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Ecosystem-based fishery management
Citation
Pikitch, EK and Santora, EA and Babcock, A and Bakun, A and Bonfil, R and Conover, DO and Dayton, P and Doukakis, P and Fluharty, D and Heheman, B and Houde, ED and Link, J and Livingston, PA and Mangel, M and McAllister, MK and Pope, J and Sainsbury, K, Ecosystem-based fishery management, Science, 305 pp. 346-347. ISSN 0036-8075 (2004) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2004. The American Association for the Advancement of Science
DOI: doi:10.1126/science.1098222
Abstract
Many of the world’s fish populations
are overexploited, and the ecosystems
that sustain them are degraded
(1). Unintended consequences of fishing, including
habitat destruction, incidental mortality
of nontarget species, evolutionary shifts
in population demographics, and changes in
the function and structure of ecosystems, are
being increasingly recognized.
Fisheries management to date has often
been ineffective; it focuses on maximizing
the catch of a single target species and often
ignores habitat, predators, and prey of
the target species and other ecosystem
components and interactions. The indirect
social and economic costs of the focus on
single species can be substantial. For example,
over 90% of the annual mortality of
white marlin, a species petitioned for listing
under the U.S. Endangered Species
Act, occurs through incidental catch in
swordfish and tuna longline fisheries. This
threatens a recreational fishing industry
worth up to U.S.$2 billion annually (2).
To address the critical need for a more
effective and holistic management approach,
a variety of advisory panels (3–9)
have recommended ecosystem considerations
be considered broadly and consistently
in managing fisheries. Ecosystem-based
fishery management (EBFM) is a new direction
for fishery management, essentially
reversing the order of management priorities
to start with the ecosystem rather
than the target species.
The overall objective of EBFM is to
sustain healthy marine ecosystems and the
fisheries they support. In particular, EBFM
should (i) avoid degradation of ecosystems,
as measured by indicators of environmental
quality and system status; (ii)
minimize the risk of irreversible change to
natural assemblages of species and ecosystem
processes; (iii) obtain and maintain
long-term socioeconomic benefits without
compromising the ecosystem; and (iv) generate
knowledge of ecosystem processes
sufficient to understand the likely consequences
of human actions. Where knowledge
is insufficient, robust and precautionary
fishery management measures that favor
the ecosystem should be adopted.
We need to derive and develop community
and system-level standards, reference
points, and control rules analogous to singlespecies
decision criteria (10–12). We may
want to ensure that total biomass removed by
all fisheries in an ecosystem does not exceed
a total amount of system productivity, after
accounting for the requirements of other
ecosystem components (e.g., nontarget
species, protected species, habitat considerations,
and various trophic interactions).
Maintaining system characteristics within
certain bounds may protect ecosystem resilience
and avoid irreversible changes.
EBFM must delineate all marine habitats
utilized by humans in the context of
vulnerability to fishing-induced and other
human impacts, identify the potential irreversibility
of those impacts, and elucidate
habitats critical to species for vital population
processes. Protecting essential habitat
for fish and other important ecosystem
components from destructive fishing practices
increases fish diversity and abundance
(13, 14). Thus, ocean zoning, in
which type and level of allowable human
activity are specified spatially and temporally,
will be a critical element of EBFM.
The impacts of fisheries on endangered
and protected species, including ecological
processes that are essential for their recovery,
should be managed through an EBFM
approach. Single-species management has
been successful at reducing incidental
catch of protected species in some cases(e.g., with turtle excluder devices in
trawls), but EBFM would also manage indirect
effects (e.g., protecting forage fish
near sea lion rookeries).
Another goal of EBFM is to reduce excessive
levels of bycatch (i.e., killing of
nontarget species or undersized individuals
of the target species), because juvenile life
stages and unmarketable species often play
important roles in the ecosystem (15, 16).
Globally, discards in commercial fisheries
have been estimated at 27.0 million metric
tons, accounting for about one-fourth of
the world’s marine fish catch (17). Bycatch
problems can be ameliorated through
ocean zoning that would prohibit use of
nonselective or destructive gear in critical
areas, as well as through the development and deployment of more selective and less damaging fishing technologies.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
---|---|
Research Division: | Agricultural, Veterinary and Food Sciences |
Research Group: | Fisheries sciences |
Research Field: | Fisheries management |
Objective Division: | Environmental Management |
Objective Group: | Terrestrial systems and management |
Objective Field: | Assessment and management of terrestrial ecosystems |
UTAS Author: | Sainsbury, K (Professor Keith Sainsbury) |
ID Code: | 73153 |
Year Published: | 2004 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 1349 |
Deposited By: | Sustainable Marine Research Collaboration |
Deposited On: | 2011-09-16 |
Last Modified: | 2015-10-19 |
Downloads: | 11 View Download Statistics |
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