Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management
Confronting Tradeoffs

Compiles the issues involved in successful ecosystem-based fisheries management to foster its implementation and further scientific research into the area.

Jason Link (Author)

9780521762984, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 7 October 2010

224 pages, 30 b/w illus. 17 tables
23.5 x 15.5 x 1.5 cm, 0.47 kg

'This volume provides a good overview of a wide range of tools that can be used to evaluate the ecosystem consequences of fishing. Link presents a range of ecosystem concerns, going well beyond trophic interaction to include major environmental shifts impacting productivity … will provide a good introduction to anyone interested in understanding the history and the state of the science.' Ray Hilborn, The Quarterly Review of Biology

Responsible fisheries management is of increasing interest to the scientific community, resource managers, policy makers, stakeholders and the general public. Focusing solely on managing one species of fish stock at a time has become less of a viable option in addressing the problem. Incorporating more holistic considerations into fisheries management by addressing the trade-offs among the range of issues involved, such as ecological principles, legal mandates and the interests of stakeholders, will hopefully challenge and shift the perception that doing ecosystem-based fisheries management is unfeasible. Demonstrating that EBFM is in fact feasible will have widespread impact, both in US and international waters. Using case studies, underlying philosophies and analytical approaches, this book brings together a range of interdisciplinary topics surrounding EBFM and considers these simultaneously, with an aim to provide tools for successful implementation and to further the debate on EBFM, ultimately hoping to foster enhanced living marine resource management.

Preface
Part I. Context: 1. Admit the problem
2. Why is an ecosystem approach now strongly heralded and merited?
3. Being audacious
4. Framework for scientific information to support EBFM
5. When does it make sense to do EBFM?
Part II. Making EBFM Operational – Technical Considerations: 6. Ecosystem indicators
7. Expanding the stock focus: what we should have been doing yesterday
8. A systemic focus: what we can do now
9. Assessing risk: a different view of ecosystem information
Part III. Institutional Considerations: 10. Why most fisheries biologists become amateur social scientists
11. Management institutions regarding EBFM
12. It's all about tradeoffs
Glossary
Index.

Subject Areas: Environmental management [RNF], Applied ecology [RNC], Fisheries & related industries [KNAF]