Progress Of Tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organizations In Applying Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management

Highly migratory fish species such as tunas, billfishes and sharks and associated ecosystems sustain important function and services for human wellbeing. Over the last decades international instruments of fisheries governance have set the core principles and minimum standards for the management of highly migratory fishes. Concomitantly the expectations and roles of Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) have changed. In response, RFMOs have been slowly incorporating ecosystem principles when managing the tuna and those tuna-like species under their jurisdiction. Here, our main objective is to evaluate the progress of tuna RFMOs (tRFMO) in implementing Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management (EBFM), and specifically we focus on reviewing the ecological component, rather than the socio-economic and governance components of an EBFM approach. We first develop a benchmark Conceptual Ecological Model for what could be considered a “role model” of EBFM implementation in a tRFMO. Second, we develop a criteria to evaluate progress in applying EBFM against this benchmark role model. In our evaluation, we assess progress of the following four ecological components: targeted species, bycatch species, ecosystem properties and trophic relationships, and habitats, and review 20 elements that ideally would make EBFM more operational. We find that many of the elements necessary for an operational EBFM are already present, yet they have been implemented in a patchy way, without a long term vision of what is to be achieved and a formalized plan implementation. In global terms, tuna RFMOs have made considerable progress within the ecological component of target species, moderate progress in the ecological component of bycatch, and little progress in the components of ecosystem properties and trophic relationships and habitats, although their overall performance varies across the ecological components. All the tuna RFMOs share the same challenges of coordinating effectively all ecosystem research activities and developing a formal mechanism to better integrate ecosystem considerations into management decisions and communicating them to the Commission. While we consider tuna RFMOs are at the early stages of implementing EBFM, we believe its implementation should be seen as a step-wise adaptive process which should be supported with the best ecosystem science and an operational plan as a tool to set the path to advance towards its full implementation. With this comparative review of progress we hope to create discussion across the tuna RFMOs to inform the much needed development of operational EBFM plans.