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Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management (CRS Report for Congress)

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Release Date Sept. 19, 2024
Report Number IF12768
Report Type In Focus
Authors Anthony R. Marshak
Source Agency Congressional Research Service
Summary:

Ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM; Figure 1) is a systems-level management approach for living marine resources (LMRs) that accounts for an ecosystem’s physical, biological, economic, and social components. This approach to fisheries management aims to maintain ecosystems and their dependent fisheries in healthy, productive, and resilient conditions to ensure they can provide services to human and biological communities. EBFM provides various benefits to complement traditional single-species (or single-stock) fisheries management, according to some experts. For example, EBFM may provide additional information regarding how ecosystems function and how ecosystems may respond to multiple stressors and their cumulative impacts. EBFM also may provide insight into trade-offs among different stakeholder priorities for LMRs and their fisheries. This information can inform fisheries management decisions. Experts also have identified challenges regarding EBFM and its implementation (e.g., potential lack of resonation with stakeholders). Congress continues to be interested in LMR management that includes considerations for marine ecosystems. Congress has authorized the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to manage U.S. LMRs under multiple mandates, such as the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA; 16 U.S.C. §§1807-1891d) and the Marine Mammal Protection Act (16 U.S.C. §§1361-1423h). In these laws, Congress has included directives for LMR management to account for species’ roles in marine ecosystems. NMFS assesses and manages more than 500 regulated fishery stocks and stock complexes, over 100 marine mammal species, and approximately 100 threatened and endangered species, some of which are marine mammals. Over the past decade, NMFS and partners (e.g., Regional Fishery Management Councils [FMCs]) have worked toward implementing EBFM in consideration of these simultaneous mandates and multiple species, including through the incorporation of ecosystem considerations into management actions and assessments.