Application of the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management in the Laurentian Great Lakes

With leadership from visionary pioneers, like Henry Regier, beginning in the 1960s, an ecosystem approach was established and applied to fisheries management in the Great Lakes.   Our understanding of stress-response in aquatic systems emerged in this early Great Lakes fisheries work.   Fisheries science on the Great Lakes and in Ontario emerged from perceptions of closed, linear, and deterministic elements that could be described with simple population dynamics equations to new understandings of open, non-linear, and self-organizing systems.  This systems approach continues to evolve in fisheries science extending from its origins on the Great Lakes to marine systems today.   We propose that this ecosystem approach established a basis for successes in fisheries restoration on the Great Lakes.   The application of the ecosystem approach, together with sound institutional collaborations, has contributed to successful sustainable management of commercial and recreational fisheries.   We contrast the status of Great Lakes fisheries with the status of global fisheries to illustrate that success.  New and continuing challenges from new ecosystem stresses will require that this approach continue to be refined and employed.