Ecosystem-Based Fishery

Management
(EBFM)

Aditya Haridas Kamath

OST-2018-20-02
• Fishery effects on social-ecological systems are far-reaching and complex, with
potential for mismanagement leading to severe ecosystem impacts.
• traditional method - single species management.
• it ignores-
1. Species interactions
2. Bycatch
3. Changes in the ecosystem structure
4. Gear impacts on ecosystem
• The use of single species reference points like harvesting each species at its
MSY could cause problems due to the removal of top predators with effects
on the bottom levels.
• Traditional method focuses on one species in isolation.
EBFM
• to overcome this, EBFM was introduced
• it is an integrated approach which considers all key activities, mainly
anthropogenic that affects the marine environment.
• to ensure sustainable ecosystem
• the Pew Oceans Commission (POC 2003) and the US commission of Ocean
Policy (USCOP2004) have indicated the importance of moving to a more
integrated approach.
• focuses on how individual actions affects the ecosystem services.
• different sectors can have cumulative example.
• e.g., loss of biodiversity caused by fishing, climate change, habitat loss ,etc
Definition of EBFM (NOAA and FAO)
• it is defined as
“An approach that takes major ecosystem components and
services into account in managing fisheries. It values habit, enhances a
multi species perspective and is committed to understanding
ecosystem processes. Its goal is to rebuild and sustain populations,
species, biological communities and marine ecosystems at high levels
of productivity and biological diversity so as not to jeopardize a wide
range of goods and services from marine ecosystem while providing
food, revenue, and recreation for humans.”
• the acceptance of EBFM has been slow.
• commercial fishing alone removes 80 million tonnes of biomass
annually from world's oceans.
Principles of EBFM
1. good governance - follow the rules, should be effective and efficient,
accountable, transparent, responsive, equitable and inclusive.
2. Appropriate scale - ecological, socio-economic, political and temporal
3. Increased participation - involve fishery related stakeholders, fishers, fishers
association, governments , agencies, NGOs ,etc
4. Multiple objectives - for each sector there will be an objective which has to
be balanced so stakeholder engagement and negotiation is necessary
5. Institutional cooperation and coordination - through discussion, sharing
info, harmonizing work plans , budgets and establishing Memorandum of
understanding.
6. Adaptive management - learning by evaluating the outcome.
7. Precautionary approach
Fishery Ecosystem Plans (FEPs)
• FEPs - tool to improve decision making through incorporation the
principles of EBFM.
• Used to achieve sustainability goals for fishery systems using
ecosystem based considerations and scientific tools.
• First gen FEPs - compiled info on interactions between fish stocks and
the marine environment but did not develop advice to incorporate
them into the decisions. they lacked detail on socio-economic
dimensions of fisheries.
• Next gen FEPs -
1. embrace fishery systems as linked interacting biophysical and
human systems.
2. support streamlined management to relieve, rather than make
administrative burdens
3. create a framework for deliberate informed and transparent
decision making.
Objectives OF EBFM
1. Avoid degradation of ecosystems, as measured by indicators of
environmental quality and system status.
2. minimize the risk of irreversible change to natural assemblage of species
and ecosystem processes.
3. obtain an maintain long-term socio-economic benefits without
compromising the ecosystems.
4. generate knowledge of ecosystem processes sufficient to understand the
likely consequence of human actions.
5. to reduce excessive levels of bycatch , because juveniles and unmarketable
species play vital role in ecosystem. ( 27 million tons of bycatch i.e., 1/4 of
total catch is bycatch) avoided using proper gear and ocean zoning.
6. manage the target species.
Steps of EBFM
• EBFM has five steps under three main processes.
1. Planning
• defining and scoping fishery management unit (FMU)
• idenntifying and prioritizing issues and goals.
• developing EBFM plan.
2. Doing
• implementing the plan
3. Checking and Improving
• Monitoring, Evaluating and adapting.
Benefits of EBFM
• Facilitates trade-offs between different stakeholder priorities,
balancing social and ecological needs.
• Addresses multiple legal mandates simultaneously.
• Maintains ecosystem goods and services for delivering social,
economic and cultural benefits to society.
• Addresses cumulative impacts.
• Increases stakeholder participation.
• Provides more information to make management decisions, which
should improve our ability to sustainably manage fisheries.
• There will be fewer and smaller gaps between what occurs and what
we expected to occur, and better understanding of the factors with
the most impact on our fisheries.
• In short, fewer surprises, fewer mistakes.
• Contributes to an increased ability to predict likely outcomes of
management actions.
• Forecasts pressures and impacts on both single and aggregated
components of a marine ecosystem.
• Provides a better understanding of how ecosystems and their
components respond to multiple stressors.
• Provides more stability of ecosystem level measures and translates
into better regulatory stability and business plans.
• Is cost-effective.
• Provides a more effective management framework.
• Is designed to be adaptive.
Challenges of EBFM
• Because ecosystems differ greatly and express varying degrees of
vulnerability, it is difficult to apply a functional framework that can be
universally applied.
• These steps of EBFM can be applied to multiple situations but are only
suggestions for improving or guiding the challenges involved with
managing complex issues.
• Because of the greater amount of influences, impacts, and interactions to
account for, problems, obstacles and criticism often arise within
ecosystem-based management.
• need for meaningful and appropriate management units.
• units must be broad and contain value for people in and outside of the
protected area.
• creation of administrative bodies - They should operate as the essence of
ecosystem-based management, working together towards mutually agreed
upon goals.
• Gaps in administration or research, competing objectives or priorities
between management agencies and governments can result in fragmented or
weak management.
• limited knowledge of ecosystem components and function and time
constraints can often limit objectives to only those that can be addressed in
the short-term .
• little knowledge about the system and its effectiveness.
Ten Commandments for Ecosystem-based
fisheries scientists.
1. Keep a perspective that is holistic, risk-averse, and adaptive.
2. Question key assumptions, no matter how basic.
3. Maintain old-growth age structure in fish populations.
4. Characterize and maintain the natural spatial structure of fish stocks.
5. Characterize and maintain viable fish habitats.
6. Characterize and maintain ecosystem resilience.
7. Identify and maintain critical food web connections.
8. Account for ecosystem change through time.
9. Account for evolutionary change caused by fishing.
10. Implement an approach that is integrated, interdisciplinary, and inclusive.
THANK YOU