Targets and Limits for Long Term Fisheries Management (original) (raw)
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A framework for managing fisheries with multiple economic, ecosystem and social objectives
2015
The maximum sustainable yield (MSY) concept and its associated targets and limits have risen to become a core guideline for policy while it was developed and first implemented at a time, when both fisheries science and fisheries policy were embedded in understandings of nature and society which were very different from those industry stakeholders, civil society, policy makers and scientists deal with today. The presentation will discuss the tensions which arise when concepts, policies an institutions with different historical roots and representing different interests are brought together to find practical solutions to targets and limits in today's policy landscape. On this basis, key shortcomings of some current fisheries management institutions will be identified and potential remedies discussed. The presentation will close with a discussion of the responsibilities of marine scientists as agents for change of practical management in their roles as scientists and as advisers.
What is it we want to maximise and sustain in Maximum Sustainable Yield
2015
The maximum sustainable yield (MSY) concept and its associated targets and limits have risen to become a core guideline for policy while it was developed and first implemented at a time, when both fisheries science and fisheries policy were embedded in understandings of nature and society which were very different from those industry stakeholders, civil society, policy makers and scientists deal with today. The presentation will discuss the tensions which arise when concepts, policies an institutions with different historical roots and representing different interests are brought together to find practical solutions to targets and limits in today's policy landscape. On this basis, key shortcomings of some current fisheries management institutions will be identified and potential remedies discussed. The presentation will close with a discussion of the responsibilities of marine scientists as agents for change of practical management in their roles as scientists and as advisers.
Fish and fisheries, 2020
The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) convened an International Symposium on Fisheries Sustainability (Symposium) with high ambitions. The main objective was to construct a "positive narrative" for capture fisheries in the 21st century. In other words, the objective was to replace an often-pessimistic discourse about marine and inland fisheries with a vision that acknowledges the multiple contributions of the fishing sector (to human nutrition, environmental stewardship, gender equality, economic prosperity, etc.), as well as preparing it to deliver on sustainability in view of challenging trends. The subtitle of the Symposium-"Strengthening the Science-Policy Nexus"-suggests that science is expected to play a crucial role in shaping that vision. This, somewhat contentiously, implies a privileged position for scientists in constructing the realities that will impact many other stakeholders involved in the sector. However, the Symposium itself deprecated that impression. The organizers managed to attract a wide range of participants from among the fish workers, academia, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, national policy-makers and the industry. The total number of participants has been estimated at almost 1000, which made this Symposium a large event even in FAO terms. The Symposium programme was composed of eight panels, framed by the opening and closing ceremony. The panels covered fisheries from a variety of perspectives (status of fisheries, conservation of biodiversity, food security, economics, sustainable livelihoods , climate change, information systems and new technologies), with recurrent attention devoted to the policy implications flowing from the challenges. The panels were carefully crafted with extensive preparatory materials, guiding questions for speakers, a balanced sectoral and geographical composition of keynote and panel speakers, and employing online polls for engaging the audience alongside the questions and answers periods. The Symposium covered a great variety of themes and questions over the course of four days, including those that were not explicitly included in the titles of the panels (e.g. gender, community benefits, capacity building and financial resources). The Symposium discussions have been documented by rap-porteurs in each session. The key outputs of the Symposium will be an official report and a forward-looking document for consideration by the biennial Committee on Fisheries (COFI). The Director of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy and Resources Division additionally announced the intent to publish an Op-ed in an academic journal in order to disseminate the new narrative to the academic community. It remains to be seen whether a change of narrative at FAO can indeed impact policy formulation and the type of science produced. This brief conference report will not cover the messages of each panel, but aims to present the major issues emerging from the Symposium as a whole, which are expected to impact the sector and its vision for the future. A key in developing a positive vision will be the question of framing the ultimate objective of the fisheries sector and the positioning of the sector vis-à-vis other global priorities. There are certainly quite a few possibilities for approaching fisheries. The FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department Director framed the primary task of the FAO (and therefore the efforts in fisheries) in terms of ensuring contribution of fish to feeding the world. However, this focus seems too narrow. It needs to be recognized that fisheries form part of a wider governance agenda. This is led foremost by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and also the exigencies of the climate and biodiversity regimes (including the ongoing negotiations on biodiversity beyond national jurisdictions). It is essential that fisheries as a governance regime abolish an only inward-looking orientation and enter in a closer exchange with the other regimes than has been the case so far. This includes both taking up policy imperatives flowing from other regimes and contributing to these drivers of the global agenda. Indeed, fisheries have a potential to help accomplishing many goals from that agenda, such as gender equality, poverty elimination, climate resilience , biodiversity conservation, decent livelihoods and food security. Many of these goals are interrelated, but synergies are not automatic. To satisfy those multiple expectations, there is the need to step up fisheries management. Better management is much more likely to improve the productive capacity of the seas and devise responses.
Beyond the Target Species: Future Consequences of MSY under different scenarios of change
2015
The maximum sustainable yield (MSY) concept and its associated targets and limits have risen to become a core guideline for policy while it was developed and first implemented at a time, when both fisheries science and fisheries policy were embedded in understandings of nature and society which were very different from those industry stakeholders, civil society, policy makers and scientists deal with today. The presentation will discuss the tensions which arise when concepts, policies an institutions with different historical roots and representing different interests are brought together to find practical solutions to targets and limits in today's policy landscape. On this basis, key shortcomings of some current fisheries management institutions will be identified and potential remedies discussed. The presentation will close with a discussion of the responsibilities of marine scientists as agents for change of practical management in their roles as scientists and as advisers.
Blockages to the Transition to Responsible Fisheries
2008
Society has agreed on the goal of sustainable fisheries but achieving the goal is often submerged by more immediate national and international demands causing fisheries to slip down the political agenda or diverting attention to other fisheries issues, e.g., profitability under high fuel prices. Among the problems challenging marine capture fisheries are increasing demands for fish, uncertainty from overfishing and illegal fishing, competition for resources among different fisheries gears and methods, degrading and climate-affected ecosystems, depleted fish stocks, economic rent drains and social hardships. Solutions to these challenges, however, are available for some fisheries. Even when solutions are available, the blockages to the transition to sustainable fisheries are information failures, transition costs, use and nonuse conflicts and the capacity to implement and enforce management. This paper discusses how fisheries experts can help make the case for the transition to susta...
21 Governance for Responsible Fisheries: an Ecosystem Approach
… fisheries in the marine ecosystem, 2003
The term, 'responsible' can be interpreted in many ways. For fisheries, we believe responsible means sustainable production of human benefits, which are distributed 'fairly', without causing unacceptable changes in marine ecosystems. Governance is broader than fisheries management. It consists of formal and informal rules, and understandings or norms that influence behaviour. Responsible fisheries requires self-governance by the scientific community, the fishing industry and the public (including politicians), as well as responsible fisheries management. An ecosystem approach to fisheries management, also known as ecosystem-based fisheries management, is geographically specified fisheries management that takes account of knowledge and uncertainties about, and among, biotic, abiotic and human components of ecosystems, and strives to balance diverse societal objectives. Much has been written about the principles that should underlie an ecosystem approach to fisheries management. The key elements of the approach should be: (i) goals and constraints that characterize the desired state of fisheries and undesirable ecosystem changes; (ii) conservation measures that are precautionary, take account of species interactions and are adaptive; (iii) allocation of rights to provide incentives for conservation; (iv) decision making that is participatory and transparent; (v) ecosystem protection for habitat and species of special concern; and (vi) management support, including scientific information, enforcement and performance evaluation. Fisheries ecosystem plans are a useful vehicle for designing and implementing fisheries management systems that capture these six elements. Such plans should highlight a hierarchy of management entities, from an ecosystem scale to the local scale of communities; ocean zoning, including marine protected areas (MPAs) and other geographically defined management measures; and specification of authorized fishing activities, with protocols required for future authorizations. The scientific community needs to govern itself so that it produces scientific information that is relevant, responsive, respected and right. A multi-faceted approach is needed, including monitoring of fisheries and ecosystems, assessments and scientific advice tailored to management needs, and strategic research investments to improve monitoring and assessments in the future. One serious problem facing scientists is the controversial nature of assessments and scientific advice. This problem needs to be addressed with a three-pronged strategy that calls for: separation of scientific institutions from management; collaborative research with the fishing industry; and transparent quality assurance of scientific advice. The last-named requires peer review, which either can be integrated into the process of preparing the advice (referred to as integrated peer review) or can be conducted following the preparation of the advice (referred to as sequential peer review). The appearance of potential conflict of interest by peer reviewers is a factor in the credibility of the peer review process. For an ecosystem approach for responsible fisheries, the fishing industry should govern itself to accept responsibility for providing fisheries information, embrace collaborative research, participate in the fishery management process and live with the outcome, comply with regulations, avoid waste and develop training to instil a responsible fishing ethic. Environmentalists and the public in general should also participate
The changing face of fisheries science and management
Fishers' Knowledge in Fisheries Science and …, 2007
Great complaints are made against the use of the net called 'wondyrchoun' [beam trawl] which drags from the bottom of the sea all the bait that used to be the food of great fish… …[it] runs so heavily and hardly over the ground when fishing that it destroys the flowers of the land below the water and also the spat of oysters, mussels, and other fish upon which the great fish are nourished. .. …Through means of this instrument fishermen catch `such great plenty of small fish that they do not know what to do with them, but fatten their pigs with them'. UK Rolls of Parliament (1376/77) Today, 99% of the world's 51 million fishers are small-scale, producing over half of the global foodfish catch of 98 million tones. One billion people rely on aquatic resources as their main source of dietary protein (Berkes et al. 2001 and references therein). Globally, many fish stocks are depleted. Overall, our capacity to harvest fish continues to outpace our capacity to monitor the effects of fishing, let alone design, implement and enforce effective conservation measures. Fish populations once deemed inexhaustible (Huxley 1883), have been reduced to a fraction of their past abundance (Hilborn et al. 2003). High-level predators in the North Atlantic hover round 10% of their 1900 levels (Christensen et al. 2003; Myers and Worm 2003). Some sharks have suffered declines of over 50% since the mid 1980s (Schindler et al. 2003; Baum et al. 2002). Other species as diverse as marine turtles (Hays et al. 2003) and many species of whales hover at very low levels (Roman and Palumbi 2003). In too many cases, stocks are so depleted that conserving what is left would amount to sharing the present misery (Pitcher 2001). In these cases, the only meaningful option is recovery but we generally know even less about recovery than we do about conservation. 'Fisheries science' and 'management', as currently practiced, are relatively new phenomena. However, knowledge about marine and freshwater ecosystems and social institutions mediating human relationships with those ecosystems is ancient, being a necessity of survival as well as the product of natural human interest in the surrounding world. Together, these have led, throughout the world, to acute observation, experimentation, the formulation and testing of hypotheses, and the development of theories and practices as well as social institutions to regulate resource use and transmit knowledge from generation to generation (Berkes 1999). This book has brought together many case studies from different parts of the world where the knowledge of fishers, their institutions and often the fishers themselves is being actively integrated into fisheries science and management. The chapters represent different points on a number of continua; between contexts where mutual respect, cooperation and reciprocity (Stanley and Rice this vol.) are just evolving and those where formal co-management arrangements operate (Baird and other this vol.); between Indigenous management, state management, and state
ICES Journal of Marine Science, 2017
Targets and limits for long-term management are used in fisheries advice to operationalize the way management reflects societal priorities on ecological, economic, social and institutional aspects. This study reflects on the available published literature as well as new research presented at the international ICES/Myfish symposium on targets and limits for long term fisheries management. We examine the inclusion of ecological, economic, social and institutional objectives in fisheries management, with the aim of progressing towards including all four objectives when setting management targets or limits, or both, for multispecies fisheries. The topics covered include ecological, economic, social and governance objectives in fisheries management, consistent approaches to management, uncertainty and variability, and fisheries governance. We end by identifying ten ways to more effectively include multiple objectives in setting targets and limits in ecosystem based fisheries management.
Governance for responsible fisheries: an ecosystem approach
CABI Publishing eBooks, 2003
The term, 'responsible' can be interpreted in many ways. For fisheries, we believe responsible means sustainable production of human benefits, which are distributed 'fairly', without causing unacceptable changes in marine ecosystems. Governance is broader than fisheries management. It consists of formal and informal rules, and understandings or norms that influence behaviour. Responsible fisheries requires self-governance by the scientific community, the fishing industry and the public (including politicians), as well as responsible fisheries management. An ecosystem approach to fisheries management, also known as ecosystem-based fisheries management, is geographically specified fisheries management that takes account of knowledge and uncertainties about, and among, biotic, abiotic and human components of ecosystems, and strives to balance diverse societal objectives. Much has been written about the principles that should underlie an ecosystem approach to fisheries management. The key elements of the approach should be: (i) goals and constraints that characterize the desired state of fisheries and undesirable ecosystem changes; (ii) conservation measures that are precautionary, take account of species interactions and are adaptive; (iii) allocation of rights to provide incentives for conservation; (iv) decision making that is participatory and transparent; (v) ecosystem protection for habitat and species of special concern; and (vi) management support, including scientific information, enforcement and performance evaluation. Fisheries ecosystem plans are a useful vehicle for designing and implementing fisheries management systems that capture these six elements. Such plans should highlight a hierarchy of management entities, from an ecosystem scale to the local scale of communities; ocean zoning, including marine protected areas (MPAs) and other geographically defined management measures; and specification of authorized fishing activities, with protocols required for future authorizations. The scientific community needs to govern itself so that it produces scientific information that is relevant, responsive, respected and right. A multi-faceted approach is needed, including monitoring of fisheries and ecosystems, assessments and scientific advice tailored to management needs, and strategic research investments to improve monitoring and assessments in the future. One serious problem facing scientists is the controversial nature of assessments and scientific advice. This problem needs to be addressed with a three-pronged strategy that calls for: separation of scientific institutions from management; collaborative research with the fishing industry; and transparent quality assurance of scientific advice. The last-named requires peer review, which either can be integrated into the process of preparing the advice (referred to as integrated peer review) or can be conducted following the preparation of the advice (referred to as sequential peer review). The appearance of potential conflict of interest by peer reviewers is a factor in the credibility of the peer review process. For an ecosystem approach for responsible fisheries, the fishing industry should govern itself to accept responsibility for providing fisheries information, embrace collaborative research, participate in the fishery management process and live with the outcome, comply with regulations, avoid waste and develop training to instil a responsible fishing ethic. Environmentalists and the public in general should also participate