The authors write, "Ideally, EBFM would shift the burden of proof so that fishing would not take place unless it could be shown not to harm key components of the ecosystem." In addition, an ecosystem-focused approach would stimulate research about ecosystem processes and the likely consequences of human actions.
"Ecosystem-based fishery management can be implemented right now, even in cases where very little information is available," says Pikitch. "Because of the complexity and uncertainty about marine ecosystems, this approach will inevitably require erring on the side of caution."
Managers would need to pay closer attention to the entire food web, such as to prey species critical to the endangered Steller Sea Lion in Alaska, and to bycatch (non-targeted species) such as white marlin, which has been inadvertently decimated because of tuna and swordfish fishing.
"Overfishing top predators like marlins is dangerous, because these species fill a vital role in marine food webs," says co-author Dr. Elizabeth Babcock, Chief Scientist with the Pew Institute for Ocean Science at the Rosenstiel School. Babcock attributes over 90 percent of the annual mortality of white marlin to the tuna and swordfish longline fisheries.
Although moving to ecosystem-based fishery management will not be easy, the report's authors stress that it should begin immediately, because the potential benefits trump the status quo of species-focused management.
The authors include three winners of the highly prestigious award from the Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation that became part of the Pew Institute for Ocean Science in October 2003. They are Paul Dayton from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Burr Heneman
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Contact: Jim Harper
jharper@rsmas.miami.edu
305-361-4165
Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation
15-Jul-2004