Ecological Considerations in Fisheries Management: When Does it Matter?

Ecological processes are often not explicitly included in fisheries models and management, but have the potential to be a significant influence on fish stocks. I examine cases from ecosystems around the world where predation, competition, environmental regime shifts, and habitat alteration have altered population dynamics, stock abundance, and community composition. These cases demonstrate the importance of ecological processes in the regulation of fish populations. Fisheries managers and scientists have long appreciated the importance of quantifying ecological processes relative to fishing, but recognizing the consequences of ignoring these considerations and developing a feasible set of widely used tools to implement these considerations has been lagging. Very simply, given what we know about the importance of these processes, particularly at low stock abundances, we would be wise to address them. I conclude with a proposed set of questions that need to be addressed in order to more widely and systematically implement ecological considerations in fisheries management.