ICES

ICES, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, is an intergovernmental scientific organization founded in Copenhagen in 1902, the oldest body of its kind. Its roughly twenty member countries around the North Atlantic and Baltic coordinate marine research and deliver peer-reviewed advice on fish-stock status, fishing opportunities, and ecosystem state. ICES runs standardized trawl and acoustic survey series, maintains long data time series, and its advice on total allowable catches feeds the EU Common Fisheries Policy and North-East Atlantic management. It also advises OSPAR and HELCOM on eutrophication, contaminants, and biodiversity, and convenes expert working groups that set assessment methods. ICES advice is the scientific backbone of North Atlantic fisheries governance.