Recognizing that the Atlantic Ocean is a shared resource and responsibility, this AORA working group seeks to advance our understanding of the Atlantic Ocean and its dynamic systems to
- improve ocean health
- improve ocean stewardship
- promote the sustainable management of its resources
This AORA working group’s vision is to promote research to understand the North Atlantic Ocean in support of ecosystem based management (EBM); it is tasked with creating a vision/science plan on research directions, priorities, synergies, and complementarities in the North Atlantic.
Working together toward this vision will produce many mutual benefits including
- improved environmental and ecosystem assessments
- improved understanding of stressors, vulnerabilities and risk
- new tools to achieve EBM objectives such as
- increased ecosystem resilience
- conserve biodiversity
- manage risk
- determine social, economic, and environmental priorities
The Working Group is co-chaired by representatives from Canada, Europe and the United States of America.
Ecosystem Approach to Ocean Health & Stressors Working Group meeting, Reykjavík, Iceland
Some of the achievements of the Working Group to date include:
- A joint AORA-CSA and FAO workshop “Making the ecosystem approach operational”
- An inventory of major Canadian, European, and US research activities
- Interaction with SponGES and ATLAS H2020 Projects linked to the Galway Statement.
- Canada funded $1.5 Million (CAD) in ship time for 2016 in support of ATLAS/SponGES
- Four published papers in the ICES Journal of marine science linked to the working group
- Transatlantic networking, profiling and funding initiatives, including with JPI-Oceans
Ecosystem Approach to Ocean Health & Stressors Working Group Publications
