This document was prepared by the author under contract to FAO. There is considerable interest in and momentum towards the implementation of ecosystem-based fisheries management globally, but there is still debate as to what this entails and how it will affect the existing single-species approaches to assessment and management. The problems of trying to manage fisheries from an ecosystem perspective, given the ubiquitous high levels of uncertainty concerning ecosystem functioning and interactions, are also frequently raised as an obstacle to achieving effective ecosystem-based management. This study, arising from the author’s Ph.D thesis entitled “Ecosystem impacts of fishing forage fish: an analysis of harvest strategies for the Brazilian sardine” is an attempt to demonstrate the importance of and roles for both the conventional single-species perspectives and models and those being developed for generating information at the ecosystem level. The production of this report for FAO was commissioned by K.L. Cochrane, Fishery Resources Division, as one example of how the two approaches can complement each other and the important contributions both can make to informing decision-making. It is not intended to provide definitive answers or to prescribe a particular approach, but it is hoped that it will contribute to the development of constructive and scientifically valid methods for ensuring that fisheries management decisions are made with the best available knowledge of their likely impacts, not only in the short term and on the target species, but also on the ecosystem as a whole and for a time horizon extending well beyond the forthcoming season.
Full author’s address:
Marcelo C. VASCONCELLOS
Departamento de Oceanografia
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande
Caixa Postal 474 Rio Grande R.S.
Brasil 96201-900
e-mail: [email protected]
