FISHOREMAN

The quantification of cumulative impacts between offshore wind farms (OWF) development and fisheries relies on numerical models based on schematic representation of fisheries dynamics. A critical limitation lies in the simplicity of this representation which do not consider (or oversimplify) cultural and socio-economic dimensions in fishers’ behavior. These simplifications, in turn, pose two significant challenges. On one hand, the inaccurate representation of fishers’ responses to the deployment of offshore wind farms introduces significant uncertainty into ecosystem models and compromises the accuracy of simulations. On the other hand, the lack of stakeholder participation in the development of the models reduces confidence in their forecasts. Involving both the fishing sector and OWF developers in co-constructing models and scenarios is thus crucial to gain realism and foster a higher trust on the capacities of such tools.