Blue bio economy unlocking the potential of seas and oceans
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1. Fisheries Science in the 21Fisheries Science in the 21stst
Century:Century:
Beginning with the End in Mind ~Beginning with the End in Mind ~
An Ecosystem Approach to ManagementAn Ecosystem Approach to Management
Jon Brodziak
National Marine Fisheries Service
Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center
2. Sustainability of Marine Ecosystem Services:
Goals to Measure Success
• Mature Fish Thriving
and Spawning
• Reliable Seafood
Products
• Low-Impact Fishing
Practices
• Resilience to Climate &
Ecological Change
• Stable Yields
• Profitable Industries
• Ample Recreational
Fishing and Tourism
Opportunities
• Diverse Biota
• Robust Populations of
Protected Species
3. An Ecosystem Approach to Management
• Monitor ecological indicators of ecosystem status
-What is the recent history ?
• Assess status of fisheries resources
-What is the status ?
• Provide forecasts for fisheries resources and for the
marine ecosystem
- What would be the effects of changing fishing practices ?
- What will be the impacts of environmental change ?
Brodziak, J. and Link, J. 2002.
Ecosystem-based fisheries management: What is it and how can we do it?
Bulletin of Marine Science 70(2):589-611.
4. Ten Important Themes
of an Ecosystem Approach
to Management
• “Big Picture” Thinking
• Ecological Boundaries
• Ecological Sustainability
• Data Collection
• Monitoring
• Adaptive Management
• International and
Interagency Cooperation
• Organizational Change
• Humans as Part of Nature
• Values and Ethics
5. Multiple Goals - Multiple Metrics
• Biotic Metrics
– Single Species Reference Points
– Whole System Attributes
• Abiotic Metrics
– Environmental Conditions
• Human Metrics
– Fishery Capitalization
– Performance of Regulations
6. Some Ecological Status Indicators
Environmental fluctuations: PDO
YEAR
L yco d es b revip es
S a rri t o r f ren a t u s
P o d o t h ecu s a ci p en s eri n u s
Icel u s sp p .
G ym n o ca n t h u s p i sti ll i g er
T ri g l o p s sp p .
C yclo p t eri d a e
B a th ym a st er si g n a tu s
D a syco t tu s set i g er
H exa g ra m m o s st ell eri
1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
Population trends of non-target fish
species
7. Some Ecological-Based Management Indicators
0
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
Year
Longlineeffort(1,000hooks)
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
25,000
30,000
Incidentaltakeofseabirds
Effort (1000 hooks)
Number of seabirds
BSAI Non-target
0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
60000
70000
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
TotalCatch(tons)
Amount and composition of non-target
fish species in catch
Seabird bycatch and fishing
effort
8. Georges Bank Haddock Spawning Stock Biomass (kt)
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
FishingMortality
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0
Target F
Limit F
Observed F
1998
Too much fishing, 1931-1998
Fisheries Resources: Georges Bank Haddock
Target Zone
Overfishing
Zone
9. Year
1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
CommercialCatch(000s,mt)
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
FishingMortality(Fages4-7,unweighted)
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
FMSY
Catch
Fishing Mortality
Figure 4. Trends in commercial catch biomass (shaded area) during 1904-2004
and fishing mortality estimates (solid line) during 1931-2004 for Georges Bank haddock.
Haddock fishery collapsed in 1994 …
Then management measures reduced fishing mortality
10. Operational Goals for EAM
(1) Develop Stakeholder-Based Management
(2) Conserve Essential Parts of the Ecosystem
(3) Conserve Essential Ecosystem Processes
12. Annual Shrimp Production in the Gulf of MexicoAnnual Shrimp Production in the Gulf of Mexico
Depends on Healthy Wetlands and Ocean WatersDepends on Healthy Wetlands and Ocean Waters
Population
Brown shrimp
Density
Size
Biomass
Growth
Recruitment
(immigration)
Mortality
Production
(emigration)
Temp
Marsh
Flooding
Predator Size
and Density
Turbidity
16. Ecological Decision Making in the Context of
Diverse Human Value Systems
• Accountability: Explicit About Decision Criteria
• Legitimacy: Explicit About Policy Strategies
• Flexibility: Explicit About Uncertainties
17. Building Responsible Fisheries
Reykjavik Conference October 2001
• Goals and Constraints
• Conservation of Fisheries Resources
• Allocation of Fishing Rights
• Participatory Decision-Making
• Ecosystem Protection
• Management Support
• The Ethic of Restraint
Source: Sissenwine and Mace (2001. Governance for responsible
fisheries: an ecosystem approach)
18. Summary: An Ecosystem Approach
• Clear Goals
• Multiple Indicators
• Adaptive Management
Information-rich approach
to make tradeoff decisions in
an ecosystem context
19. Human Population Size
Data from Kremer (1993) and U.N. (2000)
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000
Year
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Billions
Applying an
Ecosystem Approach:
The Time is Now !
Editor's Notes
In the 21st century, fisheries science will focus less on extraction or harvesting and more on maintaining marine ecosystems. This will require an interdisciplinary ecosystem approach.
People want different things from marine ecosystems. Here are some examples. Different goals can be used to measure success.
An ecosystem approach to management includes:
(1) Monitor indicators of ecosystem status
(2) Assess status of fisheries resources
(3) Forecast impacts of changing fishing practices or environmental change
Monitoring ecological status indicators is important for sustaining ecosystem services. One example is monitoring the abundance of non-target fish species. Another example is monitoring changes in the ocean environment, such as the Pacific decadal oscillation.
Managing human impacts is also important for maintaining ecosystem services. One example is monitoring the impact of longline fishery effort (hooks) and seabird bycatch. Another example is monitoring the catch of non-target species in trawl fisheries.
Assessing the status of fisheries resources is also important. Here is an example of measuing the fishing mortality rate for haddock on Georges Bank in the North Atlantic Ocean. Management of haddock has a target fishing mortality zone, depending on adult spawning biomass. When F is not in the target zone, overfishing occurs. There was a lot of overfishing on haddock during 1931-1998.
After so much overfishing, the haddock fishery collapsed in 1994. Restrictive management measures reduced fishing mortality and the stock and fishery catches are now increasing.
Operational goals for an ecosystem approach are simple. First, develop stakeholder-based management - not just fishing industry. Second, conserve essential parts (species and habitat). Third, conserve essential ecosystem processes.
As this map of the Gulf of Mexico illustrates, marine ecosystems of the nation and the world are the focus of many, sometimes conflicting, human uses. Often we deal with these issues one at a time (e.g., nutrient enrichment of the coastal areas, protected species management, and energy development). However, many of these issues are interconnected. For example, in the Gulf of Mexico, nutrients entering from the Mississippi River into the northern Gulf of Mexico are transported westward, where they contribute to plankton blooms and eventually result in low oxygen conditions in the northwest Gulf. Fisheries, in turn, are affected in these areas, and harmful algal blooms may occur with increasing intensity. Coral reefs and other sensitive habitats are also affected by a range of human activities as well as naturally occurring disturbances. To understand the full ramifications of these issues, an ecosystem approach examines the cumulative impacts of these various activities on biota of the marine environment. An important aspect of implementing an ecosystem approach to science and decision making is to understand the interactions between human activities and naturally occurring physical phenomena, such as hurricanes and coastal current systems. Science supporting the ecosystem approach makes use of observing systems—such as satellites, buoys, and biological sampling systems—to monitor the state of the environment and the various pressures influencing the ecosystem.
Shrimp recruitment, the production of juvenile shrimp, depends on healthy wetlands and ocean waters. Coastal development reduces wetlands. Nitrogen input from farms reduces oxygen. Development and farming have negative impacts on shrimp habitat. There is a tradeoff between these activities and shrimp fishing.
Ocean chemistry is an important ecosystem process that is essential for sustaining ecosystem services. Carbon dioxide is absorbed and released from ocean waters in a dynamic exchange.
Reducing ocean acidification due to uptake of human-produced CO2 will be important to sustaining ecosystem services. Since the industrial revoluation began there has been an increase in ocean pH of 0.1 over the last two centuries. This is a 30% increase in acidity. There has been a decrease in carbonate ion concentration of about 16%.These changes in pH and carbonate chemistry may have serious impacts on open ocean and coastal marine ecosystems.
The increase in CO2 reduces the amount of carbonate ion concentration. The decrease in carbonate ion concentration will probably reduce growth of animals that have shells, such as scallops, crabs, and corals. This may have severe negative impacts on fishery production and habitat.
In summary, the ecosystem approach to fisheries management includes:
(1) Clear goals
(2) Multiple indicators to measure success
(3) Adaptive management that is flexible to adjust to changing conditions and to make tradeoff decisions
Human population size is increasing rapidly. Managing human impacts on marine ecosystems is an urgent issue. The time is now to apply an ecosystem approach.
