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Last updated: 4/1/10
This literature review includes resources
which discuss commercial fisheries management, catch shares,
and individual transferable quotas (ITQs). It was
compiled at the request of Linda Barker. Abstracts are
included when available.
Abbott, J. K. and J. E. Wilen. 2009. Regulation of
fisheries bycatch with common-pool output quotas. Journal
of Environmental Economics and Management 57(2): 195-204.
Many fisheries around the world are plagued
with the problem of bycatch—the inadvertent harvesting and
discard of non-targeted species. Bycatch occurs when targeted
and non-targeted species coincide in the same habitat and gear
is imperfectly selective. One of the prevailing methods of
controlling bycatch is the common-pool quota system. Under
this system, biologists set total allowable catches (TACs) for
both the targeted and non-targeted species, and the fishing
season is closed when one of these TACs binds. We develop a
predictive model of a renewable resource that is regulated
with this kind of common-pool quota system. The model
demonstrates that the equilibrium will generally be
characterized by excessive discards, shortened seasons, and
foregone target species harvest. These results occur even with
very efficient (low bycatch) fishing gear. We examine the
sensitivity of our predictions to changes in technological
parameters and degrees of spatial correlation of target and
non-target species. Finally, we derive the optimal bycatch
penalty function and describe its significance in light of
various policy options available to regulators.
Alexander, K. E., et al. 2009. Gulf of
Maine cod in 1861: historical analysis of fishery logbooks,
with ecosystem implications. Fish and Fisheries 10(4):
428-449.
Since 2000, virtually every major assessment
of ocean policy has called for implementing an ecosystem
approach to managing marine resources, yet crafting such an
approach has proved difficult. Ecosystems today exhibit little
of the abundance and complexity found in the past, and
populations of over-fished species have declined dramatically
world-wide, yet historical evidence has been difficult to
assimilate into complex ecosystem models. Here, we look to the
testimony of Gulf of Maine fishermen for insights on the
abundance of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) and the
environment that once supported such large numbers of them.
Using logbook data from Frenchman's Bay, Maine, and other New
England communities at the time of the Civil War, we estimate
cod landings in the Gulf of Maine in 1861, establish a
population structure for cod at that time, and map the
geographical distribution of fishing effort of a fleet that
minimized risk and cut expenses by fishing inshore where cod
and bait species were plentiful. Log entries list the pelagic
and bottom-dwelling invertebrate species these fishermen used
for bait, when and how they acquired it, and what species they
looked for in the water to signify the presence of cod. Ranked
descriptions of both cod and bait abundance were found to be
statistically significant indicators of cod catch. Frenchman's
Bay fishermen 140 years ago provided a minimum set of
ecosystem requirements for abundant cod, conditions that may
inform management plans aimed at restoring both the species
and the Gulf of Maine marine ecosystem.
Andersen, T., et al. 2009. Ecological
thresholds and regime shifts: approaches to identification.
Trends in Ecology & Evolution 24(1): 49-57.
There is an apparent gap between the
prominence of present theoretical frameworks involving
ecological thresholds and regime shifts, and the paucity of
efforts to conduct simple tests and quantitative inferences on
the actual appearance of such phenomena in ecological data. A
wide range of statistical methods and analytical techniques
are now available that render these questions tractable, some
of them even dating back half a century. Yet, their
application has been sparse and confined within a narrow
subset of cases of ecological regime shifts. Our objective is
to raise awareness on the range of techniques available, and
to their principles and limitations, to promote a more
operational approach to the identification of ecological
thresholds and regime shifts.
Armitage, D. R., et al. 2009. Adaptive
co-management for social-ecological complexity. Frontiers
in Ecology and Environment 7(2): 95-102.
Building trust through collaboration,
institutional development, and social learning enhances
efforts to foster ecosystem management and resolve multi-scale
society–environment dilemmas. One emerging approach aimed at
addressing these dilemmas is adaptive co-management. This
method draws explicit attention to the learning (experiential
and experimental) and collaboration (vertical and horizontal)
functions necessary to improve our understanding of, and
ability to respond to, complex social–ecological systems.
Here, we identify and outline the core features of adaptive
co-management, which include innovative institutional
arrangements and incentives across spatiotemporal scales and
levels, learning through complexity and change, monitoring and
assessment of interventions, the role of power, and
opportunities to link science with policy.
Benn, S., D. Dunphy, and A. Martin. 2009.
Governance of environmental risk: New approaches to managing
stakeholder involvement. Journal of Environmental
Management 90(4): 1567-1575.
Disputes concerning industrial legacies such
as the disposal of toxic wastes illustrate changing pressures
on corporations and governments. Business and governments are
now confronted with managing the expectations of a society
increasingly aware of the social and environmental impacts and
risks associated with economic development and demanding more
equitable distribution and democratic management of such
risks. The closed managerialist decision-making of the
powerful bureaucracies and corporations of the industrial era
is informed by traditional management theory which cannot
provide a framework for the adequate governance of these
risks. Recent socio-political theories have conceptualised
some key themes that must be addressed in a more fitting
approach to governance. We identify more recent management and
governance theory which addresses these themes and develop a
process-based approach to governance of environmental disputes
that allows for the evolving nature of stakeholder relations
in a highly complex multiple stakeholder arena.
Berkes, F. 2009. Evolution of
co-management: Role of knowledge generation, bridging
organizations and social learning. Journal of
Environmental Management 90(5): 1692-1702.
Over a period of some 20 years, different
aspects of co-management (the sharing of power and
responsibility between the government and local resource
users) have come to the forefront. The paper focuses on a
selection of these: knowledge generation, bridging
organizations, social learning, and the emergence of adaptive
co-management. Co-management can be considered a knowledge
partnership. Different levels of organization, from local to
international, have comparative advantages in the generation
and mobilization of knowledge acquired at different scales.
Bridging organizations provide a forum for the interaction of
these different kinds of knowledge, and the coordination of
other tasks that enable co-operation: accessing resources,
bringing together different actors, building trust, resolving
conflict, and networking. Social learning is one of these
tasks, essential both for the co-operation of partners and an
outcome of the co-operation of partners. It occurs most
efficiently through joint problem solving and reflection
within learning networks. Through successive rounds of
learning and problem solving, learning networks can
incorporate new knowledge to deal with problems at
increasingly larger scales, with the result that maturing
co-management arrangements become adaptive co-management in
time.
Biggs, R., S. R. Carpenter, and W. A. Brock.
2009. Turning back from the brink: Detecting an impending
regime shift in time to avert it. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences 106(3): 826-831.
Ecological regime shifts are large, abrupt,
long-lasting changes in ecosystems that often have
considerable impacts on human economies and societies.
Avoiding unintentional regime shifts is widely regarded as
desirable, but prediction of ecological regime shifts is
notoriously difficult. Recent research indicates that changes
in ecological time series (e.g., increased variability and
autocorrelation) could potentially serve as early warning
indicators of impending shifts. A critical question, however,
is whether such indicators provide sufficient warning to adapt
management to avert regime shifts. We examine this question
using a fisheries model, with regime shifts driven by angling
(amenable to rapid reduction) or shoreline development (only
gradual restoration is possible). The model represents key
features of a broad class of ecological regime shifts. We find
that if drivers can only be manipulated gradually management
action is needed substantially before a regime shift to avert
it; if drivers can be rapidly altered aversive action may be
delayed until a shift is underway. Large increases in the
indicators only occur once a regime shift is initiated, often
too late for management to avert a shift. To improve
usefulness in averting regime shifts, we suggest that research
focus on defining critical indicator levels rather than
detecting change in the indicators. Ideally, critical
indicator levels should be related to switches in ecosystem
attractors; we present a new spectral density ratio indicator
to this end. Averting ecological regime shifts is also
dependent on developing policy processes that enable society
to respond more rapidly to information about impending regime
shifts.
Bochenek, E. A. and E. N. Powell.
Evaluating Catch, Effort, and Bag Limits on Summer Flounder
Directed Trips in the Recreational Party Boat Fishery.
Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory, Rutgers University and
John DePersenaire Recreational Fishing Alliance. Available
online at
http://www.fisheries.org/units/mid-atlantic/8_Bochenek_Eleanor.pdf
Branch, T.A. 2009. How do individual
transferable quotas affect marine ecosystems? Fish and
Fisheries 10: 39-57.
Published papers were reviewed to assess
ecosystem impacts of individual transferable quotas (ITQs) and
other dedicated access systems. Under ITQs, quota shares
increase with higher abundance levels, thus fishers may
request lower total allowable catches (TACs) and pay for
monitoring and research that improves fishery sustainability.
Mortality on target species generally declines because catches
are closer to TACs and because ghost fishing through lost and
abandoned gear decreases. High-grading and discarding often
decline, but may increase if landings (and not catches) count
against ITQs and when there is little at-sea enforcement.
Overall, ITQs positively impact target species, although
collapses can occur if TACs are set too high or if catches are
routinely allowed to exceed TACs. Fishing pressure may
increase on non-ITQ species because of spillover from ITQ
fisheries, and in cases where fishers anticipate that future
ITQ allocations will be based on catch history and therefore
increase their current catches. Ecosystem and habitat impacts
of ITQs were only sparsely covered in the literature and were
difficult to assess: ITQs often lead to changes in total
fishing effort (both positive and negative), spatial shifts in
effort, and fishing gear modifications. Stock assessments may
be complicated by changes in the relationship between catch
per unit effort, and abundance, but ITQ participants will
often assist in improving data collection and stock
assessments. Overall, ITQs have largely positive effects on
target species, but mixed or unknown effects on non-target
fisheries and the overall ecosystem. Favourable outcomes were
linked to sustainable TACs and effective enforcement.
Breitburg, D. L. et al. 2009. Nutrient
enrichment and fisheries exploitation: interactive effects on
estuarine living resources and their management.
Hydrobiologia 629(1): 31-47.
Both fisheries exploitation and increased
nutrient loadings strongly affect fish and shellfish abundance
and production in estuaries. These stressors do not act
independently; instead, they jointly influence food webs, and
each affects the sensitivity of species and ecosystems to the
other. Nutrient enrichment and the habitat degradation it
sometimes causes can affect sustainable yields of fisheries,
and fisheries exploitation can affect the ability of estuarine
systems to process nutrients. The total biomass of fisheries
landings in estuaries and semi-enclosed seas tends to increase
with nitrogen loadings in spite of hypoxia, but hypoxia and
other negative effects of nutrient over-enrichment cause
declines in individual species and in parts of systems most
severely affected. More thoroughly integrated management of
nutrients and fisheries will permit more effective management
responses to systems affected by both stressors, including the
application of fisheries regulations to rebuild stocks
negatively affected by eutrophication. Reducing fishing
mortality may lead to the recovery of depressed populations
even when eutrophication contributes to population declines if
actions are taken while the population retains sufficient
reproductive potential. New advances in modeling, statistics,
and technology promise to provide the information needed to
improve the understanding and management of systems subject to
both nutrient enrichment and fisheries exploitation.
Butterworth, D. S. 2008. A commentary on:
salvaged pearls: lessons learned from a floundering attempt to
develop a management procedure for Southern Bluefin Tuna.
Fisheries Research 94: 351-354
Cardinale, M. and H. Svedäng. 2008.
Mismanagement of fisheries: Policy or science? Fisheries
Research 93(1-2): 244-247.
Several gadoids stocks in the Northeast
Atlantic are currently considered as severely overexploited. A
fast spreading paradigm is that conventional single-species
fisheries management has failed and new approaches are needed.
A crucial element of this “novel way of thinking” is the
cheered move from conventional single-species management to
‘ecosystem-based management’ in order to assure sustainability
in the long term. Here we showed that although conducted
within a deterministic single stock modelling framework, and
without invoking the ecosystem approach, scientific advice if
applied, mirrors in stocks being in relative healthy state. We
argue that managers and politicians have had the necessary
scientific instruments for managing stocks and avoid stock
collapses, but they failed as they tried to minimize the
impact of policy on those who are most affected (i.e. the
fishing industry) in a short-term perspective. Thus, our
results strengthen the hypothesis that it is the practise of
ignoring the scientific advice more than the advice itself
that is to be blamed for the waste of former large marine
resources. What we urgently need for securing marine
ecosystems is not more data but immediate actions.
Carpenter, S. R. at al. 2009. Science for
managing ecosystem services: Beyond the Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences 106(5): 1305-1312.
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA)
introduced a new framework for analyzing social–ecological
systems that has had wide influence in the policy and
scientific communities. Studies after the MA are taking up new
challenges in the basic science needed to assess, project, and
manage flows of ecosystem services and effects on human
well-being. Yet, our ability to draw general conclusions
remains limited by focus on discipline-bound sectors of the
full social–ecological system. At the same time, some polices
and practices intended to improve ecosystem services and human
well-being are based on untested assumptions and sparse
information. The people who are affected and those who provide
resources are increasingly asking for evidence that
interventions improve ecosystem services and human well-being.
New research is needed that considers the full ensemble of
processes and feedbacks, for a range of biophysical and social
systems, to better understand and manage the dynamics of the
relationship between humans and the ecosystems on which they
rely. Such research will expand the capacity to address
fundamental questions about complex social–ecological systems
while evaluating assumptions of policies and practices
intended to advance human well-being through improved
ecosystem services.
Christie, P., et al. 2009. Back to basics:
An empirical study demonstrating the importance of local-level
dynamics for the success of tropical marine ecosystem-based
management. Coastal Management 37(3-4): 349-373.
This analysis of marine ecosystem-based
management (EBM) and marine protected area (MPA) networks in
the Philippines demonstrates that local-level governance and
institutional dynamics are central to management
effectiveness. Using survey and interview data from 36
communities in the Central Visayas, key variables are
identified that are correlated with and predictive of marine
protected area success. Empirically based management
guidelines are: (1) EBM and MPA design must be context
appropriate, (2) capacity development to develop MPA
leadership and the technical skills are a good investment, (3)
strict and fair punishment for infractions of legitimate rules
should be utilized and appear to be welcomed by local
residents, and (4) conflict and controversy are a predictable
part of MPA design and implementation and need to be planned
for. Most importantly, while scaling up management
interventions can make both biological and institutional
sense, there is a point at which institutional capacity is
exceeded. This study strongly suggests that in the
Philippines, and likely many other tropical contexts,
establishing large-scale EBM, MPA networks, or extensive
centrally planned zonation schemes based primarily on national
law, international targets, and command-and-control policy are
likely to fail. The pressing imperative of ocean-wide
environmental decline should not be used to justify infeasible
and poorly designed management interventions that ignore local
dynamics and institutional constraints.
Christie, P. et al. 2009. Tropical marine
EBM feasibility: a synthesis of case studies and comparative
analyses. Coastal Management 37(3-4): 374-385.
This overview compares and synthesizes the
articles of this theme issue. It highlights that progress has
been made toward the goals of marine ecosystem-based
management (EBM) in tropical regions. Four key findings are
presented: (1) Tailoring EBM to specific contexts ultimately
determines success. (2) Employment of a wide variety of marine
management tools is necessary and complementary to spatial
management through marine protected areas (MPAs). (3) Although
EBM approaches may be usefully defined using oceanographic and
ecological principles, the design and implementation of
feasible EBM will require, at least, equal consideration of
governance and social conditions. (4) Interest in EBM has
grown rapidly; however, this approach only improves ocean
resource management if sustained by commitments from, at
least, policymakers, resource users, and donors. Practical
program design principles stressing the importance of
leadership development, awareness raising, institutional
reform, conflict resolution, adaptation, and evaluation are
derived from these case studies and comparative analyses. A
suite of empirically based EBM evaluative criteria, which can
be adapted to local contexts, are suggested to fostered
learning and progress.
Chu, C. 2009. Thirty years later: the
global growth of ITQs and their influence on stock status in
marine fisheries. Fish and Fisheries 10(2): 217–230.
Individual transferable quota (ITQ) programmes
have been incorporated into many marine fisheries management
strategies for 30 years, but their implementation and utility
remains controversial. This study provides an overview of the
global status of ITQ programmes, the reasons they have been
adopted and the changes in stock biomass after their
implementation. Eighteen countries currently use ITQs to
manage several hundred stocks of at least 249 species. ITQs
were adopted in these countries for many reasons:
overcapitalization, economic gains, safety concerns for
fishers and political change. The implementation of ITQs does
not translate into consistent changes in stock biomass.
Improvements in 12 of 20 stocks after ITQs were introduced
suggest that ITQs can be an effective component of fisheries
management strategies, but eight of the stocks continued to
decline after ITQs were introduced. This suggests that
alternative or complementary measures are needed to sustain
those fisheries, such as combining ITQs with more effective
total allowable catches, better enforcement and monitoring,
and implementing aspects of ecosystem-based fisheries
management.
Chuenpagdee, R. and S. Jentoft. 2009.
Governability assessment for fisheries and coastal systems: A
reality check. Human Ecology 37(1): 109-120.
In this article we argue that in order to
understand why some governance systems deliver while others do
not, we need to assess contributions and limitations of
governability. Here, governability refers to a measure of how
governable a particular fisheries and coastal system is. Such
a system is always comprised of two parts: a
system-to-be-governed and a governing system. Governability
also depends on the interactions between these two systems. We
provide key variables that must be assessed in order to
determine governability related to these systems and their
interactions. A governability assessment framework is proposed
here to suggest that governance performance can only be judged
from what is in the potential of the governing system, given
the limitations of the governabiltiy of the system-to-be
governed, the governing system itself, and their interactions.
Such an assessment helps identify what exactly governing
systems can and should do in order to enhance their
performance.
Cochrane, K. L., et al. Benguela Current
Large Marine Ecosystem governance and management for an
ecosystem approach to fisheries in the region. Coastal
Management 37(3-4): 235-254.
This article examines the current status of
management in the Benguela Current Large Marine ecosystem and
the three coastal states in which it occurs: Angola, Namibia,
and South Africa. The three countries have all focused on
conventional approaches to fisheries management, concentrating
on target species, and management has been largely centrally
controlled. They have nevertheless made some progress toward
addressing wider ecosystem issues. Scientific capacity has
been generally good and scientific advice plays an important
role in management decisions although the management
capability varies between the countries. All have sufficient
capability for ensuring sustainable fisheries but there are
skills shortages in some areas. Based largely on a recent
project to evaluate the feasibility of implementation of an
ecosystem approach to fisheries in the region, the article
evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the current
management approaches and identifies areas of concern.
Limitations and threats to capacity, particularly in
production of scientific advice and in management functions,
are considered a major problem.
Coleman, K. 2008. Research Review of
Collaborative Ecosystem-Based Management in the California
Current Large Marine Ecosystem. Coastal Management 36(5):
484-494.
The welfare of the marine environment is
threatened worldwide. In order to maintain ecosystem services
management must shift from single sector to ecosystem
approaches. To support this transition in marine management,
this article reviews collaborative ecosystem-based management
in the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem (CCLME),
through an overview and comparison of three collaborations on
the United States West Coast of California, Oregon, and
Washington. The achievements of these collaborations are
demonstrated. Networking and extending collaboration
throughout the entire region is shown to be essential for
environmental conservation and sustainable development in the
CCLME.
Contamin, R. and A. M. Ellison. 2009.
Indicators of regime shifts in ecological systems: What do we
need to know and when do we need to know it? Ecological
Applications 19(3): 799-816.
Because novel ecological conditions can cause
severe and long-lasting environmental damage with large
economic costs, ecologists must identify possible
environmental regime shifts and pro-actively guide ecosystem
management. As an illustrative example, we applied six
potential indicators of impending regime shifts to S. R.
Carpenter and W. A. Brock's model of lake eutrophication and
analyzed whether or not they afforded adequate advance warning
to enable preventative interventions. Our initial analyses
suggest that an indicator based on the high-frequency signal
in the spectral density of the time-series provides the best
advance warning of a regime shift, even when only incomplete
information about underlying system drivers and processes is
available. In light of this result, we explored two key
factors associated with using indicators to prevent regime
shifts. The first key factor is the amount of inertia in the
system; i.e., how fast the system will react to a change in
management, given that a manager can actually control relevant
system drivers. If rapid, intensive management is possible,
our analyses suggest that an indicator must provide at least
20 years advance warning to reduce the probability of a regime
shift to <5%. As time to intervention is increased or
intensity of intervention is decreased, the necessary amount
of advance warning required to avoid a regime shift increases
exponentially. The second key factor concerns the amount and
type of variability intrinsic to the system, and the impact of
this variability on the power of an indicator. Indicators are
considered powerful if they detect an impending regime shift
with adequate lead time for effective management intervention,
but not so far in advance that interventions are too costly or
unnecessary. Intrinsic "noise" in the system obscures the
"signal" provided by all indicators, and therefore, the power
of the indicators declines rapidly with increasing within -
and between-year variability in measurable variables or
parameters. Our results highlight the key role of human
decisions in managing ecosystems and the importance of
pro-active application of the precautionary principle to avoid
regime shifts.
Costello, C., S.D. Gaines and J. Lynham. 2008.
Can catch shares prevent fisheries collapse? Science
321(5896): 1678-1681.
Recent reports suggest that most of the
world's commercial fisheries could collapse within decades.
Although poor fisheries governance is often implicated,
evaluation of solutions remains rare. Bioeconomic theory and
case studies suggest that rights-based catch shares can
provide individual incentives for sustainable harvest that is
less prone to collapse. To test whether catch-share fishery
reforms achieve these hypothetical benefits, we have compiled
a global database of fisheries institutions and catch
statistics in 11,135 fisheries from 1950 to 2003.
Implementation of catch shares halts, and even reverses, the
global trend toward widespread collapse. Institutional change
has the potential for greatly altering the future of global
fisheries.
Daily, G. C., et al. 2009. Ecosystem
services in decision making: time to deliver. Frontiers in
Ecology and Environment 7(1): 21-28.
Over the past decade, efforts to value and
protect ecosystem services have been promoted by many as the
last, best hope for making conservation mainstream –
attractive and commonplace worldwide. In theory, if we can
help individuals and institutions to recognize the value of
nature, then this should greatly increase investments in
conservation, while at the same time fostering human
well-being. In practice, however, we have not yet developed
the scientific basis, nor the policy and finance mechanisms,
for incorporating natural capital into resource- and land-use
decisions on a large scale. Here, we propose a conceptual
framework and sketch out a strategic plan for delivering on
the promise of ecosystem services, drawing on emerging
examples from Hawai‘i. We describe key advances in the science
and practice of accounting for natural capital in the
decisions of individuals, communities, corporations, and
governments.
Dankel, D.J., D.W. Skagen and O. Ulltang.
2008. Fisheries management in practice: review of 13
commercially important fish stocks. Reviews in Fish
Biology and Fisheries 18(2): 201-233.
This paper comparatively reviews several
commercially important fish stocks, their state and their
management in various regions of the world including Japanese
anchovy, Bay of Biscay anchovy, North Sea sandeel, North Sea
herring, Icelandic cod, Barents Sea cod, South African cape
hakes, sockeye salmon, chinook salmon, southern bluefin tuna,
Pacific halibut, Greenland halibut and Patagonian toothfish.
The reviewed fish stocks are systemized in three categories:
(1) stock properties and status; (2) management structure and
objectives; and (3) management advice. We gather evidence to
outline qualities of management regimes that are recommended
and highlight those that most often fail. Robust management,
biological limits (reference points), implementation and
consensus are critical points that separate successful and
unsuccessful management regimes. We evaluate each fish stock’s
management performance relative to its management objectives
and current conservation issues. Furthermore, we point out the
importance of stakeholder involvement in fisheries management
as well as the problems that international fisheries
commissions face through examples from the case studies.
Management successes tended to be single-nation and
single-stock fisheries with capacity control and clear
stakeholder involvement. Fisheries with fleet overcapacity,
unclear objectives and illegal activity characterized the case
studies with management problems.
Davies, S. R. 2008. Constructing
communication: talking to scientists about talking to the
public. Science Communication 29(4): 413-434.
Recent work has started to explore “scientific
understandings of publics” alongside public understandings of
science. This study builds on this work to examine the ways in
which public communication is talked about by scientists and
engineers. The author identifies a range of ways of talking
about the purposes and content of science communication to the
public, arguing that the dominant framework for these is
one-way communication, and that, in addition, such
communication tends to be constructed as difficult and
dangerous. However, the
author further identifies a range of minority discourses that
understand public communication in more complex terms.
Douvere, F. 2008. The importance of marine
spatial planning in advancing ecosystem-based sea use
management. Marine Policy 32(5): 762-771.
During the past 10 years, the evolution of
marine spatial planning (MSP) and ocean zoning has become a
crucial step in making ecosystem-based, sea use management a
reality. The idea was initially stimulated by international
and national interest in developing marine protected areas,
e.g., the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. More recent
attention has been placed on managing the multiple use of
marine space, especially in areas where conflicts among users
and the environment are already clear, e.g., in the North Sea.
Even more recent concern has focused on the need to conserve
nature, especially ecologically and biologically sensitive
areas, in the context of multi-use planning of ocean space.
Despite academic discussions and the fact that some countries
already have started implementation, the scope of MSP has not
been clearly defined. Terms such as integrated management,
marine spatial management, and ocean zoning are all used
inconsistently. This is one of the reasons why its importance
is not more seriously reflected at the levels of policy and
decision-making in most countries. This article attempts to
deal with this problem. It describes why MSP is an essential
step to achieve ecosystem-based sea use management, how it can
be defined and what its core objectives are. The article
concludes with an analysis of the use and achievements of MSP
worldwide, with particular focus on new approaches in Europe.
Douvere, F. and C. N. Ehler. 2009. New
perspectives on sea use management: Initial findings from
European experience with marine spatial planning. Journal
of Environmental Management 90(1): 77-88.
Increased development pressures on the marine
environment and the potential for multiple use conflicts,
arising as a result of the current expansion of offshore wind
energy, fishing and aquaculture, dredging, mineral extraction,
shipping, and the need to meet international and national
commitments to biodiversity conservation, have led to
increased interest in sea use planning with particular
emphasis on marine spatial planning. Several European
countries, on their own initiative or driven by the European
Union's Marine Strategy and Maritime Policy, the Bergen
Declaration of the North Sea Conference, and the EU
Recommendation on Integrated Coastal Zone Management, have
taken global leadership in implementing marine spatial
planning. Belgium, The Netherlands, and Germany in the North
Sea, and the United Kingdom in the Irish Sea, have already
completed preliminary sea use plans and zoning proposals for
marine areas within their national jurisdictions. This paper
discusses the nature and context of marine spatial planning,
the international legal and policy framework, and the
increasing need for marine spatial planning in Europe. In
addition, the authors review briefly three marine spatial
planning initiatives in the North Sea and conclude with some
initial lessons learned from these experiences.
Essington, T.E. 2010. Ecological indicators
display reduced variation in North American catch share
fisheries. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
107(2): 754-759.
A growing push to implement catch share
fishery programs is based partly on the recognition that they
may provide stronger incentives for ecological stewardship
than conventional fisheries management. Using data on
population status, quota compliance, discard rates, use of
habitat-damaging gear, and landings for 15 catch share
programs in North America, I tested the hypothesis that catch
share systems lead to improved ecological stewardship and
status of exploited populations. Impacts of catch share
programs were measured through comparisons of fisheries with
catch shares to fisheries without catch shares or by comparing
fisheries before and after catch shares were implemented. The
average levels of most indicators were unaffected by catch
share implementation: only discard rate, which declined
significantly in catch share fisheries, showed a significant
response. However, catch share fisheries were distinguished by
markedly reduced interannual variability in all indicators,
being statistically significant for exploitation rate,
landings, discard rate, and the ratio of catch to catch
quotas. These impacts of catch shares were common between
nations and ocean basins and were independent of the number of
years that catch share programs had been in place. These
findings suggest that for the indicators examined, the primary
effect of catch shares was greater consistency over time. This
enhanced consistency could be beneficial to fishery systems
and might also be an indication of more effective management.
Evans, K.E. and T. Klinger. 2008. Obstacles
to bottom-up implementation of marine ecosystem management.
Conservation Biology 22(5): 1135-1143.
Ecosystem management (EM) offers a means to
address multiple threats to marine resources. Despite
recognition of the importance of stakeholder involvement, most
efforts to implement EM in marine systems are the product of
top-down regulatory control. We describe a rare,
stakeholder-driven attempt to implement EM from the bottom up
in San Juan County, Washington (U.S.A.). A citizens advisory
group led a 2-year, highly participatory effort to develop an
ecosystem-based management plan, guided by a preexisting
conservation-planning framework. A key innovation was to
incorporate social dimensions by designating both
sociocultural and biodiversity targets in the planning
process. Multiple obstacles hindered implementation of EM in
this setting. Despite using a surrogate scheme, the
information-related transaction costs of planning were
substantial: information deficits prevented assessment of some
biodiversity targets and insufficient resources combined with
information deficits prevented scientific assessment of the
sociocultural targets. Substantial uncertainty, practical
constraints to stakeholder involvement, and the existence of
multiple, potentially conflicting, objectives increased
negotiation-related costs. Although information deficits and
uncertainty, coupled with underinvestment in the transaction
costs of planning, could reduce the long-term effectiveness of
the plan itself, the social capital and momentum developed
through the planning process could yield unforeseeable future
gains in protection of marine resources. The obstacles we
identified here will require early and sustained attention in
efforts to implement ecosystem management in other grassroots
settings.
Fanning, L., R. Mahon, and P. McConney. 2009.
Focusing on living marine resource governance: The
Caribbean Large Marine Ecosystem and Adjacent Areas Project.
Coastal Management 37(3-4): 219-234.
This article provides an overview of living
marine resource governance in the Caribbean Large Marine
Ecosystem (LME) and discusses how this relates to
ecosystem-based management at the geographical scale of the
LME. It also provides an overview of the approach to
governance reform that will be taken by the Caribbean Large
Marine Ecosystem and Adjacent Areas Project. The geopolitical
complexity of the Caribbean region is such that regional
governance appears to be more challenging there than in most
other regions. The proximity of states leads to a high
incidence of transboundary issues regarding living marine
resources. The high proportion of small island developing
states (SIDS), defined at the 1992 United Nations Conference
on Environment and Development as countries facing specific
social, economic, and environmental vulnerabilities, and high
incidence of coastal use for industry, tourism, fisheries, and
urban development leads to heavy impacts on coastal and marine
resources. Regarding institutional arrangements, there are
many organizations at regional and subregional levels already
engaged in most aspects of marine resource management,
sometimes in collaboration, sometimes in competition, and
often in relative isolation. Likewise, at national and local
levels there is a host of government and nongovernmental
organizations with diverse aspirations and perspectives. The
challenge then is to develop a regional approach that
recognizes the existence of this diversity and works with it.
The development of the Caribbean LME and Adjacent Areas
Project has forced regional partners to reflect on the
Caribbean living marine resource governance situation. It has
led to the formulation and adoption of the LME Governance
Framework. This framework, which departs somewhat from the
conventional LME approach, appears to have the potential to
meet the aforementioned challenge. It defines the relative
roles of scientists, decision makers, and implementers at
various levels and provides a basis for incremental
implementation of improvements in governance.
FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department.
The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA).
Available online at
http://www.fao.org/fishery/sofia/en.
The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture
(SOFIA) is the flagship publication of the FAO Fisheries and
Aquaculture Department. This premier advocacy document is
published every two years to provide policy-makers, civil
society and those whose livelihoods depend on the sector a
comprehensive, objective and global view of capture fisheries
and aquaculture, including associated policy issues.
Fisher, B., R. K. Turner and P. Morling. 2009.
Defining and classifying ecosystem services for decision
making. Ecological Economics 68(3): 643-653.
The concept of ecosystems services has become
an important model for linking the functioning of ecosystems
to human welfare. Understanding this link is critical for a
wide-range of decision-making contexts. While there have been
several attempts to come up with a classification scheme for
ecosystem services, there has not been an agreed upon,
meaningful and consistent definition for ecosystem services.
In this paper we offer a definition of ecosystem services that
is likely to be operational for ecosystem service research and
several classification schemes. We argue that any attempt at
classifying ecosystem services should be based on both the
characteristics of the ecosystems of interest and a decision
context for which the concept of ecosystem services is being
mobilized. Because of this there is not one classification
scheme that will be adequate for the many contexts in which
ecosystem service research may be utilized. We discuss several
examples of how classification schemes will be a function of
both ecosystem and ecosystem service characteristics and the
decision-making context.
Forst, M. F. 2009. The convergence of
Integrated Coastal Zone Management and the ecosystems approach.
Ocean and Coastal Management 52(6): 294-306.
The primary role of the Integrated Coastal
Zone Management model was to arbitrate conflicts between
stakeholders in a living and natural resource environment
characterized by a common property and open access doctrine. A
chronology of events describes how the development and
acceptance of an ecosystems approach policy began to converge
and coincide with the spread and development of Integrated
Coastal Zone Management. Those organizations that gave
representation to the conservation ethic became
internationally recognized as surrogate natural resource
‘users’, the interests of which possessed commonality with all
stakeholder interests in general. The tenants of conservation
policy were therefore largely employed to decide the merits of
disputes over ocean and coastal resources. In the 1990s,
scientists created a forum to debate, better define, and
institutionalize a sound basis for ecosystem management theory
and practice. Protocols were developed that embedded science
in living and natural resources planning and management. These
protocols were shaped and adopted to serve an evermore
contemporary Integrated Coastal Zone Management model.
Improvements in methodology include the use of adaptive
management, ecological modeling and monitoring, appropriate
temporal and spatial scales, salient indicators, and
stakeholder participation. This contemporary approach is
dependent upon recognizing the benefits inherent in utilizing
instruments capable of managing resources on a holistic level.
Bioregional planning and zoning accommodate the successful
management of resources on this level. It is a direct outcome
of the convergence of Integrated Coastal Zone Management and
the ecosystems approach. Bioregional zoning schemes are
capable of traversing the private property and common property
doctrines that define the respective terrestrial and aquatic
environments of the coastal zone. A comparative case study of
the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and the Belize Marine
Protected Area Program is included as an annex, the analysis
of which is predicated upon the principles espoused in the
literature.
Foxon, T.J., M.S. Reed and L.C. Stringer.
2009. Governing long-term social-ecological change: what
can the adaptive management and transition management
approaches learn from each other? Environmental Policy and
Governance 19(1): 3-20.
Maintaining social welfare and opportunity in
the face of severe ecological pressures requires frameworks
for managing and governing long-term social-ecological change.
In this paper we analyse two recent frameworks, adaptive
management and transition management, outlining what they
could learn from each other. Though usually applied in
different domains, the two conceptual frameworks aim to
integrate bottom-up and top-down approaches, and share a focus
on the ability of systems to learn and develop adaptive
capacity whilst facing external shocks and long-term
pressures. Both also emphasize learning from experimentation
in complex systems, but transition management focuses more on
the ability to steer long-term changes in system functions,
whilst adaptive management emphasizes the maintenance of
system functions in the face of external change. The
combination of iterative learning and stakeholder
participation from adaptive management has the potential to
incorporate vital feedbacks into transition management, which
in turn offers a longer-term perspective from which to learn
about and manage socio-technical and social-ecological change.
It is argued that by combining insights from both frameworks
it may be possible to foster more robust and resilient
governance of social-ecological systems than could be achieved
by either approach alone. The paper concludes by critically
reflecting upon the challenges and benefits of combining
elements of each approach, as has been attempted in the
methodology of a research project investigating
social-ecological change in UK uplands. Copyright © 2009 John
Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
Gaichas, S.K. 2008. A context for
ecosystem-based fishery management: Developing concepts of
ecosystems and sustainability. Marine Policy 32(3):
393-401.
Ecosystems have been viewed both as chaotic,
untamed nature, and as mechanical systems with predictable
equilibrium states. A developing concept of ecosystems as
“complex adaptive systems” lies between these extreme
concepts, with recognizably patterned but not fully
predictable behavior. Sustainability has also been redefined
as humans have exploited and often depleted desirable natural
resources. Fisheries management desires sustainable yield, but
must rethink this concept within the ecosystem context. The
most powerful union of “ecosystem” and “sustainability”
acknowledges the defining characteristics of complex adaptive
systems with the objective of identifying and sustaining
healthy relationships within and between ecosystems,
economies, and society.
Gibbs, M.T. 2009. Individual transferable
quotas and ecosystem-based fisheries management: it's all in
the T. Fish and Fisheries 10:470-474.
Recent articles in high-profile journals
advocating the widespread establishment of economic
rights-based approaches for managing fisheries has re-kindled
the debate over the efficacy of incentive-based vs.
regulatory-based management approaches. Inspection of these
works, written from the particular perspectives of economics,
fisheries biology, or marine ecology, reveals that advocates
of rights-based regimes such as Individual Transferrable
Quotas are sometimes recommending these policy instruments for
quite different reasons. Hence, the advantageous attributes of
rights-based approaches from the perspective of one discipline
may be quite different when seen from the perspective of
another discipline. This is of concern as it exposes a
tendency for particular disciplines to consider only the
advantages of rights-based approaches, such as establishing a
harvest cap, but to implicitly discount the disadvantages such
as less attention being paid to critical ecological and
ecosystem issues.
Granek, E. F. et al. 2008. Engaging
recreational fishers in management and conservation: global
case studies. Conservation Biology 22(5): 1125-1134.
Globally, the number of recreational fishers
is sizeable and increasing in many countries. Associated with
this trend is the potential for negative impacts on fish
stocks through exploitation or management measures such as
stocking and introduction of non-native fishes. Nevertheless,
recreational fishers can be instrumental in successful
fisheries conservation through active involvement in, or
initiation of, conservation projects to reduce both direct and
external stressors contributing to fishery declines.
Understanding fishers' concerns for sustained access to the
resource and developing methods for their meaningful
participation can have positive impacts on conservation
efforts. We examined a suite of case studies that demonstrate
successful involvement of recreational fishers in conservation
and management activities that span developed and developing
countries, temperate and tropical regions, marine and
freshwater systems, and open- and closed-access fisheries. To
illustrate potential benefits and challenges of involving
recreational fishers in fisheries management and conservation,
we examined the socioeconomic and ecological contexts of each
case study. We devised a conceptual framework for the
engagement of recreational fishers that targets particular
types of involvement (enforcement, advocacy, conservation,
management design [type and location], research, and
monitoring) on the basis of degree of stakeholder stewardship,
scale of the fishery, and source of impacts (internal or
external). These activities can be enhanced by incorporating
local knowledge and traditions, taking advantage of leadership
and regional networks, and creating collaborations among
various stakeholder groups, scientists, and agencies to
maximize the probability of recreational fisher involvement
and project success.
Grasso, G.M. 2008. What appeared limitless
plenty: The rise and fall of the nineteenth-century Atlantic
halibut fishery. Environmental History 13(1): 66-91.
The destruction of the nineteenth-century
Atlantic halibut fishery occurred in the space of a few
decades and without industrial fishing methods. Between the
1840s and the 1880s, halibut moved from by-catch to marketable
product. This change from negative commodification to positive
commodification resulted from increased immigration,
technological advances, changing consumer tastes, and
halibut's natural history. Once almost infinitely abundant,
commercial value and growing markets led to enthusiastic
fishing efforts mid-nineteenth century. Market demand
influenced both human behaviors and ecosystems. A series of
localized depletions became the commercial extinction of
halibut in the northwest Atlantic. The nineteenth-century
Atlantic halibut fishery demonstrates how species once
considered by-catch can be pushed to commercial extinction.
Griffith, D.R. 2008. The ecological
implications of individual fishing quotas and harvest
cooperatives. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
6(4): 191-198.
Globally, 75% of fish stocks are fully
exploited or overexploited, and fishing pressure continues to
threaten marine ecosystems and the cultures and economies that
depend on them. Decades of government regulation have largely
failed to stem the ecological damage associated with fishing.
Designated access privilege (DAP) systems such as individual
fishing quotas (IFQs) and harvest cooperatives are one attempt
to realign incentives so that fishers no longer race to
maximize catches. IFQs are not appropriate for many fisheries.
Fortunately, the IFQ debate has drawn attention to the link
between incentives that fishers face and the ecological
consequences of fishing. Despite important social concerns,
preliminary evidence suggests that IFQs encourage cooperation,
fisher stewardship, and a slower pace of fishing. This review
points to the need to improve the metrics of marine ecosystem
health and pursue quantitative methods for assessing the
ecological impacts of different management approaches.
Gunningham, N. 2009. Environment law,
regulation and governance: shifting architectures. Journal
of Environmental Law 21(2): 179-212.
Environmental law and policy has come a long
way since the birth of the US Environmental Protection Agency
in 1970 and the launch of the first European environmental
policy in 1972. Today law is no longer centre stage but simply
one instrument among others in the environmental regulator's
toolkit. And talk of regulation may itself be giving way to
the broader concept of environmental governance. This article
examines the evolution of environmental law, regulation and
governance over almost four decades. It explores the major
initiatives of that period and the lessons that can be learned
from them, it maps shifting regulatory architectures and
explains what has worked and why and it considers the changing
nature of the environmental challenge itself. Finally, it
seeks to identify which particular architectures are most
suited to deal with particular types of environmental
problems.
Hanssen, L., E. Rouwette and M.M. van Katwijk.
2009. The Role of Ecological Science in Environmental
Policy Making: from a Pacification toward a Facilitation
Strategy. Ecology and Society 14(1): online.
Based on a Dutch case study on shellfish
fishery policy making and a literature review, we expand
existing guidelines for coastal zone management. We deduce
constraints for handling societally contested and
scientifically complex environmental issues. Our additions
focus on problem structuring and handling of scientific
uncertainties. Both are means to increase consensus about
beliefs, ambitions, and directions for solutions. Before
policy making can take place, complex environmental issues
need to become more structured by reducing either scientific
uncertainty or societal dissent: the "pacification strategy"
and the "facilitation strategy," respectively. We show that
the use of a pacification strategy, in which science is
expected to pacify stakeholders, is not an answer, as
uncertainties are likely to remain high due to a different
pacing of scientific progress and policy-making demands.
Instead, we propose a facilitation strategy in which
stakeholders formulate shared ambitions and directions for
solutions at an early stage, and ecological scientists extend
their participation in the process by scientifically assessing
policy alternatives. With an eye to giving ecological science
a significant role in policy making and management, we present
an improved set of guidelines, incorporating the facilitation
strategy by focusing on balancing economic and ecological
interests and shared policy formulation by scientific inquiry
instead of political opportunity.
Hartley, T.W. and R.A. Robertson. 2008.
Cooperative Research Program Goals in New England :
Perceptions of Active Commercial Fishermen. Fisheries
33(11): 551-559.
Cooperative fisheries research will continue
to expand throughout the United States with the 2007
reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which called for
the development of regionally-based cooperative research
programs nationwide. We report on a survey of individuals
actively engaged in commercial fishing in New England (N =
295) that asked how important and achievable cooperative
research programmatic goals are and why. One goal, "the
promotion of partnerships between fishermen and scientists,"
was particularly important to fishermen because partnerships
are believed to be in everyone's interests, enhance the
quality of the science, lead to better management decisions,
improve the professional relationships between fishermen and
scientists, and speak to a fishermen's sense of professional
duty. However, fewer respondents considered the partnership
goal achievable because of a wide range of obstacles. Based
upon the findings and published studies on the perceptions of
scientists and mangers, we discuss recommendations for
cooperative research managers.
Hilborn, R. 2006. Faith-based fisheries.
Fisheries 31(11): 554-555.
From the essay: "However, before we
congratulate ourselves too much for the triumph of the
scientific method over belief, I suggest the fisheries
community needs to look at itself and question whether there
is not a within our own field a strong movement of faithbased
acceptance of ideas, and a search for data that support these
ideas, rather than critical and skeptical analysis of the
evidence."
Hummel, S., et al. 2009. Conserving
biodiversity using risk management: hoax or hope?
Frontiers in Ecology and Environment 7(2): 103-109.
Biodiversity has been called a form of
ecosystem insurance. According to the “insurance hypothesis”,
the presence of many species protects against system decline,
because builtin redundancies guarantee that some species will
maintain key functions even if others fail. The hypothesis
might have merit, but calling it “insurance” promotes an
ambiguous understanding of risk management strategies and
underlying theories of risk. Instead, such redundancy suggests
a strategy of diversification. A clearer understanding of risk
includes comprehending the important distinction between risk
assessment and risk management, acknowledging the existence of
undiversifiable risk, and recognizing that risk and
uncertainty are not synonymous. A better grasp of risk
management will help anyone interested in assessing the merits
of different biodiversity conservation strategies. At stake is
the adequacy of conservation strategies for mitigating
human-caused biodiversity losses.
Irvine, J. R. 2009. The successful
completion of scientific public policy: lessons learned while
developing Canada's Wild Salmon Policy. Environmental
Science and Policy 12(2): 140-148.
Canada’s Wild Salmon Policy gives Canadians
the opportunity to make informed decisions about the amount of
habitat, ecosystem, and salmon diversity to protect, in order
to provide salmon with the potential to adapt and survive in a
changing environment. Valuable lessons learned during the
completion of this recent landmark conservation policy
include: (1) there must be an express need for major new
policies and decision makers should be receptive to proposed
changes; (2) resource and expertise allocation should be
realistic to ensure successful and timely policy completion;
(3) science-based policies must be based on good science; (4)
environmental policies require input from multiple
disciplines—biological consequences are only one element that
politicians and decision-makers need to consider; (5) since
there will always be uncertainty, and different perspectives
on the level of risk that various stakeholders are willing to
accept, a precautionary approach is appropriate; (6) to be
effective, communication should be open and transparent; and
finally (7) it is important to think beyond policy
completion—how will the policy be implemented? Documenting
these lessons should assist others, thereby resulting in more
efficient completion of science-based policies.
Jiao, Y. 2009. Regime shift in marine
ecosystems and implications for fisheries management, a review.
Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 19(2): 177-191.
The concept of regime shift in marine
ecosystems has arisen in recent years. This study reviews the
origin, scientific meaning, driving forces of marine ecosystem
regime shrifts. Driving forces include climate-ocean
oscillation, fishing, introduced species, river flow,
eutrophication, disease and pollution. Several controversial
questions are discussed: whether regime shift is just a
climate oscillation noise, the difficulties of separating
driving forces, and whether the impacts of ecosystem regime
shift are necessarily bad or good. The methods used to model
regime shifts in ecosystems are reviewed. These methods
include two types of models: general circulation model and
historical description. The implications of regime shift in
fisheries are considered, including examples of impacts,
consequences of not considering regime shift, and difficulties
in incorporating regime shift into the current stock
assessment models. Possible future research needed to
understand and model regime shifts is discussed, including
strategies for fisheries management.
Juntti, M., D. Russel, and J. Turnpenny. 2009.
Evidence, politics and power in public policy for the
environment. Environmental Science & Policy 12(3):
207-215.
Despite a recent emphasis on ‘evidence based
policy’ accompanied by an abundance of ‘green’ policy
instruments, experience from the European Union and OECD
countries shows that decisions which truly aim to balance
environmental considerations with social and economic ones
remain thin on the ground. Moreover, many policies seem to
fall short of, or directly contradict what the available
‘evidence’ suggests is required. This is a synthesis paper
bringing together literature from the fields of political
science, geography, sociology and science and technology
studies to outline some of the obscurities relating to the use
of scientific evidence in environmental decision-making. In
this paper, we suggest that an exploration of three key
inter-related issues is necessary to develop a richer
understanding of why evidence and policy interact as they do.
These are the nature of evidence itself; the normative, moral
or ethical ‘politics’ of policy-making; and the operation of
power in the policy process. Our primary goal is to bring
various literatures together to better conceptualise the
evidence–policy relationship. In so doing, we outline specific
challenges for knowledge producers who set research
priorities, and design and direct research projects. We also
highlight significant implications for policy decision-making
processes.
Keane, A. et al. 2008. The sleeping
policeman: understanding issues of enforcement and compliance
in conservation. Animal Conservation 11(2): 75-82.
Rules governing human behaviour are at the
heart of every system of natural resource management. Without
compliance, however, rules are meaningless so effective
enforcement is essential if conservation is to be successful.
There is a large body of theory concerning enforcement and
compliance with rules spread over several disciplines,
including psychology, economics and sociology. However, there
have been few attempts to extend this theory to conservation
applications and there is little practical guidance for
managers and conservation planners on the optimal design of
enforcement programmes. We review approaches to understanding
why individuals break rules and how optimal policy choices can
reduce rule-breaking, highlighting research which has
specifically dealt with natural resources. Because of the
difficulty of studying rule-breaking behaviour directly,
modelling approaches have been particularly important and have
been used to explore behaviour at the individual, group and
institutional levels. We illustrate the application of models
of enforcement and compliance to conservation using the
African elephant Loxodonta africana as a case study. Further
work is needed to create practical tools which can be applied
to the design of enforcement measures in conservation.
Particular challenges include understanding the importance of
violations of rationality assumptions and incorporating
intertemporal choice in models of decision making. In
conclusion, we argue that a new field of robust theory and
practice is urgently needed to ensure that issues of
enforcement and compliance do not undermine conservation
initiatives.
Koch, E. W. et al. 2009. Non-linearity in
ecosystem services: temporal and spatial variability in
coastal protection. Frontiers in Ecology and Environment
7(1): 29-37.
Natural processes tend to vary over time and
space, as well as between species. The ecosystem services
these natural processes provide are therefore also highly
variable. It is often assumed that ecosystem services are
provided linearly (unvaryingly, at a steady rate), but natural
processes are characterized by thresholds and limiting
functions. In this paper, we describe the variability observed
in wave attenuation provided by marshes, mangroves, seagrasses,
and coral reefs and therefore also in coastal protection. We
calculate the economic consequences of assuming coastal
protection to be linear. We suggest that, in order to refine
ecosystem-based management practices, it is essential that
natural variability and cumulative effects be considered in
the valuation of ecosystem services.
Le Gallic, B. 2008. The use of trade
measures against illicit fishing: Economic and legal
considerations. Ecological Economics 64(4): 858-866.
Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU)
fishing activities are a threat for both the marine
environment and society. By undermining effective management
systems, IUU fishing activities affect economic performance,
social welfare and compliance decisions. So far, “traditional”
control and surveillance-like measures have had a limited
success in deterring IUU fishing, so this paper aims at
throwing light on several forms of trade-related initiatives
that can be more effective. The paper suggests that both the
effectiveness and further development of such measures
strongly depend on the way they are designed, especially with
respect to their trade-law compatibility. However, current
discussions on future trade-based policy developments within
some key economic areas suggest that trade measures are a
sound option for policy makers. While the paper focuses on
fisheries issues, it is also expected to inform the
international debate surrounding the sustainable use of
natural resources in general, as many sectors face similar
biodiversity and trade challenges (e.g. tropical forest,
mangroves, etc.).
Mather, M.E., D.L. Parrish and J.M. Dettmers.
2008. Mapping the changing landscape of fish-related
journals: setting a course for successful communication of
scientific literature. Fisheries 33(9): 444-453.
In the last 25 years, the number and scope of
fish-related journals have changed. New and existing journals
are increasingly specialized. Journals that are read and cited
are changing because of differential accessibility via
electronic databases. In this review, we examine shifts in
numbers and foci of existing fish-related journals. We ask how
these fish-related metrics differ across type of application,
ecological system, taxa, and discipline. Although many
journals overlap to some extent in content, there are distinct
groups of journals for authors to consider. By systematically
reviewing the focus of an individual manuscript, comparing it
to the suite of journals available and examining the audience
for the manuscript, we believe that authors can make informed
decisions about which journals are most suitable for their
work. Our goal here is to help authors find relevant journals
and deliver scientific publications to the appropriate
readership.
McWhinnie, S.F. 2009. The tragedy of the
commons in international fisheries: An empirical examination.
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 57(3):
321-333.
Historically, all capture fisheries have
proven hard to manage; internationally shared stocks face an
additional impediment to effective management. Previous
fisheries studies estimate gains from cooperation for
particular species or locations, but evidence is lacking on
the wider effect that international sharing has in relation to
other variables that affect stock status. This paper is an
attempt to shed a broader light on the effect of sharing by
identifying whether shared fish stocks are systematically more
exploited. I compile exploitation status, biological and
economic data into a unique two-period panel of more than 200
fish stocks from around the globe with which I test the
theoretical implications of sharing. The empirical results
from ordered category estimation suggest that shared stocks
are indeed more prone to overexploitation.
Moore, J.E. et al. 2009. A review of
marine mammal, sea turtle and seabrid bycatch in USA fisheries
and the role of policy in shaping management. Marine
Policy 33(3): 435-451.
This paper reviews the available information
(observer programs, estimates, statutes, regulations) for
bycatch of marine mammals, sea turtles, and seabirds in
fisheries of the United States. Goals of the review were to
valuate the state of knowledge of bycatch and the role of
existing protective legislation in shaping bycatch anagement
for different taxa. Pressing issues are identified, as well as
knowledge gaps and policy limitations that hinder
multi-species bycatch reduction. The USA has made important
progress toward reducing bycatch in its fisheries, but the
efficacy of its management has been limited somewhat by a
focus on taxon- and fishery-specific regulation and the lack
of consistent mandate across taxa for taking a cumulative
perspective on bycatch. Applying consistent criteria across
taxa for setting bycatch limits (e.g., extending the approach
used for marine mammals to seaturtles and seabirds) would be
the first step in a multi-species approach to bycatch
reduction. A population based multi-species multi-gear
approach to bycatch would help identify priority areas wherere
sources are needed most and can be used most effectively.
Mora, C. et al. 2009. Management
effectiveness of the world's marine fisheries. PLoS
Biology 7(5): e1000131.
Ongoing
declines in production of the world's fisheries may have
serious ecological and socioeconomic consequences. As a
result, a number of international efforts have sought to
improve management and prevent overexploitation, while helping
to maintain biodiversity and a sustainable food supply.
Although these initiatives have received broad acceptance, the
extent to which corrective measures have been implemented and
are effective remains largely unknown. We used a survey
approach, validated with empirical data, and enquiries to over
13,000 fisheries experts (of which 1,188 responded) to assess
the current effectiveness of fisheries management regimes
worldwide; for each of those regimes, we also calculated the
probable sustainability of reported catches to determine how
management affects fisheries sustainability. Our survey shows
that 7% of all coastal states undergo rigorous scientific
assessment for the generation of management policies, 1.4%
also have a participatory and transparent processes to convert
scientific recommendations into policy, and 0.95% also provide
for robust mechanisms to ensure the compliance with
regulations; none is also free of the effects of excess
fishing capacity, subsidies, or access to foreign fishing. A
comparison of fisheries management attributes with the
sustainability of reported fisheries catches indicated that
the conversion of scientific advice into policy, through a
participatory and transparent process, is at the core of
achieving fisheries sustainability, regardless of other
attributes of the fisheries. Our results illustrate the great
vulnerability of the world's fisheries and the urgent need to
meet well-identified guidelines for sustainable management;
they also provide a baseline against which future changes can
be quantified.
Mueller, K.B. et al. 2008. Social Networks
and Fisheries: the Relationship between a Charter Fishing
Network, Social Capital, and Catch Dynamics. North
American Journal of Fisheries Management 28(2): 447-462.
Nik Hashim, N.M. 2008. Steady state and
intertemporal management models for marine fisheries.
Natural Resource Modeling 21(1): 148-177.
Steady state and dynamic management models are
developed for analyzing the Malaysian marine fisheries. These
models originate from the theoretical concepts of the natural
resource economics namely the open access, limited entry and
the intertemporal fishery models. Such management models are
deemed necessary because of the need to sustain the depleting
resource and degrading environment. Marine fisheries had been
managed under open access for a long time before government
intervention took effect sometime during the 1960s. Open
access and government intervention during the earlier phase of
economic development contributed to the immediate pressure on
fisheries. Community development programs geared to alleviate
poverty among the fishermen apparently contradicted the effort
of sustaining fisheries. Even today this fundamental
management objective of sustainable development of fishery
resource is not fully adhered to. This study suggests that
ability to sustain fishery requires government intervention
that can direct resource use to steady state or intertemporal
optimal levels.
Nøstbakken, L. 2008.
Fisheries law enforcement—A survey of the economic
literature. Marine Policy 32(3): 293-300.
The paper reviews and summarises the
literature on regulatory enforcement in fisheries. The focus
is on the theoretical literature. First, some of the main
contributions from the general economic literature of law
enforcement are presented, along with extensions that are
considered relevant to the study of fisheries law enforcement.
Second, a review of the economic literature of law enforcement
applied to the study of fisheries is provided. Finally, the
paper presents gaps in the fisheries economics literature on
regulatory enforcement and offers some possibilities for
future work.
Payne, A.I.L. and G. M. Pilling. 2008.
Sustainability and present-day approaches to fisheries
management - are the two concepts irreconcilable? African
Journal of Marine Science 30(1): 1-10.
Sustainability may be defined as the
maintenance of the quality, diversity and availability of
fishery resources in sufficient quantities for present and
future generations. But how do modern management systems aim
to achieve this in the face of natural fluctuations and
human-induced pressures? Using four case study fisheries
(northern Atlantic cod and North Sea cod [both Gadus morhua],
Pacific sablefish Anoplopoma fimbria, and South African West
Coast lobster Jasus lalandii), we examine the components and
considerations used in the development of management systems.
Historically, these considerations have been biology-based,
incorporating reference points appropriate for management
goals or targets. Following some quite spectacular failures,
however, inputs from disciplines such as socio-economics and
ecosystem science are increasingly important drivers behind
management decisions, but have the potential to increase
management complexity greatly. We identify three areas of
particular importance. Precautionary, robust and responsive
management is needed, with pre-agreed actions to be taken when
particular conditions are experienced. Management decisions
need to be based upon adequate scientific information,
particularly given the increasing variety of drivers for
management. Finally, fisheries management needs to be a
collaborative process, involving all stakeholders, thereby
raising the credibility of management for all participants.
Integrating all these aspects within the fisheries management
framework is complex, but when combined with the realisation
that harvests are likely to be lower than historical levels,
there appears to be a greater chance of successful sustainable
exploitation.
Pilling, G.M. and A.I.L. Payne. 2008.
Sustainability and present-day
approaches to fisheries management - are the two concepts
irreconcilable? African Journal of Marine Science 30(1):
1-10.
Sustainability may be
defined as the maintenance of the quality, diversity and
availability of fishery resources in sufficient quantities for
present and future generations. But how do modern management
systems aim to achieve this in the face of natural
fluctuations and human-induced pressures? Using four case
study fisheries (northern Atlantic cod and North Sea cod [both
Gadus morhua], Pacific sablefish Anoplopoma fimbria, and South
African West Coast lobster Jasus lalandii), we examine the
components and considerations used in the development of
management systems. Historically, these considerations have
been biology-based, incorporating reference points appropriate
for management goals or targets. Following some quite
spectacular failures, however, inputs from disciplines such as
socio-economics and ecosystem science are increasingly
important drivers behind management decisions, but have the
potential to increase management complexity greatly. We
identify three areas of particular importance. Precautionary,
robust and responsive management is needed, with pre-agreed
actions to be taken when particular conditions are
experienced. Management decisions need to be based upon
adequate scientific information, particularly given the
increasing variety of drivers for management. Finally,
fisheries management needs to be a collaborative process,
involving all stakeholders, thereby raising the credibility of
management for all participants. Integrating all these aspects
within the fisheries management framework is complex, but when
combined with the realisation that harvests are likely to be
lower than historical levels, there appears to be a greater
chance of successful sustainable exploitation.
Pinkerton, E. and D.N. Edwards. 2009. The
elephant in the room: The hidden costs of leasing individual
transferable fishing quotas. Marine Policy 33(4): 707-713.
Despite the increasingly positive reviews of
individual transferable quotas (ITQs), few studies have
considered how quota leasing activities can reduce the
economic benefits to society and to fishermen operating under
the ITQ fisheries system. This analysis reveals negative
economic impacts of ITQs previously overlooked by examining
the extent of quota leasing and the relationship between the
catch value, the cost of fishing, and the quota lease price in
the BC halibut fishery, long considered a poster child for
ITQs. Findings challenge assumptions of economic theory used
to promote the benefits of ITQs.
Reed, M.S. 2008. Stakeholder participation
for environmental management: A literature review.
Biological Conservation 141(10): 2417-2431.
The complex and dynamic nature of
environmental problems requires flexible and transparent
decision-making that embraces a diversity of knowledges and
values. For this reason, stakeholder participation in
environmental decision-making has been increasingly sought and
embedded into national and international policy. Although many
benefits have been claimed for participation, disillusionment
has grown amongst practitioners and stakeholders who have felt
let down when these claims are not realised. This review first
traces the development of participatory approaches in
different disciplinary and geographical contexts, and reviews
typologies that can be used to categorise and select
participatory methods. It then reviews evidence for normative
and pragmatic benefits of participation, and evaluates
limitations and drawbacks. Although few of the claims that are
made have been tested, there is evidence that stakeholder
participation can enhance the quality of environmental
decisions by considering more comprehensive information
inputs. However, the quality of decisions made through
stakeholder participation is strongly dependant on the nature
of the process leading to them. Eight features of best
practice participation are then identified from a Grounded
Theory Analysis of the literature. These features emphasise
the need to replace a “tool-kit” approach, which emphasises
selecting the relevant tools for the job, with an approach
that emphasises participation as a process. It is argued that
stakeholder participation needs to be underpinned by a
philosophy that emphasises empowerment, equity, trust and
learning. Where relevant, participation should be considered
as early as possible and throughout the process, representing
relevant stakeholders systematically. The process needs to
have clear objectives from the outset, and should not overlook
the need for highly skilled facilitation. Local and scientific
knowledges can be integrated to provide a more comprehensive
understanding of complex and dynamic socio-ecological systems
and processes. Such knowledge can also be used to evaluate the
appropriateness of potential technical and local solutions to
environmental problems. Finally, it is argued that to overcome
many of its limitations, stakeholder participation must be
institutionalised, creating organisational cultures that can
facilitate processes where goals are negotiated and outcomes
are necessarily uncertain. In this light, participatory
processes may seem very risky, but there is growing evidence
that if well designed, these perceived risks may be well worth
taking. The review concludes by identifying future research
needs.
Reed, M.S., et al. 2009. Who's in and why?
A typology of stakeholder analysis methods for natural
resource management. Journal of Environmental Management
90(5): 1933-1949.
Stakeholder analysis means many things to
different people. Various methods and approaches have been
developed in different fields for different purposes, leading
to confusion over the concept and practice of stakeholder
analysis. This paper asks how and why stakeholder analysis
should be conducted for participatory natural resource
management research. This is achieved by reviewing the
development of stakeholder analysis in business management,
development and natural resource management. The normative and
instrumental theoretical basis for stakeholder analysis is
discussed, and a stakeholder analysis typology is proposed.
This consists of methods for: i) identifying stakeholders; ii)
differentiating between and categorising stakeholders; and
iii) investigating relationships between stakeholders. The
range of methods that can be used to carry out each type of
analysis is reviewed. These methods and approaches are then
illustrated through a series of case studies funded through
the Rural Economy and Land Use (RELU) programme. These case
studies show the wide range of participatory and
non-participatory methods that can be used, and discuss some
of the challenges and limitations of existing methods for
stakeholder analysis. The case studies also propose new tools
and combinations of methods that can more effectively identify
and categorise stakeholders and help understand their
inter-relationships.
Reiss, H. et al. 2009. Genetic population
structure of marine fish: mismatch between biological and
fisheries management units. Fish and Fisheries 10(4):
361-395.
An essential prerequisite of a sustainable
fisheries management is the matching of biologically relevant
processes and management action. In fisheries management and
assessment, fish stocks are the fundamental biological unit,
but the reasoning for the operational management unit is often
indistinct and mismatches between the biology and the
management action frequently occur. Despite the plethora of
population genetic data on marine fishes, to date little or no
use is made of the information, despite the fact that the
detection of genetic differentiation may indicate
reproductively distinct populations. Here, we discuss key
aspects of genetic population differentiation in the context
of their importance for fisheries management. Furthermore, we
evaluate the population structure of all 32 managed marine
fish species in the north-east Atlantic and relate this
structure to current management units and practice. Although a
large number of studies on genetic population structure have
been published in the last decades, data are still rare for
most exploited species. The mismatch between genetic
population structure and the current management units found
for six species (Gadus morhua, Melanogrammus aeglefinus,
Merlangius merlangus, Micromesistius poutassou, Merluccius
merluccius and Clupea harengus), emphasizes the need for a
revision of these units and questions the appropriateness of
current management measures. The implementation of complex and
dynamic population structures into novel and less static
management procedures should be a primary task for future
fisheries management approaches.
Salomon, M. 2009. Recent European
initiatives in marine protection policy: towards lasting
protection for Europe's seas? Environmental Science &
Policy 12(3): 359-366.
The seas and oceans are increasingly a focus
of policy interest in Europe. This is mirrored in wide-ranging
activities to manage and protect the marine environment, which
raises the question of whether such activities go towards
developing sustainable management of the seas. Sustainable
management calls for an integrated and cross-sectoral approach
in order to protect highly valuable marine biodiversity from
sea- and land-based activities of all kinds. While some recent
developments are fairly promising, there are still no moves on
the policy agenda towards uniting all relevant European policy
sectors – and particularly the Common Agricultural Policy and
the Common Fisheries Policy – under the shared objective of
sustainable management and protection of the marine
environment and its resources.
Sanchirico, J.N., M.D. Simth and D. W. Lipton.
2008. An empirical approach to ecosystem-based fishery
management. Ecological Economics 64(3): 586-596.
Marine scientists and policymakers are
encouraging ecosystem-based fishery management (EBFM), but
there is limited guidance on how to operationalize the
concept. We adapt financial portfolio theory as a method for
EBFM that accounts for species interdependencies, uncertainty,
and sustainability constraints. Illustrating our method with
routinely collected data available from the Chesapeake Bay, we
demonstrate the gains from taking into account variances and
covariances of gross fishing revenues in setting species total
allowable catches. We find over the period from 1962–2003 that
managers could have increased the revenues from fishing and
reduced the variance by employing EBFM frontiers in setting
catch levels.
Shertzer, K.W., M.H. Prager and E.H. Williams.
2008. A probability-based approach to setting annual catch
levels. Fishery Bulletin 106 (3): 225-232.
The requirement of setting annual catch limits
to prevent overfishing has been added to the Magnuson-Stevens
Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of
2006 (MSRA). Because this requirement is new, a body of
applied scientific practice for deriving annual catch limits
and accompanying targets does not yet exist. This article
demonstrates an approach to setting levels of catch that is
intended to keep the probability of future overfishing at a
preset low level. The proposed framework is based on
stochastic projection with uncertainty in population dynamics.
The framework extends common projection methodology by
including uncertainty in the limit reference point and in
management implementation, and by making explicit the risk of
overfishing that managers consider acceptable. The approach is
illustrated with application to gag (Mycteroperca microlepis),
a grouper that inhabits the waters off the southeastern United
States. Although devised to satisfy new legislation of the
MSRA, the framework has potential application to any fishery
where the management goal is to limit the risk of overfishing
by controlling catch.
Siron, R., et al. 2008.
Ecosystem-based management in the Arctic Ocean: A multi-level
spatial approach. Arctic 61(Supl. 1): 86-102.
Ecosystem-based management (EBM) first
requires the identification of spatial units capturing the
ecosystem structure and functions. To this end, the Arctic
Council has adopted the Large Marine Ecosystem (LME)
framework. Ecosystem experts have identified 17 Arctic LMEs
and mapped them for monitoring and assessment purposes. We
provide an overview of their major ecological features. The
ecosystem approach has also been developed nationally, with
EBM initiatives undertaken as part of the national ocean
policy frameworks and actions plans of the United States and
Canada. A case study of the Beaufort Sea Large Ocean
Management Area (LOMA) established for integrated ocean
management purposes shows how Canada’s national spatial
framework is being implemented at the subregional level. A
comparison of this framework to the international LME that
overlaps it in the Canadian waters of the Beaufort Sea
demonstrates that both approaches are based on the same
principles and criteria, and aim at the same goal: giving
primary consideration to the marine ecosystem when managing
activities. The two approaches are complementary because they
are applied at different spatial and governance levels:
regional (Arctic-wide) and subregional (in Canadian Arctic
waters). A multi-level spatial framework, science-based
management tools, and a governance structure are now available
to managers in the Beaufort Sea pilot region; now managers
must put in the effort needed to make EBM operational and
address the complex environmental issues facing the Arctic.
Smith, M.D., J.N. Sanchirico and J.E. Wilen.
2009. The economics of spatial-dynamic processes:
Applications to renewable resources. Journal of
Environmental Economics and Management 57(1): 104-121.
Spatial-dynamic processes in renewable
resource economics pose difficult conceptual, analytical,
empirical, and institutional challenges that are distinct from
either spatial or dynamic problems. We describe the challenges
and conceptual approaches using both continuous and discrete
depictions of space and summarize key findings. Using a
metapopulation model of the fishery and simulated economic and
ecological data, we show that it is possible in certain
circumstances to recover both biological and economic
parameters of a linked spatial-dynamic system from only
economic data. We illustrate the application empirically with
data from the Gulf of Mexico reef-fish fishery. We conclude
with a discussion of key policy and institutional design
issues involved in managing spatial-dynamic systems.
Smith, V.H. and D.W. Schindler. 2009.
Eutrophication science: where do we go from here? Trends
in Ecology & Evolution 24(4): 201-207.
Cultural eutrophication has become the primary
water quality issue for most of the freshwater and coastal
marine ecosystems in the world. However, despite extensive
research during the past four to five decades, many key
questions in eutrophication science remain unanswered. Much is
yet to be understood concerning the interactions that can
occur between nutrients and ecosystem stability: whether they
are stable or not, alternate states pose important
complexities for the management of aquatic resources. Evidence
is also mounting rapidly that nutrients strongly influence the
fate and effects of other non-nutrient contaminants, including
pathogens. In addition, it will be important to resolve
ongoing debates about the optimal design of nutrient loading
controls as a water quality management strategy for estuarine
and coastal marine ecosystems.
Stokke, O.S. 2009. Trade measures and the
combat of IUU fishing: Institutional interplay and effective
governance in the Northeast Atlantic. Marine Policy 33(2):
339-349.
The use of trade measures to combat illegal,
unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the Northeast
Atlantic has evolved from unilateral denial of the landing of
fish taken outside international quota arrangements to a
multilateral Scheme of Control and Enforcement under the
North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC).
International trade rules have not constrained this
development, mostly due to successful management of the
interplay between international resource management and trade
regimes. States protect resource management objectives from
such constraint by inserting clauses that establish a
normative hierarchy, or they employ various means for adapting
IUU measures to the ‘environmental window’ of the global trade
regime. The fact that regional states have introduced trade
restrictions only when non-restrictive or less restrictive
measures have failed enhances such compatibility, as do the
gradual shift from unilateral to multilateral measures and the
rise in transparency, openness and target-state involvement.
None of those features reduces the effectiveness of regional
trade measures; they minimize tension with trade commitments
and largely strengthen their clout in the struggle to combat
IUU fishing in the Northeast Atlantic.
Tissot, B. N., W. J. Walsh and M. A. Hixon.
2009. Hawaiian Islands marine ecosystem case study:
ecosystem- and community-based management in Hawaii.
Coastal Management 37(3-4): 255-273.
The Hawaiian Islands comprise a large and
isolated archipelago that includes the largest reef area in
the United States. Managing nearshore fisheries in this
archipelago is a major challenge compounded by the difficulty
of coordinating multiple agencies to provide governance across
a broad series of islands with substantial social and
political differences. There has been interest in, and
progress toward, key elements of ecosystem-based management (EBM)
in Hawaii, including a network of MPAs and community-based
co-management. However, progress has been slow and largely
driven by increased attention to the risks facing coral reef
ecosystems, enabling both legislation and emergence of local
engagement in fishery issues. Key elements of EBM in Hawaii
include enhanced coordination among multiple agencies,
establishment of place-based and community-based (or Hawaiian
ahupua'a'-based) co-management, and acquisition of data on
both the ecology of the nearshore system and the role of human
impacts for use in management decisions. The development of
community-based co-management and an MPA network along the
western Kohala-Kona coast of the island of Hawaii (West
Hawaii) illustrates a unique approach demonstrating an
incremental approach toward EBM. Nonetheless, there are major
challenges to scaling up the West Hawaii model to other
islands within the state. These challenges include (1) the
limited extent of community involvement, as well as
legislative and administrative support, of community-based
co-management and MPAs, (2) the complexity of conflicts that
develop on more populated islands with diverse stakeholders,
(3) weak enforcement of fishing regulations, and (4) whether
synergy among federal, state, and local governments,
nongovernmental organizations, and the scientific community
will be sustainable.
VanderZwaag, D.L. and A. Powers. 2008. The
protection of the marine environment from land-based pollution
and activities: Gauging the tides of global and regional
governance. The International Journal of Marine and
Coastal Law 23(3): 423-452.
After providing an introductory overview of
the major land-based threats to the marine environment, this
article focuses upon the specific global and regional efforts
to address land-based marine pollution and activities through
a four-part survey. The main international initiative is first
described, namely, the Global Programme of Action for the
Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based
Activities (GPA). Progress in GPA implementation is next
assessed with an emphasis on the documentation and results
from the Second Intergovernmental Review Meeting on
Implementation of the GPA held in October 2006. Major
challenges constraining GPA implementation are then
summarized, including limited national participation, limited
financing, and limits of a non-legally binding approach.
Finally, regional agreements and initiatives to counter
land-based marine pollution and activities are reviewed.
Progress and challenges in GPA implementation at the regional
seas level are highlighted.
Walker, B. et al. 2009. Looming
Global-Scale Failures and Missing Institutions. Science
325(5946): 1345-1346.
Energy, food, and water crises; climate
disruption; declining fisheries; increasing ocean
acidification; emerging diseases; and increasing antibiotic
resistance are examples of serious, intertwined global-scale
challenges spawned by the accelerating scale of human
activity. They are outpacing the development of institutions
to deal with them and their many interactive effects. The core
of the problem is inducing cooperation in situations where
individuals and nations will collectively gain if all
cooperate, but each faces the temptation to take a free ride
on the cooperation of others. The nation-state achieves
cooperation by the exercise of sovereign power within its
boundaries. The difficulty to date is that transnational
institutions provide, at best, only partial solutions, and
implementation of even these solutions can be undermined by
internation competition and recalcitrance.
Walters, C.J. et al. 2005. Possible
ecosystem impacts of applying MSY policies from single-species
assessment. ICES Journal of Marine Science 62(3): 558-568.
Ecosim models have been fitted to time-series
data for a wide variety of ecosystems for which there are
long-term data that confirm the models' ability to reproduce
past responses of many species to harvesting. We subject these
model ecosystems to a variety of harvest policies, including
options based on harvesting each species at its maximum
sustainable yield (MSY) fishing rate. We show that widespread
application of single-species MSY policies would in general
cause severe deterioration in ecosystem structure, in
particular the loss of top predator species. This supports the
long-established practice in fisheries management of
protecting at least some smaller "forage" species specifically
for their value in supporting larger piscivores.
Yamazaki, A., T. Kompas and R.Q. Graftons.
2009. Output versus input controls under uncertainty: the
case of a fishery. Natural Resource Modeling 22(2):
212-236.
The paper compares the management outcomes
with a total allowable catch (TAC) and a total allowable
effort (TAE) in a fishery under uncertainty. Using a dynamic
programming model with multiple uncertainties and estimated
growth, harvest, and effort functions from one of the world's
largest fisheries, the relative economic and biological
benefits of a TAC and TAE are compared and contrasted in a
stochastic environment. This approach provides a decision and
modeling framework to compare instruments and achieve desired
management goals. A key finding is that neither instrument is
always preferred in a world of uncertainty and that
regulator's risk aversion and weighting in terms of expected
net profits and biomass, and the trade-offs in terms of
expected values and variance determine instrument choice.
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