Journal article
Refinements to harvest strategies to enable effective implementation of Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management for the multi-sector, multi-species fisheries of Western Australia
Fisheries Research, Vol.183, pp.594-608
2016
Abstract
To address increasing community expectations and deliver the ‘social licence to operate’, fisheries management in Western Australia (WA) has been systematically adopting a suite of reforms termed Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM). EBFM extends beyond the fishery-level ‘ecosystem approach’ of considering ecological, social and economic objectives by taking a resource-level approach to coordinate management of all fishing sectors that capture a ‘resource’ (which can be defined as one or more species) to better deliver overall community outcomes. This initiative required refinements to harvest strategies to cover the broader EBFM scope and also to deal with the challenges associated with their application to the multi-sector, multi-species fisheries common in WA. The efficacy of these EBFM-based harvest strategies was assessed using four case study resources that cover the diversity of fishery management systems applied in WA. Key refinements include the use of indicator species for multi-species resources and establishing appropriate tolerance levels to determine the acceptable range of annual deviations in catch/effort that meet the levels specified by the harvest control rules or sectoral allocation decisions. While some refinements are ongoing, the case studies demonstrate that a single, comprehensive harvest strategy can collectively address all target species objectives and intra and inter-sectoral allocations at the resource-level plus any other relevant economic, social or ecological objectives (e.g. habitat and protected species interactions) at the appropriate level (resource or activity/sector). This holistic approach is already generating efficiency dividends through the adoption of tolerance levels that are minimising unnecessary management interventions. Similarly, fewer management elements now require pre-season negotiation which is also reducing administrative costs. The comprehensive but agile approach adopted by WA is likely to be especially relevant for other coastal jurisdictions with highly variable environments where fisheries often have multiple sectors, species, stakeholders and objectives that need to be considered.
Details
- Title
- Refinements to harvest strategies to enable effective implementation of Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management for the multi-sector, multi-species fisheries of Western Australia
- Authors/Creators
- W.J. Fletcher (Author/Creator) - Government of Western AustraliaB.S. Wise (Author/Creator) - Government of Western AustraliaL.M. Joll (Author/Creator) - Government of Western AustraliaN.G. Hall (Author/Creator) - Government of Western AustraliaE.A. Fisher (Author/Creator) - Government of Western AustraliaA.V. Harry (Author/Creator) - Government of Western AustraliaD.V. Fairclough (Author/Creator) - Government of Western AustraliaD.J. Gaughan (Author/Creator) - Government of Western AustraliaK. Travaille (Author/Creator) - Government of Western AustraliaB.W. Molony (Author/Creator) - Government of Western AustraliaM. Kangas (Author/Creator) - Government of Western Australia
- Publication Details
- Fisheries Research, Vol.183, pp.594-608
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Identifiers
- 991005541533407891
- Copyright
- © 2016 Elsevier B.V.
- Murdoch Affiliation
- Murdoch University
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
Source: InCites
Metrics
62 Record Views
InCites Highlights
These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output
- Citation topics
- 3 Agriculture, Environment & Ecology
- 3.2 Marine Biology
- 3.2.92 Fisheries Ecology
- Web Of Science research areas
- Fisheries
- ESI research areas
- Plant & Animal Science