An ecosystem-based fisheries assessment and forecasting approach

Ecosystem-based approach

A comprehensive ecosystem-based approach is required to holistically assess, forecast and manage fisheries resources and their associated habitats by considering ecological interactions of target species with predators, competitors, and prey species, interactions between fishes and their habitats, and the effects of fishing on these processes. A pragmatic ecosystem-based approach was developed for the assessment of fisheries resources involving three management objectives: sustainability, biodiversity, and habitat quality (Zhang et al., 2009). This approach has a two-tier analytical method. Tier 1 was designed for situations where sufficient information is available to allow for a quantitative evaluation of the status of the system, while Tier 2 was designed for situations where available information necessitated a semi-quantitative or qualitative assessment. In this approach a total of 20 Tier 1 indicators and 24 Tier 2 indicators were developed for assessment of ecosystem status, and both target and limit reference points were chosen for each indicator to assess the status of species, fisheries and ecosystems. Nested risk indices, such as objectives risk index (ORI), species risk index (SRI), fishery risk index (FRI), and ecosystem risk index (ERI), were developed to assess the ecosystem status at the management unit level. In this study an integrated fisheries risk assessment, forecasting and management for ecosystems (IFRAME) is developed by extending the approach developed by Zhang et al. (2009). IFRAME has an additional management objective, socio-economic benefits, and it also includes three sub-models, namely, assessment, forecasting, and management sub-models. The method was demonstrated by applying it to the Korean large purse seine fishery. It was found that this approach can be used to compare the status of species, fisheries and ecosystems spatially and temporally, to evaluate the performance of management options under various scenarios using an ecosystem perspective.