Adaptive, Robust, and Precautionary Management

Abstract

Within the fishery management system, all decisions must be made under uncertainty. The ubiquitous uncertainties in fisheries were organised into three main categories: random fluctuations, uncertainties in fishery models (parameters), and structural uncertainty. Risk assessment, and risk analysis, has been the subject of considerable attention by fishery scientists, particularly given the emerging importance of the precautionary approach. A rigorous implementation of risk management in fisheries is management strategy evaluation, or similarly management procedures. This chapter focuses on two major directions in fishery management: adaptive management and robust management. The fundamental idea of the precautionary approach is to guide fishery scientists and managers in better erring on the side of caution in the face of uncertainty. In recent years, a major focus of attention in fishery systems, both nationally and internationally, has been on efforts to operationalise the precautionary approach.