Why For Tomorrow’s Fish supports EBFM's crucial step towards Climate Resilient Fisheries
Photo: Ed Sozinho
As anglers, we know that a successful day on the water means considering ALL the conditions we’re experiencing in our presentations. Water temperatures, weather, habitat and cover, the presence of non-target species, and much more all play a role in our approach.
In fishing, nothing happens in isolation, and much in the same way, fisheries managers must operate under the same agile and comprehensive framework.
Enter Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management.
NOAA Fisheries recently released its draft Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management (EBFM) Road Map, which updates the existing Road Map, first released in 2016.
EBFM is a step up from the traditional single-species management approach. It is a more holistic approach that considers the whole ecosystem and human factors when deciding how to manage fisheries. Despite its potential, EBFM's adoption has been slower than it could have been due to resource limitations and inertia in the management system.
The new draft Road Map is a definite improvement, reflecting new scientific understanding and taking a more considered approach. It has the potential to push EBFM further. However, we're at a critical juncture with climate change and other pressures on fish and fisheries that aren’t fully addressed in the draft Road Map.
What is EBFM?
Photo: Kent Narrows - Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) is a comprehensive approach to managing fisheries that considers the entire ecosystem, which includes people. Unlike the traditional single-species method - which manages each species separately – EBFM considers the interconnections between the different components of ecosystems and human communities. In short, EBFM considers the impacts of the entire ecosystem on fish stocks and the impacts of fishing on the ecosystem, enabling managers to better weigh the tradeoffs inherent in any management decision they make. The management approach preferred by NOAA Fisheries, EBFM, aims to enhance resilience and fulfill various mandates by acknowledging these interdependencies. It's not about controlling the ecosystem but integrating its complexities into resource management. EBFM has strong scientific support, but it has proven challenging to implement.
Learn more about EBFM from NOAA here.
What is the EBFM Policy and Road Map?
NOAA Fisheries released the first Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management (EBFM) Policy in 2016 to provide a framework for managing fisheries with a broader ecosystem perspective. This policy set the stage for an EBFM Road Map, also released in 2016, which aimed to implement the policy's principles.
In February 2024, an updated EBFM Policy was issued to incorporate advancements in EBFM, address climate change, and integrate socioeconomic data more effectively.
The original EBFM Policy and Road Map drove progress in a few key areas.
● Spurred the Regional Fishery Management Councils, which are tasked with managing federal fisheries, to develop Fishery Ecosystem Plans that put fisheries in their broader ecosystem context and helped the Councils grapple with cross-fishery issues.
● Facilitated the establishment of Integrated Ecosystem Assessment teams in each region, which create the core products and know-how needed for implementing EBFM.
● Supported enhanced science and modeling capacities, for example, using environmental variables to assess fish stock status.
However, these advancements have yet to fully translate into regular integration into management decisions, which remain focused on single-species approaches without adequately considering ecosystem factors.
Learn More About How NOAA Defines Ecosystems
What's in the Draft Road Map?
Photo: AJ Gottschalk
The draft EBFM Road Map outlines a national strategy to implement EBFM by following six essential guidelines:
● Implement ecosystem-level planning.
● Advance the understanding of ecosystem processes.
● Prioritize vulnerabilities and risks.
● Address trade-offs within ecosystems.
● Integrate ecosystem considerations into management.
● Support ecosystem resilience through monitoring and management adjustments.
Each guideline comes with specific goals and actions. The aim is to weave these guidelines into NOAA Fisheries' broader plans and strategies, bringing more focus and resources to EBFM.
EBFM and Climate-Ready Fisheries
NOAA Fisheries is gearing up to tackle climate change through this EBFM Road Map, making it a crucial tool for adapting our fisheries to new environmental challenges. The Road Map aims to integrate
climate-ready approaches into management decisions, ensuring our fisheries remain sustainable in the face of climate change. At the same time, NOAA can and should be doing more on climate change and can work to harmonize different efforts to address climate change using the Road Map.
For Tomorrow’s Fish Comments on Draft EBFM Road Map
Photo: Ed Sozinho
This August, For Tomorrow’s Fish - in partnership with several leading fly fishing industry brands – submitted public comment suggesting the following adjustments to the Draft EBFM Road Map:
1. We need to address climate change, and we need to do it now. Fishermen are seeing the impacts of climate change on the water and are concerned that not enough is being done to drive near-term action that addresses the issues we see now. We don’t want to wait until fisheries and ecosystems collapse before we start acting.
The EBFM Road Map should identify some of the near-term actions managers can take while supporting the buildout of longer-term solutions and tools. It would also be great if there were clear next steps out of the Road Map update process to help fishermen and the Fishery Management Councils implement solutions.
2. We support work to address vulnerabilities and risks in the management process. This is especially important concerning climate change, where we can use vulnerability and risk to inform management action. Tools like climate vulnerability assessments can identify which stocks are most vulnerable to climate change, and managers can use the results to prioritize action on those stocks. It is also helpful to involve fishermen in assessing risk and vulnerability. For example, risk assessment processes can work with fishermen to identify risks to the fishery and ecosystem to help prioritize management action and identify what analysis and tools are needed.
3. Ecosystem considerations and factors, like habitat and forage fish, are crucial for abundant fisheries, which means they need to be considered, accounted for, and/or managed.
We appreciate the effort to better include habitat into the updated Road Map and hope to see even more consideration of habitat in EBFM in the future.
4. We need adaptive management practices that make management more responsive and nimble.
We must do more to enable management to shift as things change without sacrificing sustainable management practices currently supporting abundant fish populations. This includes supporting ecosystem monitoring so we know how to adjust management to support ecosystem resilience.
Fishermen have an essential voice in identifying bottlenecks and solutions in the management process from their perspective.