Ecosystem reporting:
Thoughts on efforts to move ecosystem
considerations into management.
Scott Large
Ecosystem Dynamics and Assessment Branch
Northeast Fisheries Science Center
1 / 7
Why?
We report on ecosystem considerations to ensure sustainable management of living marine resources.
How can we develop ecosystem reporting to be:
- efficient
- targeted ecosystem reporting -and-
- informative to multiple aspects of the management process
2 / 7
Who is the audience
- What information does the audience need for their decisions?
- Do they need that much detail?
- Do they have the background to understand the implications of the message?
- Could the information be more meaningful if applied elsewhere in the process?
3 / 7
Who is the audience, cont'd
We probably don't need to provide the same ecosystem information to:
- Stock assessment scientists
- ICES ACOM / Science and Statistical Committees (USA)
- European Council / Fishery Management Council (USA)
But they each desperately need ecosystem reporting.
4 / 7
Tiers of ecosystem reporting
- Ecosystem Context for Stock Assessment
- Stock specific data that might influence recruitment, natural mortality, productivity, and etc.
- Meant to start a conversation with stock assessment scientists
- Can provide quantitative and/or qualitative information to the advisory process
- State of the Ecosystem Report
- More holistic indicators on ecoregion spatial scales
- Meant to inform SSC and Fishery Management Councils of patterns that might influence multiple stocks when providing advice
- Can provide qualitative information to the advisory process
- Ecosystem report cards
- High-level information for non-scientists
- Meant to inform those setting quota (or equivalent) of trends in indices
- Can provide qualitative information to the advisory process
5 / 7
But Scott, neither time nor resources are available!
- Probably true, so efficiency is key
- Back-end development is critical for describing collection, analyses, and processing data
- ICES data services are leading the pack
- Ditch .pdf, .ppt, and .docx for plain-text formats like markdown, rmarkdown, and xaringan
6 / 7