BRADFORD E. BROWN PH.D. Large Marine Ecosystem Fisheries Management

LMES: THE GOLD STANDARD UN Transboundary Waters Assessment Program ICES Working Group US OCEAN POLICY –President Obama

A MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE CAPABLE OF MAKING LME DECISIONS AN ONGOING STREAM OF MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT INFORMATION FROM THE FIVE LME MODULES A SCIENCE BASED DECISION PROCESS. ULTIMATE GOAL OF LME PROJECTS

LME fisheries Fisheries should be assessed and managed holistically using: 1/The Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries 2/Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management 2/ All of the services of the ecosystem.

FISHERIES Very high government interest Extremely politically sensitive Critically important to be addressed as so many are dependent on fisheries for food and livelihood Transboundary issues are obvious

RFMOs The presence of RFMOs is testimony to the acceptance that fisheries must be managed throughout their range First RFMOs formed early in 20 th century focusing on single species Depression of the thirties halted progress Post WWII with the expansion of fishing fleets area wide RFMOs were established

POST 200 MILE LIMIT RFBs expanded rapidly after the extension of jurisdiction in the late 1970s. About half (18) can be considered RFMOs Poor track record, Cullis- Suziki and Pauly 2010 Policy Paper prepared for global Oceans’ Commission in 2013 found numerous shortcomings including lack of communication between adjacent RFMOs

WECAFE,CFRM,OPESCA, OLPESCA,CPPS,CTMFM, SPRFMO, ICCAT,IATTC,CCSBT Latin American and Caribbean RFBs

THERE IS PERIL IN IGNORING RFBs Fisheries Ministries are critical to success of LMEs Fisheries Ministries are invested in RFBs RFBs can move to RFMOs Need coordination between environmental and fisheries interests not conflicts Fisheries ministries often have more political support than environmental due to socio-economic factors e.g. food security, foreign exchange

US EAST COAST LESSONS LEARNED US East Coast: 16 states existing since before there was a US Great differences in length of coastline, population and resources US Constitution reserves all matters not mentioned, to the states which guard them jealously Waters out to 3 mi. under state jurisdiction

ATLANTIC STATES MARINE FISHERIES COMM. Founded 1942 to harmonize management In mid 1980s began to develop management plans, almost 10 years after 200 mi jurisdiction Now 24 fisheries management plans Each state issues its own regulations so as to meet the plans’ requirements Take home point: It takes time !

After extending 200mi. 3 east coast Fisheries Management Councils were formed Gulf of Maine, Mid Atlantic and Southeast First two in NE US Shelf LME, third in SE US Shelf LME States dominate Councils ASMFC on all Councils Plans are coordinated between Councils and with ASMFC FISHERIES MANAGEMENT COUNCILS

SUCCESS AND NEXT STEPS Thirty years after extended jurisdiction Council management, over twenty years of ASMFC management, overfishing has been halted and stocks recovering- REMEMBER IT TAKES TIME Missing through most of this period is the ability to consider fisheries within other ocean services.

US OCEAN POLICY –PRESIDENT OBAMA LMEs adopted as units to use wherever possible Adopted ecosystem based management Established National Oceans Council Establishing Regional Planning bodies for Federal Waters

CAVEATS AND CONCLUSIONS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCE REVIEW Agreed the stocks were generally in recovery as NOAA had concluded Stated that this was due to overall reduction in effort and thus fishing mortality However the individual classifications did not always achieve accuracy and changed between assessments (NOISE) creating credibility issues

ICNAF Set the stage for the LME movement Divided into sub areas close to today’s LMEs Area wide research surveys, multipurpose Research on multispecies modeling fisheries and species interactions, fisheries productivity from primary productivity Management set overall quotas less than sum of individual species quotas AFRICA AFRICA

CAVEATS AND CONCLUSIONS In the ending days of ICNAF we wrestled with ecosystem based management. Except in exceptional cases, single species management for MSY is not realistic. Complex multispecies mgt. models exceed the capabilities of input measurements

Caveats and Conclusions The perception that Ecosystem – Based Fisheries Management (EBFN) is too complex and poorly defined remains a primary impediment to its implementation There are some potential solutions M.J. Fogarty Can. J. Fish.Aquat.Sci. 71:2014

Caveats and Conclusions Establish system wide reference points to set overall harvest constraints The establish constraint's on catch levels and fishing practices to protect components Fogarty op. Cit.

CAVEATS AND CONCLUSIONS cont. LME ECOSYSTEM BASED MANAGEMENT CAN WORK EVEN WHEN THE INSTITUIONAL NETWORK IS COMPLEX TWO THINGS ARE NEEDED : Buy in by all to managing on an LME basis Formal coordination between all responsible bodies Look to Baltic for another success

PARTING SHOTS Avoid over-complex management requiring very precise measurements with accuracy beyond our understanding Use adaptive management changing rapidly when monitoring shows expected direction is not happening