Ecosystem-Based Businesses

Ecosystem-based fishing businesses have evolved in an environment where they have developed strategies to make a living and mitigate risk through dependence on multiple species, and in many cases multiple, separately managed fisheries.  Current single-species management frameworks are incongruous with this business reality, and the result is less food than could be sustainably harvested, foregone profitability, and overlooked connections across fisheries that may result in poor ecological outcomes. Underfishing (harvesting below MSY) is common, for reasons including precaution when setting catch limits and the effects of limiting species; the value of unharvested catch limits is approximately $50 million in the West Coast limited entry trawl fishery and $300-500 million in the BSAI.  Further, prohibiting harvesters from taking all allowable fish in one fishery creates spillover into other fisheries.  We explore strategies for achieving optimum yield in multispecies fisheries, including leveraging the MSA’s “mixed-stock exception” to allow sustaining some limiting species below their single-species MSY to facilitate higher yield from the fishery overall.