Gulf Of Mexico Fisheries Management Council Ecosystem SSC

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Gulf Of Mexico Fisheries Management Council Ecosystem SSC

Tab G, No. 10

Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council Ecosystem SSC Statement of Work April 2010

In 2005, the Ecosystem SSC adopted the following definition and goal of EBFM:

The Definition of EBFM is: Ecosystem Based Fishery Management (EBFM) means making a decision concerning the management of a fishery species or species complex based on: 1) Knowledge of ecosystem- level considerations that will improves the quality of the decision; 2) Knowledge of how the decision will affect the ecosystem or ecosystems to which the species belongs.

The Goal of EBFM is to: Restore and conserve marine resources, taking into account the protection of marine ecosystems, and foster the long-term sustainable use of marine resources in an ecologically and culturally sensitive manner through the use of a science-based ecosystem approach to resource management.

An ecosystem-based management measure is one that includes explicit consideration on non- target species and/or habitat/climate .

Statement of Work

There are many data needs and methodological approaches that could be used for developing an EBFM approach to fisheries management. The Ecosystem SSC has decided to focus on two critical aspects: (1) o developing a framework approach to enhance the type and quality of ecological information used in stock assessments; and (2) to identify and incorporate critical socio-economic information into EBFM.

Stock Assessments and EBFM Current stock assessments used for managing fisheries resources in the Gulf rely on models that focus on the relationship between exploitation level and sustainability, but fail to consider many aspects of the ecology of the species (Latour et al. 2003). Specifically, assessment models lack variability in demographic processes, movement of individuals and populations, trophic interactions, and behavior, and rarely incorporate environmental information such as habitat requirements or response to environmental change (Latour et al. 2003). These models also lack specificity regarding fishing fleet dynamics (e.g., causes and consequences of spatial pattern in fishing effort), gear interactions, socio-economic parameters (including fisher behavior), and spatial-temporal resolutions necessary for incorporating various ecosystem parameters and fishing effort dynamics. This precludes existing assessment models from exploring policy options ranging from spatial closures (MPAs) to protection of forage species and critical nursery habitats, and from realistically determining tradeoffs among fishing fleets created by trophic and technical interactions. For the past two years, the GMFMC-ecosystem SSC has been exploring various ecosystem- based models and testing their capabilities and limitations in addressing selected fisheries management policy issues (GMFMC 2007a, 2007b, 2008; ; Walters et al. 2008, 2009). ). There is a critical need for improving the existing models and investing in the collection of appropriate data.

ACTION.--The GMFMC-ecosystem SSC proposes holding a workshop to discuss the fundamentals and practical approaches to incorporating critical ecological and environmental parameters into stock assessment and SEDAR evaluation processes. The Ecosystem SSC members suggests that the best way to develop a framework for the incorporation of ecosystem principles into fishery management is through a collaborative learning process involving stock assessment scientists, ecologists, and ecosystem modelers, as well as SSC and council members. Without this type of interaction, the recommendations made by the Ecosystem SSC are not easily assimilated into the SEDAR process.

Socio-economic information and EBFM Although there have been periodic surveys of stakeholder attitudes to EBFM (Jepson 2005, Wallmo and Gentner 2007), a consideration of the human component of ecosystems is often undervalued (Rice 2007). Currently, socio-economic information is primarily used, not as an input to help shape alternatives for management policy, but as an output once the alternatives have been defined, i.e., to predict the effects of a proposed action on the human environment. Few studies focus on fishermen’s behavior, although one recent study evaluated fishermen’s behavior in repose to marine reserves (Smith and Coleman 2006). Multi-species assessment models such as Fishmod can evaluate the effect of seasonal management and area closures in a multi-species context, but these models lack detailed information on habitat and fisherman behavior (GMFMC 2007b). For these reasons, more information is needed about: how particular management measures will impact fishermen’s behavior; the impact on the fishery from the actions of other stakeholder groups; the impact of regulations on other stakeholder groups; and what social and economic indicators exist to describe these impacts.

ACTION.--The Ecosystem SSC and the Socio-economic Panel will jointly hold a socio- economic workshop (inviting social scientists with relevant experience to participate) to discuss practical approaches to incorporating socio-economic information into EBFM. Long-term Statement of Work

Upon conclusion of the two workshops described above , the Ecosystem SSC will apply the approaches resulting from the workshops and identify what additional long-term recommendations/changes that may further enhance and simplify the fishery management process .

REFERENCES GMFMC. 2007a. Report of the ecosystem modeling workshop, St. Petersburg, Florida, May 8- 10, 2007. Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, Tampa, Florida. 47 p. Available at http://ftp.gulfcouncil.org?user=anonymous&dir=/Ecosystem%20Folder/Ecosystem %20Modeling%20Workshop%20-%202007%20May%208-10/ GMFMC. 2007b. Report of the ecosystem modeling follow-up workshop, St. Petersburg, Florida, September 24-26, 2007. Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, Tampa, Florida. 13 p+ appendix. Available at http://ftp.gulfcouncil.org?user=anonymous&dir=/Ecosystem%20Folder/Ecosystem %20Modeling%20Workshop%20-%202007%20Sept%2024-26/ GMFMC. 2008. Report of the ecosystem modeling workshop #3, Tampa, Florida, May 6-7, 2008. Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, Tampa, Florida. 12 p. Available at http://ftp.gulfcouncil.org?user=anonymous&dir=/Ecosystem%20Folder/Ecosystem %20Modeling%20Workshop%20-%202008%20May%206-7/ Jepson, M. 2005. Ecosystem fisheries management: a summary of workshops conducted slong the Gulf coast. Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council. 32 p. Available at http://ftp.gulfcouncil.org?user=anonymous&dir=/Ecosystem%20Folder/Ecosystem%20public%20workshops%202005/ Latour, R. J., M.J. Brush and C.F. Bonzek. 2003. Toward ecosystem-based fisheries management: strategies for multispecies modeling and associated data requirements. Fisheries 28(9):10-22. Rice, J. 2007. Investigating the roots of confusion. Marine Ecosystems and Management. 1(1):5 Smith, M.D. and F.C. Coleman. 2006. Incorporating fisher behavior into management models. PowerPoint presentation presented at the March 2006 meeting of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council. Available at http://ftp.gulfcouncil.org?user=anonymous&dir=/Ecosystem%20Folder/Miscellaneous%20Powerpoint Wallmo, K. and B. Gentner. 2007. Stakeholder attitudes towards ecosystem-based fisheries management. National Marine Fisheries Service, Office of Science and Technology, Silver Spring, Maryland. PowerPoint presentation. Available at http://ftp.gulfcouncil.org?user=anonymous&dir=/Ecosystem%20Folder/Attitudes - Values%20Survey/ Walters, C., Martell, S.J.D., and Christensen, V. 2007. An Ecosim model for exploring ecosystem management options for the Gulf of Mexico: implications of including multistanza life history models for policy predictions. Bull. Mar. Sci. 83:251-272.

Walters, C., Christensen, V., Walters, W., and Rose, K. 2009. Representation of multi-stanza life histories in Ecospace models for spatial organization of ecosystem trophic interaction patterns. Bull. Mar. Sci. 86:439-459.

Recommended publications