Fishery management in the US: Audience for ecosystem reporting
Eight regional Fishery Management Councils establish plans for sustainable management of stocks within their jurisdictions. All are governed by the same law, but tailor management to their regional stakeholder needs.
Northeast US State of the Ecosystem (SOE) reporting
Improving ecosystem information and synthesis for fishery managers
Ecosystem indicators linked to management objectives (DePiper, et al., 2017)
- Contextual information
- Report evolving since 2016
- Fishery-relevant subset of full Ecosystem Status Reports
Open science emphasis (Bastille, et al., 2021)
Used within Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council's Ecosystem Process (Muffley, et al., 2021)
- Risk assessment (Gaichas, et al., 2018)
- Conceptual modeling (DePiper, et al., 2021)
- Management strategy evaluation (MSE)
Ecosystem synthesis themes
Characterizing ecosystem change for fishery management
- Societal, biological, physical and chemical factors comprise the multiple system drivers that influence marine ecosystems through a variety of different pathways.
- Changes in the multiple drivers can lead to regime shifts — large, abrupt and persistent changes in the structure and function of an ecosystem.
- Regime shifts and changes in how the multiple system drivers interact can result in ecosystem reorganization as species and humans respond and adapt to the new environment.
State of the Ecosystem report scale and figures
Spatial scale
A glossary of terms, detailed technical methods documentation and indicator data are available online.
Key to figures
Trends assessed only for 30+ years: more information
Orange line = significant increase
Purple line = significant decrease
No color line = not significant or < 30 yearsGrey background = last 10 years
State of the Ecosystem report structure: two sections
Performance relative to management objectives
Risks to meeting fishery management objectives
State of the Ecosystem Summary 2023:
Performance relative to management objectives
Seafood production 
, 
Profits ,
Recreational opportunities: Effort 
; Effort diversity
Stability: Fishery ; Ecological 
Social and cultural, trend not evaluated, status of:
- Fishing engagement and reliance by community
- Environmental Justice (EJ) Vulnerability by community
Protected species:
- Maintain bycatch below thresholds
- Recover endangered populations (NARW)
Implications: Climate change and managed species Risk elements unchanged, new info:
Climate: 6 low, 3 low-mod, 4 mod-high, 1 high risk
Multiple drivers with different impacts by species
- Seasonal estuarine conditions affect life stages of striped bass, blue crabs, summer flounder, black sea bass differently
- Chesapeake suitable habitat for juvenile summer flounder growth has declined by 50% or more
- Climate change is expected to continue impacting habitat function and use for multiple species
- Habitat improving in some areas (tidal fresh SAV, oyster reefs), but eelgrass declining
- Ocean acidification impact on commercial species
- Scallops and longfin squid in Long Island Sound and off New Jersey have experienced low aragonite
- Areas of low pH identified in surfclam and scallop habitat
- Lab work identified pH thresholds for surfclam growth
- Warm core rings important to Illex availability.
- Fishing effort concentrates on the eastern edge of warm core rings, where upwelling and enhanced productivity ocurr.
- Fuel cost, plentiful longfin, and fewer warm core rings near the shelf led to lower Illex catch in 2022.
DistShift: 2 low, 9 mod-high, 3 high risk species
Shifting species distributions alter both species interactions, fishery interactions, and expected management outcomes from spatial allocations and bycatch measures based on historical fish and protected species distributions.
New Indicator: protected species shifts
SOE use in management: Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC)
Integrated Ecosystem Assessment and the MAFMC Ecosystem Approach
Diverse stakeholders agreed that an ecosystem approach was necessary. Developing and implementing EAFM is done in collaboration between managers, stakeholders, and scientists. https://www.mafmc.org/eafm
- Direct link between ecosystem reporting and risk assessment
- Conceptual model links across risk elements for fisheries, species
- Management strategy evaluation includes key risks
State of the Ecosystem → MAFMC Risk assessent example: Commercial revenue
This element is applied at the ecosystem level. Revenue serves as a proxy for commercial profits.
| Risk Level | Definition |
|---|---|
| Low | No trend and low variability in revenue |
| Low-Moderate | Increasing or high variability in revenue |
| Moderate-High | Significant long term revenue decrease |
| High | Significant recent decrease in revenue |
Ranked moderate-high risk due to the significant long term revenue decrease for Mid-Atlantic managed species (red points in top plot)
Key: Black = Revenue of all species combined; Red = Revenue of MAFMC managed species
State of the Ecosystem → MAFMC Risk assessent example: Commercial revenue
This element is applied at the ecosystem level. Revenue serves as a proxy for commercial profits.
| Risk Level | Definition |
|---|---|
| Low | No trend and low variability in revenue |
| Low-Moderate | Increasing or high variability in revenue |
| Moderate-High | Significant long term revenue decrease |
| High | Significant recent decrease in revenue |
Ranked moderate-high risk due to the significant long term revenue decrease for Mid-Atlantic managed species (red points in top plot)
Key: Black = Revenue of all species combined; Red = Revenue of MAFMC managed species
Risk element: CommRev, unchanged
SOE Implications: Recent change driven by benthos. Monitor changes in climate and landings drivers:
- Climate risk element: Surfclams and ocean quahogs are sensitive to ocean warming and acidification.
- pH in surfclam summer habitat is approaching, but not yet at, pH affecting surfclam growth
SOE use in management: MAFMC
- Based on risk assessment, the Council selected summer flounder as high-risk fishery for conceptual modeling
- Council completed management strategy evaluation (MSE) addressing recreational fishery discards using information from conceptual modeling.
