Ecosystem-based Management Goals Research Articles

Characterizing Changes in Participation and Diversification in Small-Scale Fisheries of Virginia, USA

Small-scale coastal fisheries are a key feature of Virginia’s cultural heritage, account for a significant portion of the state’s annual landings, and employ thousands of individuals. Despite the value of these fisheries, the number of commercial licenses sold has declined more than 15% since 1994. Using state license and permitting data, this research investigates participation and diversification in wild fisheries and marine-related economic industries through structural change and multiple correspondence (MCA) analyses. Results indicate evidence of instability in participation and diversification since the mid-1990s. The percentage of fishermen with diverse fishing portfolios accounts for less than half of those licensed and has not varied widely. Diversification into marine-related industries, however, has increased, likely due to aquaculture expansion. While some changes can be characterized as long-term trends, others indicate that participation and diversification may change considerably over shorter periods of time. MCA indicates evidence of similarity, in terms of license and permit holdings, between participants of several wild fisheries, including fishermen with a blue crab and finfish license or permit. Participation characteristics of individuals in marine-related business has changed since 1994 with more overlap between commercial fishing and seafood sales and processing in later years. Understanding participation and diversification patterns can aid managers in assessing impacts to individuals and fishing communities during adverse events and allow for consideration of social identity in management decisions. Furthermore, understanding and contextualizing resource dependency of commercial fishers, as well as the connectivity across species and sectors, may support the long-term goals of ecosystem-based management.

Using ecosystem-services assessments to determine trade-offs in ecosystem-based management of marine mammals.

The goal of ecosystem-based management (EBM) is to support a sustainable and holistic multisectored management approach, and is recognized in a number of international policy frameworks. However, it remains unknown how these goals should be linked to assessments and management plans for marine fauna, such as mammals and fish stocks. It appears particularly challenging to carry out trade-off analyses of various ocean uses without a framework that integrates knowledge of environmental, social, and economic benefits derived from nonstationary marine fauna. We argue this gap can be filled by applying a version of the ecosystem-service approach at the population level of marine fauna. To advance this idea, we used marine mammals as a case study to demonstrate what indicators could operationalize relevant assessments and deliver an evidence base for the presence of ecosystem services and disservices derived from marine mammals. We found indicators covering common ecosystem service categories feasible to apply; examples of indicator data are already available in the literature for several populations. We encourage further exploration of this approach for application to marina fauna and biodiversity management, with the caveat that conceptual tensions related to the use of the ecosystem service concept itself needs to be addressed to ensure acceptance by relevant stakeholders.

The Importance of Brokers in Collaborative Marine Ecosystem-Based Management of Social Ecological Systems

Practitioners play a critical yet largely unexamined role in translating collaborative, ecosystem-based management (EBM) for social-ecological systems from theory to practice. We paired mental models and social network analytical methods and applied them to two cases of marine EBM in Rhode Island and New York, focusing on practitioners themselves, to understand the relationship between practitioners’ mental models of marine ecosystems and the extent and nature of collaboration within each network. Mental models analysis was used to assess the comprehensiveness and balance of practitioners’ mental models, and social network analysis was used to assess the role and influence of practitioners within each network. A comparative statistical analysis was then performed to understand the relationship between mental models and network measures. Research revealed a statistically significant correlation between practitioners’ mental model comprehensiveness and practitioners’ influence within the network. In other words, practitioners with comprehensive mental models of the ecosystem for which they were planning were found to act as “brokers,” connecting those who were not otherwise connected, bridging jurisdictions, sectors, and disciplines. Results underscore the importance of brokers in achieving the collaborative and integrated goals of EBM and suggest the need for greater attention to practitioners’ role in EBM implementation.

Ecosystem services' mapping in data-poor coastal areas: Which are the monitoring priorities?

A crucial goal of ecosystem-based management is to maintain the delivery of ecosystem services (ESS) over time. This requires ESS to be assessed repeatedly over time, a task that becomes extremely challenging in data-poor coastal areas, where the lack of data and resources sums up with the intrinsic difficulties of assessing marine and coastal ESS. This implies the need to develop simple ESS assessment methods and to optimize the monitoring effort required to implement them. The aim of this work is to identify which are the key monitoring priorities for ESS mapping in data-poor coastal areas, in the perspective of ecosystem-based management implementation. In order to do so, the ESS provided by Posidonia oceanica meadows in the northern African Mediterranean coastal area have been chosen as a case study, and assessed by mapping the service providing, benefiting and connecting areas. Different input data and methods have been tested to explore how the mapping approach can be kept as simple as possible to ensure a broad applicability, and which are the crucial data required, in order to optimize the monitoring effort. The spatial distribution of the habitat providing the ESS resulted to be the data to which the mapping outcomes are more sensitive, and should be thus considered a key monitoring priority. The other input data can be kept as simple as (1) an expert-driven estimate of the service connecting area, to be understood as an ecologically meaningful range of influence of the focal habitat, and (2) globally available datasets for mapping the service benefiting areas. Overall, this results in an aggregated mapping of the multiple ESS provided by a marine habitat, which, according to our results, seems to be an advisable strategy for a first ESS assessment suitable for application in a data-poor context.

Translating sustainable seafood frameworks to assess the implementation of ecosystem-based fisheries management

Implementing fisheries management goals that simultaneously consider ecosystem effects of fishing and socioeconomic sustainability is challenging. In recent years, multiple market-based frameworks and guidelines that assess fishery sustainability have been developed, including sustainable seafood recommendation lists and certification schemes. These frameworks use suites of indicators to assess sustainability across fishery types to provide awareness to seafood suppliers, retailers, and consumers. We suggest that these indicators could also be useful to managers to track their own performance. Here we evaluate and compare four of the best-known frameworks available to assess fishery sustainability and consider their potential applicability to fisheries management in California: the Marine Stewardship Council’s 2013 certification requirements for fisheries, Friend of the Sea’s 2011 certification criteria for wild-caught fisheries, the Seafood Watch program’s current criteria for fisheries, and an FAO sustainability checklist combined with the FAO’s International Guidelines on Bycatch Management and Reduction of Discards. We assessed the alignment between the indicators used in these frameworks and the goals and requirements of the Marine Life Management Act (MLMA), the primary statute governing fisheries management in California’s coastal waters. In general, we found considerable overlap between the biophysical sustainability criteria assessed by these indicators and the requirements of the MLMA, revealing that these indicators align well with practical management needs. While the MLMA is a useful case study, these sustainability indicators could be applied more broadly by other states and federal fisheries managers to concretely evaluate progress towards ecosystem-based management goals. Ultimately, a refined suite of indicators could be operationalized, e.g., via decision trees or questionnaires for fishery managers to assess how well they are meeting ecosystem-based management objectives.

Modelling marine protected areas: insights and hurdles.

Models provide useful insights into conservation and resource management issues and solutions. Their use to date has highlighted conditions under which no-take marine protected areas (MPAs) may help us to achieve the goals of ecosystem-based management by reducing pressures, and where they might fail to achieve desired goals. For example, static reserve designs are unlikely to achieve desired objectives when applied to mobile species or when compromised by climate-related ecosystem restructuring and range shifts. Modelling tools allow planners to explore a range of options, such as basing MPAs on the presence of dynamic oceanic features, and to evaluate the potential future impacts of alternative interventions compared with 'no-action' counterfactuals, under a range of environmental and development scenarios. The modelling environment allows the analyst to test if indicators and management strategies are robust to uncertainties in how the ecosystem (and the broader human-ecosystem combination) operates, including the direct and indirect ecological effects of protection. Moreover, modelling results can be presented at multiple spatial and temporal scales, and relative to ecological, economic and social objectives. This helps to reveal potential 'surprises', such as regime shifts, trophic cascades and bottlenecks in human responses. Using illustrative examples, this paper briefly covers the history of the use of simulation models for evaluating MPA options, and discusses their utility and limitations for informing protected area management in the marine realm.

Ecosystem-Based Angling: Incorporating Recreational Anglers Into Ecosystem-Based Management

Coastal management institutions and recreational fishermen share concerns about the current state of marine fisheries. This article provides coastal managers with an outreach framework for recreational fishers that contextualizes social and ecosystem information toward the goals of ecosystem-based management. Based on a survey of anglers conducted at saltwater fishing expositions in the Northeast United States and on the literature, we report data on perceptions of recreational anglers about potential threats, individual fishing impacts, preferred modes of communication, conceptions, and behavior. We conclude that outreach campaigns should (a) focus on the perceived threats to the resource, (b) contextualize and justify the recommended pro-ecological target behaviors, (c) include topics of general interest to anglers, and (d) communicate through socially trusted sources.

Informing Olympia Oyster Restoration: Evaluation of Factors That Limit Populations in a California Estuary

The goal of this investigation was to inform restoration strategies by determining which factors are most important in limiting Olympia oyster (Ostrea lurida) distribution and abundance at a Pacific coast estuary, Elkhorn Slough in central California, where Olympia oysters are currently extremely rare but were formerly abundant. An array of mensurative experiments and correlative analyses were used to examine the role of potential limiting factors. Absence of oysters was associat- ed with symptoms of eutrophication, including elevated nutrient concentrations and turbidity. Oysters were also absent from all sites where water control structures resulted in minimal tidal exchange. Predation and competition did not appear to play a major role in surveyed oyster populations above Mean Lower Low Water but at lower elevations oysters were heavily fouled by non-native species. In most sites oysters were found only on large artificial substrates; survival on small natural hard sub- strates was apparently precluded by burial by fine sedi- ments. Restoring more natural ecosystem processes by reducing nutrient and sediment inputs, increasing tidal exchange to areas behind water control structures, and preventing establishment of new non-native species would benefit Olympia oysters as well as support broader ecosystem-based management goals.

Coastal Ecosystem-Based Management with Nonlinear Ecological Functions and Values

A common assumption is that ecosystem services respond linearly to changes in habitat size. This assumption leads frequently to an "all or none" choice of either preserving coastal habitats or converting them to human use. However, our survey of wave attenuation data from field studies of mangroves, salt marshes, seagrass beds, nearshore coral reefs, and sand dunes reveals that these relationships are rarely linear. By incorporating nonlinear wave attenuation in estimating coastal protection values of mangroves in Thailand, we show that the optimal land use option may instead be the integration of development and conservation consistent with ecosystem-based management goals. This result suggests that reconciling competing demands on coastal habitats should not always result in stark preservation-versus-conversion choices.

FORUM: Defining Goals and Criteria for Ecosystem-Based Management

/ Identifying goals or targets for landscape and ecosystem management is now a widely recognized need that has received little systematic attention. At a micro-level most planners and managers of both ecosystems and economies continue to pursue traditional goals and targets that miss many desirable characteristics of ecosystem-based management goals. Desirable characteristics of ecosystem and landscape management goals and targets include: addressing complexity, transdisciplinarity, and the dynamic nature of natural systems; reflecting the wide range of interests and goals that exist; recognizing goals and values and limits; involving people and being explainable and implementable in a consistent way to different people and groups; and evolving adaptively as conditions and knowledge change. Substantive and procedural goals can be distinguished; the latter supporting the former. Substantive goals can be grouped according to their relationship to system structure, organization, and process/dynamics, and their disciplinary or subsystemic breadth. These discussions are illustrated by a review of the goals of biodiversity, sustainability, ecological health, and integrity. An example of a hierarchical framework of procedural goals and objectives that supports achievement of substantive goals is also provided. The conclusion is that a parallel, linked system of substantive and procedural goals at different levels of complexity and disciplinarity is needed to facilitate ecosystem-based management.KEY WORDS: Ecosystem management; Goals and objectives; Assessment criteria