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, Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management 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
J. S. Link is currently a senior scientist at the National Marine Fisheries Service in Woods Hole, USA. He has spent a large part of his career in helping to establish the scientific underpinnings for ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) and has received the Fisheries Society of the British Isles Medal for significant advances in fisheries science.
"This little book is an excellent read and will be valued by any ecologist or marine biologist, not just those involved in fisheries. It is well written, authoritative, and full of common sense. Let us just hope that enough of the people who need to read it actually do."
- Ian Lancaster, Bulletin of the British Ecological Society