Download 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 nontarget 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 ecosystembased 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 socioeconomic 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 810, 2007. Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, Tampa, Florida. 47 p. Available at
http://ftp.gulfcouncil.org?user=anonymous&dir=/Ecosystem%20Folder/Ecosystem%20Modelin
g%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%20Modelin
g%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%20Modelin
g%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.