Managing fisheries and ecosystems: current good practices and the EcoScope project experience

Ecosystem Based Management (EBM) is a comprehensive way of managing fisheries and marine resources. As such, it needs a large and complex suite of concepts and tools to address a variety of problems ranging from climate change, through various forms of water pollution, to trophic interactions and social-economic sustainability. Industry, scientists, managers, and policy makers involved in the fisheries sector are the main actors in EBM. EBM objectives based on policy needs, legal requirements, and ecosystem considerations may target specific fish stocks, or encompass several ecosystem components aiming for balanced fisheries, but they need to address the trade-offs between maximizing economic gains versus sustainable fisheries and healthy ecosystems. Fishing at Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY), setting ecosystem reference points, discards ban, avoiding bycatch of protected species, habitat protection, accounting for the effects of climate change, achieving good environmental status, setting effective marine protected areas, and considering ecosystem effects from marine spatial planning, are all examples of EBM objectives. The EcoScope project aimed to address ecosystem degradation, anthropogenic impacts, and unsustainable fisheries by developing an efficient, holistic, ecosystem-based approach to sustainable fisheries management that can easily be used by policy makers and advisory bodies. The EcoScope consortium reflects an interdisciplinary advisory team of biologists, modelers, economists, and social scientists. It performed comprehensive reviews of data, data gaps, and various tools (models, indicators, management evaluation procedures). An online platform, toolbox, academy, and a mobile application are end products delivered and maintained by EcoScope to facilitate knowledge sharing, communication, and education. The EcoScope project has built modules ready to be used in the implementation of EBM, but a more direct approach by the responsible organizations, such as ICES, FAO, GFCM and the EC, is needed to set explicit and formal research and managerial frameworks for implementing and coordinating the EBM activities.