Ecosystem-based fisheries management: some practical suggestions

2007 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
pp. 928-939 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J Marasco ◽  
Daniel Goodman ◽  
Churchill B Grimes ◽  
Peter W Lawson ◽  
Andre E Punt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fisheries Management ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Fishery Management ◽  
Single Species ◽  
The United States ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Daunting Task ◽  
Transition Modeling ◽  
And Function ◽  
Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management

Globally, there is increased scientific and public interest in the concept of ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM). This trend is fueled by a widespread perception that large-scale fishing operations are powerful forces altering the structure and function of marine ecosystems. It is acknowledged that management needs to better account for variations in ocean productivity, stock structure, and changing social values. Many countries are contemplating how to improve ocean fishery management. In the United States, fishery management bodies are experiencing pressure to undertake the daunting task of moving from their current single-species management plans to EBFM. Impediments include lack of a clear definition of EBFM, what it entails, or how to proceed. In this paper, characteristics of fishery management that are unique to EBFM are identified. The transition to EBFM needs to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. A course of action is outlined that can be used to guide this transition. Modeling approaches and metrics useful for planning, implementing, and evaluating EBFM are discussed, with particular emphasis on management strategy evaluation.

scholarly journals Scientific tools to support the practical implementation of ecosystem-based fisheries management

2007 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 633-639 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. D. M. Smith ◽  
E. J. Fulton ◽  
A. J. Hobday ◽  
D. C. Smith ◽  
P. Shoulder
Keyword(s):  
Fisheries Management ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Fishery Management ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Single Species ◽  
Ecological Impacts ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management

Abstract Smith, A. D. M., Fulton, E. J., Hobday, A. J., Smith, D. C., and Shoulder, P. 2007. Scientific tools to support the practical implementation of ecosystem-based fisheries management. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 64: 633–639. Ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) has emerged during the past 5 y as an alternative approach to single-species fishery management. To date, policy development has generally outstripped application and implementation. The EBFM approach has been broadly adopted at a policy level within Australia through a variety of instruments including fisheries legislation, environmental legislation, and a national policy on integrated oceans management. The speed of policy adoption has necessitated equally rapid development of scientific and management tools to support practical implementation. We discuss some of the scientific tools that have been developed to meet this need. These tools include extension of the management strategy evaluation (MSE) approach to evaluate broader ecosystem-based fishery management strategies (using the Atlantis modelling framework), development of new approaches to ecological risk assessment (ERA) for evaluating the ecological impacts of fishing, and development of a harvest strategy framework (HSF) and policy that forms the basis for a broader EBFM strategy. The practical application of these tools (MSE, ERA, and HSF) is illustrated for the southern and eastern fisheries of Australia.

scholarly journals Atlantic puffin diet reflects haddock and redfish abundance in the Gulf of Maine

2020 ◽  
Vol 656 ◽  
pp. 75-87
Author(s):  
KM Depot ◽  
LC Scopel ◽  
SW Kress ◽  
P Shannon ◽  
AW Diamond ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fisheries Management ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Gulf Of Maine ◽  
Strong Predictor ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Melanogrammus Aeglefinus ◽  
Generalist Predator ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management ◽  
Atlantic Puffin

Ecosystem-based fisheries management, which considers the interactions between fisheries, target species, and the physical and biological components of ecosystems, is necessary to ensure that directed fisheries avoid adverse impacts to ecosystems over the long term. The successful implementation of ecosystem-based fisheries management requires an understanding of predator-prey relationships and ways to operationalize such relationships to inform fisheries management. Here, we investigated if the diet of a generalist predator, Atlantic puffin Fratercula arctica, can be used as an indicator of the abundance of 2 commercially exploited prey species (haddock Melanogrammus aeglefinus and Acadian redfish Sebastes fasciatus) in the Gulf of Maine. Because haddock and redfish eaten by puffins are juveniles (age 0), there is potential to use their proportions and lengths in puffin diet to better understand the processes influencing haddock and redfish recruitment. By using principal component analysis to develop measures of diet across multiple puffin colonies, we show both spatial variation and large-scale patterns in the proportions and lengths of haddock and redfish in puffin diet. Spawning stock biomass was a strong predictor of haddock proportion in puffin diet and a moderate predictor of redfish proportion; however, proportions in puffin diet did not predict age-1 recruitment, suggesting that variation in recruitment is caused by processes that occur after the puffin breeding season and which affect the survival of older juveniles. Haddock length on one colony was a moderate predictor of age-1 recruitment. We conclude that puffin diet can be used as an indicator of haddock and redfish abundance.

scholarly journals Appraising the Status of Fish Community Structure in the Yellow Sea Based on an Indicator-Testing Framework

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuru Li ◽  
Shuyang Ma ◽  
Caihong Fu ◽  
Yongjun Tian ◽  
Jianchao Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Fisheries Management ◽  
Fish Community ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The Yellow Sea ◽  
Total Catch ◽  
Fish Community Structure ◽  
Testing Framework ◽  
The Status ◽  
Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management

Fish community structure (FCS) of the Yellow Sea (YS) is affected by multiple pressures. Quantifying the responses of indicators of FCS (IFCSs) to pressures is a key aspect of ecosystem-based fisheries management. Quantitative methodology has hitherto been rarely applied to evaluate the performance of ecological indicators in response to physical and anthropogenic pressures and management actions. In this study, we adopted a quantitative and flexible framework to quantify the performance of IFCSs in the YS as well as to identify a suite of operational IFCSs to evaluate the status of the FCS via two state-space approaches. A total of 22 IFCSs were tested for their responses to three types of pressures including anthropogenic activities (fishing), large-scale climate change, and regional environmental variables. Our results indicate that the majority of IFCSs have good performance in terms of sensitivity in their responses to pressures, but weak performance in terms of robustness. The IFCSs tend to respond stronger to fishing than to large-scale climatic indices and regional environmental indices both in terms of sensitivity and robustness. A final indicator suite of five best-performing IFCSs was identified. The five IFCSs include total catch (ToC), mean trophic level (MTL), the ratio of catch of large predatory groups to total catch (LPC/ToC), mean temperature of catch (MTC) [or alternatively catch of small pelagic groups (SPC)], and functional evenness based on thermal groups (T-J′FD), all of which show regime shift patterns consistent with climate change. Compared to a reference period (1960–1964), the status of the current FCS has been obviously changed, and the long-term trajectories of the final indicator suite is consistent with that of fishing pressure. This study demonstrates the applicability of the indicator-testing framework in appraising the status of FCS, and facilitates moving towards ecosystem-based fisheries management in the YS.

Marine ecosystem assessment in a fisheries management context

2002 ◽  
Vol 59 (9) ◽  
pp. 1429-1440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason S Link ◽  
Jon K.T Brodziak ◽  
Steve F Edwards ◽  
William J Overholtz ◽  
David Mountain ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fisheries Management ◽  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Single Species ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
System Level ◽  
Multivariate Statistical Methods ◽  
Multivariate Statistical ◽  
Management Context ◽  
Ecosystem Level ◽  
Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management

We examined a suite of abiotic, biotic, and human metrics for the northeast U.S. continental shelf ecosystem at the aggregate, community, and system level (>30 different metrics) over three decades. Our primary goals were to describe ecosystem status, to improve understanding of the relationships between key ecosystem processes, and to evaluate potential reference points for ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM). To this end, empirical indicators of ecosystem status were examined and standard multivariate statistical methods were applied to describe changes in the system. We found that (i) a suite of metrics is required to accurately characterize ecosystem status and, conversely, that focusing on a few metrics may be misleading; (ii) assessment of ecosystem status is feasible for marine ecosystems; (iii) multivariate points of reference can be determined for EBFM; and (iv) the concept of reference directions could provide an ecosystem level analog to single-species reference points.

Benthic Habitats and the Effects of Fishing

2005 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Fisheries Management ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Scale Effects ◽  
Ecosystem Processes ◽  
Fishing Effort ◽  
Habitat Types ◽  
Benthic Habitats ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Ecosystem Effects ◽  
Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management

<strong><em>Abstract. </em></strong>We review the impacts of towed gears on benthic habitats and communities and predict the consequences of these impacts for ecosystem processes. Our emphasis is on the additive and synergistic large-scale effects of fishing, and we assess how changes in the distribution of fishing activity following management action are likely to affect production, turnover time, and nutrient fluxes in ecosystems. Analyses of the large-scale effects of fishing disturbance show that the initial effects of fishing on a habitat have greater ecosystem consequences than repeated fishing in fished areas. As a result, patchy fishing effort distributions have lower total impacts on the ecosystem than random or uniform effort distributions. In most fisheries, the distribution of annual fishing effort within habitats is more patchy than random, and patterns of effort are maintained from year to year. Our analyses suggest that many vulnerable species and habitats have only persisted in heavily fished ecosystems because effort is patchy. Ecosystem-based fisheries management involves taking account of the ecosystem effects of fishing when setting management objectives. One step that can be taken toward ecosystem-based fisheries management is to make an a priori assessment of the ecosystem effects of proposed management actions such as catch controls, effort controls, and technical measures. We suggest a process for predicting the ecosystem consequences of management action. This requires information on habitat distributions, models to predict changes in the spatial distribution of fleets following management action, and models of the impacts of trawling disturbance on ecosystem processes. For each proposed management action, the change in disturbance affecting different habitat types would be predicted and used to forecast the consequences for the ecosystem. These simulations would be used to produce a decision table, quantifying the consequences of alternative management actions. Actions that minimize the ecosystem effects of fishing could then be identified. In data-poor situations, we suggest that management strategies that maintain or maximize the patchiness of effort within habitat types are more consistent with the precautionary approach than those that lead to more uniform fishing effort distributions.

Size matters: How single-species management can contribute to ecosystem-based fisheries management

2008 ◽  
Vol 92 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 231-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rainer Froese ◽  
Amanda Stern-Pirlot ◽  
Henning Winker ◽  
Didier Gascuel
Keyword(s):  
Fisheries Management ◽  
Single Species ◽  
Species Management ◽  
Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management

scholarly journals Advancing ecosystem management strategies for the Gulf of Mexico's fisheries resources: implications for the development of a fishery ecosystem plan

2020 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 617-640
Author(s):  
Andrea Dell'Apa ◽  
Joshua P Kilborn ◽  
William J Harford
Keyword(s):  
Fisheries Management ◽  
Ecosystem Management ◽  
Fishery Management ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Single Species ◽  
Ecosystem Approach ◽  
Large Marine Ecosystems ◽  
The Us

Recent global improvements to fisheries sustainability have been made through the adoption of more holistic management frameworks, such as the ecosystem approach to fisheries management (EAFM) and ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM), and a concurrent transition from a focus on single species or stocks to multispecies and ecosystems. In the US, federal and regional fisheries management encompass multiple layers of comprehensive, ecosystem focused management strategies for living marine resources within its network of large marine ecosystems (LMEs). Here, we provide an overview for the US portion of the Gulf of Mexico large marine ecosystem (GOM-LME) by examining multiple aspects of its fishery management scheme through the lenses of EAFM, EBFM, and the integrated ecosystem assessment (IEA) framework that has been used worldwide to advise, inform, and operationalize ecosystem management. The US-GOM's fishery management and ecosystem community appears to be keeping pace with other US regional efforts. However, more tools like fishery ecosystem plans (FEPs), which are conducive to the effective integration of ecosystem considerations into fishery management processes, are needed to inform and guide the work of regional managers, decision-makers, and stakeholders. Therefore, we propose a structured planning process aimed at advancing the development and implementation of a GOM-FEP, and describe two case studies of EAFM and EBFM applications, respectively, that can help to navigate through our proposed planning process. This work offers strategic guidance and insights to support efforts of regional fishery managers to translate ecosystem management principles, approaches, and objectives into an "action oriented" FEP in the GOM-LME.

scholarly journals Assessing the State of Coupled Social-Ecological Modeling in Support of Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management in the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Kasperski ◽  
Geret S. DePiper ◽  
Alan C. Haynie ◽  
Suzana Blake ◽  
Lisa L. Colburn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Fisheries Management ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
The United States ◽  
Coupled Models ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Resource Managers ◽  
Disciplinary Background ◽  
Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management

There has been a proliferation of coupled social-ecological systems (SES) models created and published in recent years. However, the degree of coupling between natural and social systems varies widely across the different coupled models and is often a function of the disciplinary background of the team conducting the research. This manuscript examines models developed for and used by NOAA Fisheries in support of Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM) in the United States. It provides resource managers and interdisciplinary scientists insights on the strengths and weaknesses of the most commonly used SES models: end-to-end models, conceptual models, bioeconomic models, management strategy evaluations (MSEs), fisher behavior models, integrated social vulnerability models, and regional economic impact models. These model types are not unique to the literature, but allow us to differentiate between one-way coupled models – where outputs from one model are inputs into a second model of another discipline with no feedback to the first model, and two-way coupled models – where there are linkages between the natural and social system models. For a model to provide useful strategic or tactical advice, it should only be coupled to the degree necessary to understand the important dynamics/responses of the system and to create management-relevant performance metrics or potential risks from an (in)action. However, one key finding is to not wait to integrate! This paper highlights the importance of “when” the coupling happens, as timing affects the ability to fully address management questions and multi-sectoral usage conflicts that consider the full SES for EBFM or ecosystem based management (EBM) more generally.

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