon P. R. Greenstreet,
Gerjan J. Piet, Anna Rindorf &
Mark Dickey-Collas
Surveillance indicators and
their use in implementation of the MSFD
Twitter @DickeyCollas

2. Operational indicators (OI) in the MSFD:
- well-understood relationships between state and
specified anthropogenic pressure(s)
- defined targets.
This management requirement may mean that OI
capture only discrete aspects of the system and miss
important large-scale processes.
Pic: James Kennedy

3. Surveillance indicators (SI) could inform a
more holistic understanding of state.
SI may monitor key aspects of the system having:
- insufficient evidence to define targets and support
state assessment, and/or
- pressure-state (PS) links that are too weak/unclear
to underpin specific management advice.

4. For example MSFD foodweb GES.
What are the scientific rationale for targets?
Information on state can only be acquired from
surveillance indicators.

5. APSR management frameworks for Operational
Indicators can be modified to incorporate
Surveillance Indicators:
- Where a given SI remains within defined bounds,
the APSR framework operates as usual, but
- departure from bounds triggers a policy reaction
(e.g. targeted research).
- Methods for defining SI bounds will depend on
available information.

6. SI bounds defined from historical time series – is the
indicator entering a previously unobserved state?

9. Examples of potential surveillance
indicators MSFD

10. MSFD Criterion 1.1 Species distribution
- SI may help interpret variation in OI for population
abundance that resulting climate change induced
shifts in range
- Ecologically significant changes in distribution
could trigger research on spatial management

11. MSFD Criterion 3.3 Exploited fish stocks
healthy age and size distribution
- Suggested OI based on survey data and no
reference levels are specified.
- Proviso that “If there is no scientific basis for
setting any reference levels the indicator will
be considered a secondary indicator”
- SI a way of tracking change

12. MSFD Criterion 6.2. Structural & functional
condition of the benthic community
- SI to reveal changes affecting the harvested
components of the foodweb, possibly caused by
changing fishing patterns or gears, or
- climate effects on e.g. exchange of nutrients
between surface waters and deeper waters that
may affect the composition, functioning, and
biomass of deep-sea communities.

13. Criteria for selecting effective SI:
- rationale selecting SI should be as clearly-stated
& robust as for selecting OI
- purpose of SI is not to monitor everything, but to
play a specific role in the way that OI implement
the MSFD

14. See Characteristic Criterion

15. Acknowledgments