Five 'easy' Pieces for Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management

The perception that Ecosystem-Based Fishery Management is too complex and poorly defined remains a primary impediment to its broadscale adoption and implementation. Here, I argue that five basic principles can provide potential pathways to overall simplification of the process and provide more robust options for fisheries management.  First, by moving toward integrated place-based management plans and away from large numbers of individual species-based plans, it is possible to sharply reduce administrative and regulatory burdens while providing a more realistic scientific framework for management. Second, relatively simple multispecies models can be constructed that are recognizable as direct extensions of conventional single-species models to provide a natural bridge to managers. Third, by taking advantage of emergent properties of ecosystems and developing management strategies accordingly, it is sometimes possible to identify management units such as functional groups that are more stable and predictable than their component parts. Fourth, it is possible to construct relatively simple management procedures that build on the principles identified above.  Finally, adoption of strategies based on a satisficing framework can  provide a simpler alternative to complex multispecies optimization approaches.  These five principles are illustrated with examples from the Georges Bank ecosystem