Ecosystem-based fisheries management: Perception on definitions, implementations, and aspirations

<div><p>Ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) was developed to move beyond single species management by incorporating ecosystem considerations for the sustainable utilization of marine resources. Due to the wide range of fishery characteristics, including different goals of fisheries management across regions and species, theoretical best practices for EBFM vary greatly. Here we highlight the lack of consensus in the interpretation of EBFM amongst professionals in marine science and its implementation. Fisheries policy-makers and managers, stock assessment scientists, conservationists, and ecologists had very different opinions on the degree to which certain management strategies would be considered EBFM. We then assess the variability of the implementation of EBFM, where we created a checklist of characteristics typifying EBFM and scored fisheries across different regions, species, ecosystems, and fishery size and capacity. Our assessments show fisheries are unlikely to meet all the criteria on the EBFM checklist. Consequentially, it is unnecessary for management to practice all the traits of EBFM, as some may be disparate from the ecosystem attributes or fishery goals. Instead, incorporating some ecosystem-based considerations to fisheries management that are context-specific is a more realistic and useful way for EBFM to occur in practice.</p></div

Ecosystem-based fisheries management: Perception on definitions, implementations, and aspirations - Fig 1

<p>A. Survey results for defining EBFM. The y-axis is the list of scenarios asked and the x-axis the score of the final response. We divided the scenarios by categories for different management actions (gray shading) and the respondents by profession or background (colored). Each tube represents the range of responses. <b>B</b>. Shows the average responses by survey for each respondent background.</p

EBFM scoring criteria.

<p>Criteria used to score the fisheries listed in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0190467#pone.0190467.s002" target="_blank">S1 File</a> and justification for each scoring criteria.</p

An Ecosystem-Based Approach to Evaluating Impacts and Management of Invasive Lionfish

<p>Species invasions in marine ecosystems pose a threat to native fish communities and can disrupt the food webs that support valuable commercial and recreational fisheries. In the Gulf of Mexico, densities of invasive Indo-Pacific Lionfish, <i>Pterois volitans</i> and <i>P. miles</i>, are among the highest in their invaded range. In a workshop setting held over a 2-week period, we adapted an existing trophic dynamic model of the West Florida Shelf, located in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, to simulate the lionfish (both species) invasion and community effects over a range of harvest scenarios for both lionfish and native predators. Our results suggest small increases in lionfish harvest can reduce peak biomass by up to 25% and also that reduced harvest of native reef fish predators can lead to lower lionfish densities. This model can help managers identify target harvest and benefits of a lionfish fishery and inform the assessment and management of valuable reef fish fisheries.</p