Explicitly Incorporating Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management (EBFM) into Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE)

The need to transition from traditional single-species fisheries management approaches towards Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management (EBFM), or an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries, is widely recognised. EBFM is particularly important when considering management actions for economically valuable fisheries for small pelagic forage fish, given their key ecological role. Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) is an effective approach to advance the quantitative implementation of EBFM by enabling stakeholders to explore trade-offs among competing ecosystem related objectives. I highlight different approaches to explicitly advance EBFM with MSE, by taking advantage of data and research already available and by guiding future research. These include a) using an ecosystem Operating Model (OM), b) coupling the OM with key ecosystem components in a uni-directional manner, c) adjusting natural mortality to consider predation mortality explicitly, d) using ecosystem-related thresholds in performance statistics, e) pre-specifying Harvest Control Rule parameters, or f) adjusting reference points to account for ecosystem aspects. This review demonstrates that immediate steps can be taken to implement EBFM targeted at quantitative tactical management, even without a complex, data-rich ecosystem model.