Overview of the Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management (EBFM) workshop at the International Conference on lobster and crab fisheries in 2023

Abstract

While the need for ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) has been long recognised, the escalating demands and serious threats that climate change poses to our marine ecosystems and the industries and human societies that depend on them, have increased the urgency for its adoption. Given this importance, EBFM was the overarching theme of the 5-day International Lobster and Crab conference held during October 2023 in Western Australia which included a special EBFM workshop that examined the following five concepts: species sustainability, ecosystem sustainability, economic outcomes, social amenity and social impacts. The workshop presentations covered the breadth of EBFM issues including the ecosystem effects of fishing, social, economic, environmental impacts and climate change, bycatch, governance issues in addition to the management of targeted lobster and crab stocks. The major outcomes and conclusions for fisheries management policy identified during the workshop included: (a) the need to take a ‘whole-of-resource’ approach rather than focusing on the effect of a particular fishery; (b) explicit recognition of socio-economic objectives in harvest strategies; (c) incorporating climate change within fisheries management systems; (d) assessment of stationarity assumptions in biological parameters; (e) recognising that regime shifts can result in major shifts in abundance and distribution of stocks; (f) importance of proper governance and compliance in fisheries management; (g) minimising fisheries interactions with protected species; (h) importance of long-term fishery-independent surveys for target species and ecosystem issues; (i) recovery of lost fishing gear; (j) recognition of spatial processes in the management of fisheries and the formation of marine protected areas; (k) importance of considering traditional knowledge alongside western science in fisheries assessment and management; and (l) acknowledging the need for ecosystem-based management which also takes into account the non-fisheries sectors competing for the same spatial area of the resource.