Supporting and Meeting Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management Objectives for Sustainable Use of Coral Reef Ecosystems

Ecosystem-based Fisheries Management is a holistic management approach that integrates the dynamics of an entire ecosystem, including societal dimensions.

However, this approach seldom lives up to its promise because economic and social objectives are rarely specified.

To fill this gap, we explored how an ecosystem model could better integrate economic and social objectives, using the coral reef ecosystem around Hawai`i as a case study. After meeting with stakeholders and conducting a literature review of policy/strategy documents, we identified societal and ecological objectives and associated performance indicators for which data existed.

We developed a social–ecological system conceptual framework to illustrate the relationships between ecological and social state components.

Despite limitations in the model, our approach shows that when social and economic objectives and social–ecological relationships are defined, we can quantify the trade-offs among the identified societal objectives to support managers in choosing among alternative interventions.

Weijerman M, Oyafuso ZS, Leong KM, Oleson KLL, Winston M. 2020. Supporting Ecosystem-based Fisheries Management in meeting multiple objectives for sustainable use of coral reef ecosystems. ICES Journal of Marine Science.  https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsaa194.