Options for integrating ecological, economic, and social objectives in evaluation and management of fisheries

Abstract

There has been growing international attention in recent years to the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries, Ecologically Sustainable Development, and similar initiatives that demand a comprehensive evaluation of the social, economic, and ecological performance of fisheries. However, the practical integration and application of these aspects continue to present a significant challenge for management. Progress to date has been limited by gaps in governance, objectives, disciplinary breadth, and methods. In this study, we develop an inventory of the methods that have been proposed to be able to incorporate ecological, economic, and social objectives and to provide a more comprehensive evaluation of fisheries and management. Our inventory includes both a description of the range of methods, and an evaluation against a set of criteria related to their utility in an applied, decision support context.

Characterizing and comparing marine fisheries ecosystems in the United States: determinants of success in moving toward ecosystem-based fisheries management

“…Such ecosystem-level performance metrics have been broadly considered as simply indicators (Samhouri et al 2013;Lockerbie et al 2018), reference points, or thresholds (Fulton et al 2005;Jennings and Dulvy 2005;Link 2005;Link et al 2015;Tam et al 2017b) or status context (Link et al 2002;Coll et al 2016;Slater et al 2017). Yet only a few integrative measures of fishery ecosystem performance success are being proposed (Coll et al 2008;Libralato et al 2008;Berg et al 2015;Link et al 2015;Truchy et al 2015;Borja et al 2016); they are sorely needed (Benson and Stephenson 2018).…”

Closing the feedback loop: on stakeholder participation in management strategy evaluation

“…In general, the specified management objectives and hypotheses about alternative states of the system being modeled provide the landscape for identifying subject matter experts across a diverse array of disciplines needed to better inform the underlying models. Although MSE remains a largely fisheries science-centric endeavor (Smith et al 1999;Degnbol et al 2006;Benson and Stephenson 2018), as the three MSE applications illustrated, the incorporation of various scientific fields within the MSE process are continuously evolving. However, there remains an urgent need for better collaboration and communication among scientific disciplines to improve on the use of MSE initiatives in fisheries management.…”

Collaborative fisheries research: the Canadian Fisheries Research Network experience

“…It was difficult to engage managers and policy makers in the CFRN in part because of different needs, operations, and time pressures between the management and science sectors. There are also different time scales at play when dealing with tactical compared with strategic issues, such as the establishment of total allowable catch (often annually) versus the development of allocation policies (usually long-term) (Benson and Stephenson 2018). Owing to time and resource constraints, fisheries managers and policy makers tend to focus more on tactical, operational issues than strategic research questions.…”