The English Channel North Sea Fisheries Unit created in 2005 is part of the IFREMER Biological Resources and Environment Department. It is composed of 2 laboratories: the Ressources Halieutiques de Boulogne-sur-Mer (RHBL) laboratory and the Ressources Halietuiques de Port-en-Bessin (RHPB) laboratory.
The HMMNM carries out research in fisheries science and marine ecology, with a particular focus on the English Channel and the southern North Sea region. Its tasks include the monitoring and assessment of fisheries resources and ecosystems affected by commercial fishing and other sectors of activity (e.g. sand and aggregate extraction, production of renewable marine energy) in the context of climate change.
In addition to data collection on land and at sea, coordinated by the national HIS programme, the HMMN unit has three technical platforms dedicated to observation: a national centre for sclerochronology, a platform dedicated to trophic ecology and a national centre for zooplankton taxonomy and ecology, as well as a national cell centralising responses to calls for data required for the assessment of fishery resources (CREDO cell).
The unit's missions are based on :
- The biology of fishery resources, as well as all fishing activities on the seafront;
- The dynamics of fisheries, with the objectives of understanding and describing fishing strategies, diagnosing the state of health of the main exploited resources, but also proposing technical and management measures within the European authorities, in the field of the fisheries resources exploited by the fisheries of the Channel coast and the North Sea;
- Ecosystem analysis and modelling: impact of human activities on living marine resources, trophic network, spatial planning and development of management scenarios.
