DTU Aqua's Director is the new ICES President

The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, ICES, develops science and provides EU and other international and national authorities with advice on fish stocks, fisheries and marine ecology as well as on human impact and sustainable exploitation of the North Atlantic and adjacent seas.

The organization appoints a new president every third year, and Fritz Köster, DTU Aqua has been elected president for the next three years until the end of October 2021. He succeeds Professor Cornelius Hammer from the Thünen Institute in Rostock.

"Cooperation will be the keyword for ICES in the coming years. The organization must collaborate more with the universities to expand its scientific foundation. Traditionally, ICES has focused on fisheries and aquaculture, but we increasingly include other human impacts on the marine ecosystems, and here we need scientific advancement," says Fritz Köster about one of his focus areas as ICES President.

The organization has recently acquired observer status in the United Nations, and Fritz Köster sees this as a recognition of ICES' global role and the organization's scientific standards, work methods and products.

"ICES has a lot to offer and by strengthening our cooperation with scientific and advisory sister organizations covering the Arctic, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and the North Pacific, we can contribute to setting the sustainable use of our seas and oceans further on the global agenda," says Fritz Köster.

Fritz Köster will be ICES President concurrently with his job as Institute Director at DTU Aqua. 

Learn more about the new ICES President at ices.dk