Publication Abstract

International approaches to management of shared stocks: ecosystems, competition and behavioural issues

G.P. Kirkwood, J.G. Pope, J. Casey and E. Bell

The group discussions focused on ecosystem issues in the approach to management of shared stocks, and especially on scientific issues and on how science can contribute to achieving management objectives. While recognizing that issues relating to human competition and behaviour are important in achieving any objectives, the group felt that both were primarily non-scientific issues.

The group noted that man’s ability to manage an ecosystem was limited, and that only human activities and their first- and perhaps second-order impacts could be managed, rather than the ecosystem itself. The terminology "ecosystem management" was considered to be misleading, so the more appropriate term "ecosystem approach to management" was adopted for the purpose of the discussion.

Traditionally, fisheries management has set objectives that have tended to be stock-specific and has aimed at managing the population size and fishing mortality rate exerted on each stock. More recently, the scientific problems of setting objectives that consider technical and biological interactions between target fisheries has been addressed (e.g. the ICES Multispecies Working Group has addressed the issues), and some understanding has also been achieved of the impacts of fishing on non-target species and on holistic aspects of the ecosystem. However, progress in achieving objectives that address the inevitable interactions between fishing, its target species and the wider ecosystem has been slow, even in systems under single national jurisdictions. Problems of management are compounded in shared systems where one nation’s by-catch is another nation’s target. An ecosystem approach to management would inevitably need to have wider agreed objectives. Likely it would be easier to agree on the pessima to be avoided (extirpation of species, destruction of key habitat) than the optima to be achieved (overall system yield or social/economic benefits). Management to avoid pessima would primarily involve managing incidental mortality on other species and mitigating the fishery impacts on non-target species and habitats.

The group recognized that definition of clear management objectives would be critical to the successful development of an ecosystem approach to management. Indeed, it would be certain that each country and each stakeholder would have a different perception of management targets, and that reaching a consensus between the groups would be one of the major challenges to implementation. Under traditional single-species fishery management, the set of main stakeholder groups would be fairly small (i.e. fishers, fisheries managers, scientists). Moreover, an ecosystem approach to management would entail broadening the stakeholder base to include, at least, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), local community representation, and leisure activity groups (e.g. sport anglers, divers, others using the sea for leisure). In order to achieve cooperation between groups with such diverse backgrounds, programmes of education on the complex structure and function of marine ecosystems would be required. Even after common management objectives had been defined, stakeholders may prefer different, incompatible approaches for meeting the set objectives. An agreed definition of operational objectives, i.e. coherent methodologies for attaining management objectives, would be required first. It seems that these need to have two levels. The first would be concerned with avoiding irreversible harm to elements of the ecosystem. The second and more difficult would be to agree how human benefits could be optimized. Even if this second level could be agreed, it seemed likely that questions of allocation would remain.

Reference:

G.P. Kirkwood, J.G. Pope, J. Casey and E. Bell. 2004. International approaches to management of shared stocks: ecosystems, competition and behavioural issues. Management of shared Fish Stocks: 356-359