The art of ecosystem-based fishery management

The perception that ecosystem-based fishery management is too complex and poorly defined remains a primary impediment to its broadscale adoption and implementation. Here, I attempt to offer potential solutions to these concerns. Specifically, I focus on pathways that can contribute to overall simplification by moving toward integrated place-based management plans and away from large numbers of species-based plans; by using multispecies or ecosystem models and indicators that permit the simultaneous and consistent assessment of ecosystem components while also incorporating broader environmental factors; and by consolidating individual administrative and regulatory functions now mostly dealt with on a species-by-species basis into a more integrated framework for system-wide decision-making. The approach focuses on emergent properties at the community and ecosystem levels and seeks to identify simpler modeling and analysis tools for evaluation. Adoption of ecosystem-based management procedures relying on simple decision rules and metrics is advocated. It is recommended that we replace static concepts for individual species focusing on maximum sustainable yield with a dynamic ecosystem yield framework that involves setting system-wide reference points along with constraints to protect individual species, habitats, and nontarget organisms in a dynamic environmental setting.