Research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that successful fisheries management can be best achieved by implementing and enforcing science-based catch or effort limits. The study is authored by researchers from the University of Washington and California Environmental Associates.
The paper shows that, among 28 of the world’s major fishing nations, there is wide variation in the effectiveness of fisheries management systems at meeting their objectives for productive fish populations. The authors considered several aspects of management systems and three elements seem to be critical to their success.
“Fisheries management systems are complex, with an incredible variety of tools and strategies used around the world, but this research shows the most successful systems consistently have a few management attributes in common,” said lead author Michael Melnychuk, a research scientist in the UW’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. “There is no silver bullet in fisheries management, but three attributes were consistently associated with positive outcomes: science-based stock assessments, limits on fishing pressure and adequate enforcement of those limits.”
According to the paper, these three attributes were more important for productive fish and shellfish populations than the 10 other attributes they also considered, such as protecting sensitive habitats or collecting data on catch or body size. The analysis included the world’s largest and most valuable fisheries and also some smaller ones.
“This is the first global assessment of how individual fish stocks are managed, and by collecting data at the individual fishery level we were able to identify what was key to success,” said co-author Ray Hilborn, a UW professor of aquatic and fishery sciences.
Read more at UW Today »