Invited Talk: Data-Limited Fisheries: A Call to Arms-Not at Arm?s Length.

BABCOCK, E.A.; CALLAUX, M.; COPE, J.M.; FUJITA, R.; GEDAMKE, T.; GLEASON, M.; GUTIERREZ, N.; HORDYK, A.; MOUS, P.; OVANDO, D.; PARMA, A.M.; PRINCE, J.; REVENGA, C.; RUDD, M.; RUDE, J.; SZUWALSKI, C.; VICTOR, S.; MAINA, G.; WILSON, J.R.

Anchorage

Simposio; Wakefield Fisheries Symposium- Tools and Strategies for Assessment and Management of Data-Limited Fish Stocks.; 2015

University of Alaska

It is well acknowledged that tools exist for the management (particularly, the assessment) of data- and capacity-limited fisheries. There is also an increasing body of general guidance for the process of developing harvest strategies (the preagreed monitoring, assessment, and control rules used to achieve management objectives) for data-limited fisheries. This guidance is yet to be confronted with a process-oriented, practical means by which it may be operationalized. There is disconnect between the development of assessment approaches and general guidelines, and their on-the-ground implementation in a harvest strategy context. We outline an approach for a universal framework for managing data- and capacity-limited fisheries, that explicitly considers (i) available data; (ii) biological/ life history attributes of relevant species; (iii) fishery operational characteristics; (iv) socioeconomics; and (v) governance. The above fishery characteristics are elicited via a questionnaire, the responses from which directly inform a user-friendly harvest strategy decision flowchart. The flowchart provides a short list of options for each harvest strategy component, against which management objectives, indicators, and reference points can be revisited. A cost database is used to refine the possible strategies according to what is affordable. Underpinning the process is a management strategy evaluation model for various fishery ?archetypes,? which can evaluate whether the harvest strategy options are likely to achieve management objectives. The approach is being tested for a range of case studies globally, that embrace a broad cross-section of fishery archetypes. This represents traction against the vision of a universal practical framework for the management of data- and capacity-limited fisheries.