1. Incorporating Ecosystem Objectives into Fisheries Management
including: ‘best practice’ reference points and
use of Marine Protected Areas
Keith Sainsbury
CSIRO Australia
Ussif Rashid Sumalia
UBC Canada
CMI Norway

2. Incorporating Ecosystem Related Objectives Into Management for Sustainable Fisheries
What are these “ecosystem related objectives”
The challenge
Some ways forward

3. Some Ecosystem Related Objectives From International Agreements
Manage resources sustainably for human nutritional, economic and social goals (LOSC and UNCED)
Protect rare or fragile ecosystems, habitats and species (UNCED)
Conserve genetic, species and ecosystem biodiversity (CBD)
Preventative, precautionary and anticipatory planning and implementation (UNCED)
Protect and maintain the relationships and dependencies between species (UNCED)
UNCED=UN Convention on the Environment and
Development (1992)
LOSC=UN Law of the Sea Convention (1982)
CBD= Convention on Biological Diversity (1992)

4. The Challenge: Bridging the Gap Between “High Level” Objectives and Operational Management
Operational questions:
What specific outcomes are intended?
What are the targets, limits and levels of acceptable change?
How will a given management action help or hinder the intent?
How would success or failure be measured and detected?
How can precaution and balance be achieved across objectives that span use and conservation of complex ecosystems?

5. Steps Forward - Bridging the Gap
Achieving sustainability is not easy, even for target
species let alone ecosystems
But we know enough to make a very good start:
1. Report performance and assess management strategies for the system as a whole
2. Use reference points that incorporate uncertainty and ecosystem considerations
3. Make better use of inherently precautionary management measures such as protected areas

6. 1. Performance Reporting and Assessment for the Management System as a Whole
Establish the hierarchy between high level and operational objectives
High level objectives need operational objectives
Operational objectives need indicators and reference points
Indicators and reference points give performance measures

7. Performance Reporting for the Management System as a Whole: a practical application
An approach to reporting Sustainable Development for Australian fisheries
- similar approach elsewhere
Identify components for high level objectives
Develop ‘component tree’ linking high level objectives to operational objectives
- via as many sub-components needed

8. Example ‘component tree’ linking high level to operational objectives
Risk assessment to identify and weight important branches
Report for each terminal
- objectives
- performance
measures
- monitoring
- management
response
Transparent, simple & flexible reporting framework

9. Assessment of the Management System as a Whole
The ‘component tree’ identifies the important issues and
- targets, monitoring, and proposed management
response
Taken as a whole
- are they likely to achieve the objectives within and
across branches?
What management strategies can be expected to achieve the operational objectives?
- balance of outcomes
- risks and precaution

10. Scientific Evaluation of Feedback Management Strategies
Methods for evaluation have been developed:
Adaptive management methods (Walters, Hilborn and others)
Management procedure methods (IWC, Butterworth and others)
Management strategy evaluation

11. Simulation Testing of Operational Management Strategies
A Management
Strategy contains:
Performance measures
Monitoring
Analysis method
Decision rules
Feedback for “detection and
correction”
Implementation

12. Management Strategy Evaluation - Experience
Many applications:
Fishery target species management
- reference points, monitoring, decision rules
Maintaining food-chain dependencies (eg CCAMLR)
Setting by-catch limits (eg Potential Biological Removals)
Maintaining habitats and fish community composition (eg Australian NW Shelf and GB Reef)
Understanding robustness, risk, precaution, trade-offs

13. 2. Use Reference Points that Incorporate Uncertainty and Ecosystem Considerations
Appropriate reference points depend on the management system as a whole
But there is an emerging ‘best practice’
Incomplete but developing
- mainly at species level and accounting for some
ecological processes
- weak for ecosystem properties (habitats,
biodiversity, food-webs, community structure)
- no guarantee they are necessary or sufficient for
ecological sustainability
A credible starting point
- practical and useable now

14. Some Emerging ‘Best Practice’ Reference Points for Ecologically Sustainable Fisheries

15. Some Emerging ‘Best Practice’ Reference Points for Ecologically Sustainable Fisheries

16. 3. Use of Inherently Precautionary Management Measures Such as Marine Protected Areas
What is an MPA?
An area managed to protect and maintain biological diversity, and natural and associated cultural resources (IUCN 1994)
Categories of MPA range from:
Reserve or sanctuary - minimal impacts and no extractive use
Habitat/species protected area - manage to protect specific values
Resource Protected Area - managed for sustainable resource use
What can MPAs achieve in theory?
Reference site for comparison
Preservation and restoration

17. Reserve Fishing Grounds Spillover Larval Export Stability Enhancement
Immediate Short-term Medium - Long-term
Number and density increase
‘Natural’ age/size structures re-established
Spillover
Larval Export
Reduced loss of genetic information
Fishing mortality eliminated
Individuals live longer
Reproductive output increases
Recruitment enhanced
Spawning habitat condition improves
Community Structure
Biomass & spawning biomass increase
Mean age and size increase
Reserve
Stability Enhancement
Fishing
Grounds
Habitat damage stopped
Biodiversity increases
Ecological function enhanced
Communities stabilize
Habitat complexity increase
Higher trophic structure rebuilds
Population Structure
Population Abundance

18. What Have MPAs Achieved in Practice?
Often demonstrated
Increased abundance, size and density of species
Sometimes demonstrated
Increased fecundity and reproductive capacity
Increased species richness and genetic diversity
Increased fishery yield in surrounding area
Economic benefits to fishery and other uses
But effects poorly known because
Weak baseline data
Reserves small and/or recent
Little performance evaluation for most MPAs

19. How Can We Enhance MPA Success?
Apply design methods that are available
- including uncertainty
- area, location, shape of MPAs
- networks of MPAs
Identify operational objectives and management
strategy
- evaluate and establish monitoring and performance assessment
Meet critical information needs
- what is where, and what interconnections
- scale and location of major seafloor habitat types
- new technologies can help

20. Incorporating Ecosystem Related Objectives Into Fisheries Management: Conclusions
There are existing methods and approaches that can be
applied now:
1. Use transparent and ‘whole system’ approach to
- link high level and operational objectives
- demonstrate basis of prioritisations
- structure performance reporting
2. Assess and design management strategies for
- robustness and precaution
- adequacy of monitoring and planned ‘detection-
correction’ response

21. Incorporating Ecosystem Related Objectives Into Management for Sustainable Fisheries: Conclusions
3. Use emerging ‘best practice’ reference points
4. Improve design and use of marine protected areas
- precaution and preservation
- monitoring and performance assessment
- use as reference sites
Continuous improvements will be made but we have the basis for a credible and major first step