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., 2020)
Used within Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council's Ecosystem Process (Muffley et al., 2020)
The IEA Loop1
State of the Ecosystem: Maintain 2021-2023 structure for 2024*
2024 Report Structure
- Graphical summary
- Page 1 report card re: objectives →
- Page 2 risk summary bullets
- Page 3 2023 snapshot*
- Performance relative to management objectives
- Risks to meeting management objectives
- Climate and Ecosystem risks*
- Offshore wind development
- except for 2 synthetic replacements
| Objective Categories | Indicators reported |
|---|---|
| Provisioning and Cultural Services | |
| Seafood Production | Landings; commercial total and by feeding guild; recreational harvest |
| Profits | Revenue decomposed to price and volume |
| Recreation | Angler trips; recreational fleet diversity |
| Stability | Diversity indices (fishery and ecosystem) |
| Social & Cultural | Community engagement/reliance and environmental justice status |
| Protected Species | Bycatch; population (adult and juvenile) numbers, mortalities |
| Supporting and Regulating Services | |
| Biomass | Biomass or abundance by feeding guild from surveys |
| Productivity | Condition and recruitment of managed species, primary productivity |
| Trophic structure | Relative biomass of feeding guilds, zooplankton |
| Habitat | Estuarine and offshore habitat conditions |
Ecosystem synthesis themes: still framing! but replace p.3 with 2023 Overview
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.
New PAGE 3 this year; 2023 Highlights/Overview/Postmortem
Needs a name
Bulleted and graphical observations of anomalous conditions in 2023
- Warm water everywhere EXCEPT in Spring on the NEUS shelf
- Hypoxia and mortality events in NJ coastal ocean this summer
- GOM summer phytoplankton bloom off the scale
- Heatwaves (??)
- Gulf Stream changes radically altering shelf break habitats
THIS WILL BE DECIDED ON WEDNESDAY
State of the Ecosystem report scale and figures
Spatial scale
A glossary of terms (2021 Memo 5), 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 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)
State of the Ecosystem Summary 2023:
Performance relative to management objectives - Georges Bank
Seafood production ,
Profits , 
Recreational opportunities: Effort , ; Effort diversity ,
Stability: Fishery , Commercial Rec ; 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 Gray seal
State of the Ecosystem Summary 2023:
Performance relative to management objectives - Gulf of Maine
Seafood production ,
Profits Total , ; NEFMC Managed ,
Recreational opportunities: Effort , ; Effort diversity ,
Stability: Fishery , Commercial Rec ; 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 Gray seal
2023 Performance relative to management objectives
Objective: Mid Atlantic Seafood production 
Risk elements: ComFood and RecFood, unchanged
Indicator: Commercial landings
Indicators: Recreational harvest
Multiple potential drivers of landings changes: ecosystem and stock production, management actions, market conditions (including COVID-19 disruptions), and environmental change.
Mid Atlantic Landings drivers: Stock status? TAC? Risk elements: Fstatus, Bstatus, MgtControl
Indicator: Stock status
Indicators: Total ABC or ACL, and Realized catch relative to management target
Few managed species have binding limits; Management less likely playing a role
Implications: Mid Atlantic Seafood Production Drivers
Biomass does not appear to drive landings trends
Key: Black = NEFSC survey;
Red = NEAMAP survey
New species categories, more southern species in Benthivores- Declining managed benthos, aggregate planktivores
- Recreational drivers differ: shark fishery management, possibly survey methodology
Monitor:
climate risks including warming, ocean acidification, and shifting distributions
ecosystem composition and production changes
- fishing engagement
Objective: New England Seafood production 
Indicators: Commercial landings
I never put NAFO back in for 2019-2022...
Indicators: Recreational harvest
Multiple drivers: ecosystem and stock production, management, market conditions (including COVID-19 disruptions), and environmental change
New England Landings drivers: Stock status? Survey biomass?
Indicator: Stock status
Stocks below BMSY increased from XX, stocks below ½ BMSY decreased from YY. Management still likely playing large role in seafood declines
Indicator: Survey biomass
Biomass availability still seems unlikely driver
Implications: New England Seafood Production
Drivers:
- decline in commercial landings is most likely driven by the requirement to rebuild individual stocks as well as market dynamics
- other drivers affecting recreational landings: shark fishery management, possibly survey methodology
Monitor:
- climate risks including warming, ocean acidification, and shifting distributions
- ecosystem composition and production changes
- fishing engagement
Objective: Mid Atlantic Commercial Profits Risk element: CommRev, unchanged
Indicator: Commercial Revenue
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
Indicator: Bennet--price and volume indices baseline year for indicator has changed from previous reports
Objective: New England Commercial Profits 
Indicator: Commercial Revenue
Both regions driven by single species
- GOM high revenue despite low volume
- Fluctuations in GB due to rotational management
Monitor changes in climate and landings drivers:
- Sea scallops and lobsters are sensitive to ocean warming and acidification
Indicator: Bennet--price and volume indices
Objective: Mid Atlantic Recreational opportunities ; Risk element: RecValue, decreased risk; add diversity?
Indicators: Recreational effort and fleet diversity
Implications
- Increased angler trips in 2020 relative to previous years strongly influenced the previously reported long term increase in recreational effort. Adding 2021 data, recreational effort (angler trips) has no long term trend.
- The increasing long term trend from 2021 changed the risk categories for the RecValue element to low-moderate (previously ranked high risk). No trend indicates low risk.
- Decline in recreational fleet diversity suggests a potentially reduced range of opportunities.
- Driven by party/charter contraction and a shift toward shore based angling.
Objective: New England Recreational opportunities 
Indicators: Recreational effort and fleet diversity
Implications
- Absence of a long-term trend in recreational effort suggests relative stability in the overall number of recreational opportunities in New England
Objective: Mid Atlantic Fishery Stability 
Risk elements: FishRes1 and FleetDiv, unchanged
Fishery Indicators: Commercial fleet count, fleet diversity
Most recent fleet counts at low range of series
Fishery Indicators: commercial species revenue diversity, recreational species catch diversity
Most recent near series low value. Covid role?
Objective: Mid Atlantic Ecological Stability Risk element: ecological diversity put aside, new indices
Ecological Indicators: zooplankton and larval fish diversity (not updated)
Ecological Indicator: expected number of species, NEFSC bottom trawl survey
Implications:
- stable capacity to respond to the current range of commercial fishing opportunities
- recreational catch diversity maintained by a different set of species over time
- monitor zooplankton diversity driven by declining dominant species
Objective: New England Fishery Stability Com ; Rec
Fishery Indicators: Commercial fleet count, fleet diversity
Most recent around lowest points in series
Fishery Indicators: commercial species revenue diversity, recreational species catch diversity
Most recent lowest point in series. Covid role?
Objective: New England Ecological Stability 
Ecological Indicators: zooplankton and larval fish diversity (not updated)
Ecological Indicator: expected number of species, NEFSC bottom trawl survey
Implications:
- Commercial fishery diversity driven by small number of species
- Diminished capacity to respond to future fishing opportunities
- Recreational diversity due to species distributions and regulations
- Adult diversity in GOM suggests increase in warm-water species
Objective: Mid Atlantic Environmental Justice and Social Vulnerability Risk element: Social
Indicators: Environmental justice vulnerability, commercial fishery engagement and reliance
Implications: Highlighted communities may be vulnerable to changes in fishing patterns due to regulations and/or climate change. When also experiencing environmental justice issues, they may have lower ability to successfully respond to change.
Objective: Mid Atlantic Environmental Justice and Social Vulnerability Risk element: Social
Indicators: Environmental justice vulnerability, recreational fishery engagement and reliance
Implications: Highlighted communities may be vulnerable to changes in fishing patterns due to regulations and/or climate change. When also experiencing environmental justice issues, they may have lower ability to successfully respond to change.
Objective: New England Environmental Justice and Social Vulnerability
Indicators: Environmental justice vulnerability, commercial fishery engagement and reliance
Implications: Highlighted communities may be vulnerable to changes in fishing patterns due to regulations and/or climate change. When also experiencing environmental justice issues, they may have lower ability to successfully respond to change.
Objective: New England Environmental Justice and Social Vulnerability
Indicators: Environmental justice vulnerability, recreational fishery engagement and reliance
Implications: Highlighted communities may be vulnerable to changes in fishing patterns due to regulations and/or climate change. When also experiencing environmental justice issues, they may have lower ability to successfully respond to change.
Objectives: All Areas Protected species Maintain bycatch below thresholds
Indicators: Harbor porpoise and gray seal bycatch
Implications:
Currently meeting objectives
Risk element: TechInteract, evaluated by species and sector: 14 low, 6 low-mod, 3 mod-high risk, unchanged
The downward trend in harbor porpoise bycatch can also be due to a decrease in harbor porpoise abundance in US waters, reducing their overlap with fisheries, and a decrease in gillnet effort.
The increasing trend in gray seal bycatch may be related to an increase in the gray seal population (U.S. pup counts).
Objectives: All Areas Protected species Recover endangered populations
Indicators: North Atlantic right whale population, calf counts
Implications:
Signs the adult population stabilized 2020-2022
Population drivers for North Atlantic Right Whales (NARW) include combined fishery interactions/ship strikes, distribution shifts, and copepod availability.
Additional potential stressors include offshore wind development, which overlaps with important habitat areas used year-round by right whales, including mother and calf migration corridors and foraging habitat.
Unusual mortality events continue for 3 large whale species.
2023 Risks to meeting fishery management objectives
Risks: Offshore Wind Development Mid Atlantic Element: OceanUse
Indicators: development timeline (updated??), fishery and community specific revenue in lease areas
Council request: which New England ports have significant reliance on Mid-Atlantic managed species?
Risks: Offshore Wind Development New England
Indicators: fishery and community specific revenue in lease areas
Council request: which Mid-Atlantic ports have significant reliance on New England managed species?
