Managers, scientists, and fishing communities are eager to move to ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM). But there is little practical guidance or agreement on indicators that can be used to measure the ecosystem properties that identify ‘safe ecological limits’ for fishing. Further, there is even less guidance on linking these indicators to decision-making. Current information is primarily focused on maintaining the productivity of an individual species or group of species, consequently using single species management and inconsistent incorporation of ecosystem data. As a result, many agree that the fisheries management system needs a fresh approach and clear recommendations on how to bring ecosystem concepts more fully into management of fisheries around the world.
Over the course of five years, a Working Group on ‘Benchmarks for Ecosystem Assessment’ identified candidate ecosystem indicators, tested their robustness in ecosystem assessments, and applied them to case study regions in Alaska, U.S., southeast Australia, central Chile, and southwest India. They found that three dimensions of ecosystem structure are needed to define, understand, and measure the health of any ecosystem and how to conserve it: topology, resiliency, and distortive pressures. When combined, these indicators produce an Ecosystem Traits Index, or ETI, that can act as a sounding alarm for ecosystem health.
Key findings of this research are summarized in the executive summary “Moving from A to B: Guidelines for Practical Ecosystem-Based Fishery Management”.