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Figure 9. Draft ecosystem-oriented fisheries management science policy
for the Northeast United States
Continental Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem (LME) as a representative example.
Definition(s) |
Ecosystem-oriented fishery management is “a strategy
to regulate human activity towards maintaining long-term
system substainability (within the range of natural variability as we understand
it”, Fluharty, 2000). The
area under consideration is the U.S. Northeast Shelf ecosystem and its
four sub-areas - the Gulf of Maine,
Georges Bank, Southern New England, and the Mid-Atlantic Bight. |
| Objective |
“The basic ecosystem consideration is a precautionary approach
to extraction of fish resources” to provide and
ensure the intergenerational sustainability of ecosystem goals and services
by establishing appropriate reference
points and/or sustainability indicators based on the best scientific evidence
available. |
| Goals |
- Maintain biodiversity consistent with multiple spatial scales natural
evolutionary and ecological processes,
including dynamic change and variability.
- Maintain and restore habitats
essential for fish and their prey, that is, “those waters and
substrate necessary to fish for spawning, breeding, feeding or growth
to maturity” (e.g.
see Fluharty, 2000).
- Maintain system sustainability and sustaina
ble yields of resources for human consumption and non-extractive
uses, including halting overfishing, that is, “a rate or level
of fishing mortality that jeopardizes the capacity of a
fishery to produce the maximum sustainable yield on a continuing
basis “(e.g.
see Fluharty, 2000).
- Maintain the concept that humans are integral
components of the ecosystem.
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| Guidelines |
- Integrate ecosystem-oriented management through interactive partnerships
between and among regulatory
agencies, stakeholders, (public), and international regional organizations
(e.g. NAFO).
- Utilize peer-review ecological models as an aid in understanding
the structure, function, and dynamics of the
North Atlantic ecosystem.
- Utilize best available science research
and monitoring to test and validate a “best practices” ecosystem
approach.
- Use precaution when faced with uncertainties to minimize
risk; management decisions should err on the side
of resource conservation.
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| Assumptions |
- Ecosystem-oriented management is an experimental adaptive process
which requires periodic evaluation,
refining and consolidation to incorporate updated scientific information
as it becomes available.
- Ecosystem-oriented management requires temporal
scales that transcend human generations.
- Fish has become the most
internationally traded food, as some 37% (by volume) of all fish for
human
consumption is traded across borders (Sinclair and Valdimarsson,
2003).
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| Understanding |
- The ecosystem is considered to be a unit of biological organization
made up of all the organisms in a given area
(that is a “community”) interacting with the physical environment
so that a flow of energy leads to characteristic
trophic structure and material cycles within the system (Odum, 1969).
- Science
policy management measures that are consistent with an ecosystem-oriented
strategy include, among
others, precautionary-conservative catch (allocation) limits, comprehensive
monitoring and enforcement,
by-catch controls including adaptable retention and utilization policies,
gear restrictions, closed season/closed
area/time marine protected areas (MPA’s), and additional ecosystem
considerations that include relying on
scientific research and advice, etc.(Witherell, et al., 2000)
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| (Adapted and modified from Sinclair and Validimarsson, 2003;
Witherell, et al., 2000; Fluharty, 2000; Sherman and Duda, 1999
a&b; Witherell, 1999; Odum, 1969) |
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