Ecosystems say good management pays off

Abstract

Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of alternative assessment methods, harvest strategies and management approaches are an important part of operationalizing single-species and ecosystem-based fisheries management. Simulations run using two variants of a whole-of-ecosystem model for the Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery (SESSF) area shows that (a) data-rich assessments outperform data-poor assessments for target species and that this performance is reflected in the values of many system-level ecosystem indicators; (b) ecosystem and multispecies management outperforms single-species management applied over the same domain; (c) investment in robust science-based fisheries management pays dividends even when there are multiple jurisdictions, some of which are not implementing effective management; and (d) that multispecies yield-oriented strategies can deliver higher total catches without a notable decline in overall system performance, although the resulting system structure is different to that obtained with other forms of ecosystem-based management.