Ecosystem-based harvest control rules
Evaluating ecosystem-based harvest control rules: How do different ecosystem-based harvest control rules perform compared to single-species management approaches in terms of ecosystem health and fisheries sustainability
By analysing this overarching question in EwE, one can compare ecosystem-based and single-species harvest control rules (HCR). This could provide insights into the potential benefits and challenges of implementing ecosystem-based fisheries management, helping to inform policy decisions and contribute to improving the sustainability of fisheries while maintaining ecosystem health.
Potential policy questions
- Multi-species interactions: How do ecosystem-based HCRs account for predator-prey relationships and competition between species compared to single-species approaches?
- Trophic cascades: Do ecosystem-based HCRs better mitigate unintended trophic cascades that might occur under single-species management?
- Ecosystem indicators: Which ecosystem indicators (e.g., mean trophic level, biomass ratios, diversity indices) are most sensitive to differences between the two management approaches?
- Fisheries yield: How do total and species-specific yields compare between ecosystem-based and single-species HCRs over short and long time scales?
- Stability and variability: Which approach leads to more stable ecosystems and fisheries yields over time, especially under environmental variability?
- Trade-offs: How do ecosystem-based HCRs handle trade-offs between different management objectives (e.g., maximizing yield vs. maintaining ecosystem structure) compared to single-species approaches?
- Bycatch and discards: Do ecosystem-based HCRs lead to reductions in bycatch and discards compared to single-species management?
- Recovery of depleted stocks: How do the two approaches compare in their ability to facilitate the recovery of overexploited species while maintaining ecosystem function?
- Resilience to perturbations: Which management approach results in ecosystems more resilient to environmental changes or fishing pressure fluctuations?
- Economic outcomes: How do the economic returns from fisheries differ between ecosystem-based and single-species HCRs, considering both short-term and long-term perspectives?
- Implementation complexity: What are the practical challenges of implementing ecosystem-based HCRs compared to single-species approaches, and how might these affect outcomes?
- Data requirements: How do the data needs differ between the two approaches, and how sensitive are the outcomes to data limitations?
- Spatial management: How can spatial considerations be incorporated into ecosystem-based HCRs, and how does this compare to spatial aspects of single-species management?
- Climate change scenarios: How do the two management approaches perform under various climate change scenarios, particularly regarding species range shifts and productivity changes?
- Regime shifts: Can ecosystem-based HCRs better detect or prevent potential regime shifts compared to single-species approaches?
- Time lags: How do the two approaches differ in their ability to account for and respond to time lags in ecosystem responses to management actions?
- Uncertainty handling: How do ecosystem-based and single-species HCRs compare in their robustness to various sources of uncertainty (e.g., environmental, biological, implementation)?
- Indicator species: Are there key species or functional groups that serve as particularly good indicators of the relative performance of the two management approaches?
- Ecosystem services: How do the two approaches compare in maintaining a broader range of ecosystem services beyond fisheries production?
- Adaptability: Which approach allows for more effective management as new information becomes available or ecosystem conditions change?
