Promotion of the FMSP Fishery Management and Stock Assessment Guides

1. Promotion of the FMSP Fishery Management and Stock Assessment Guides Part 1. The ‘Managers Guide’ Presented at: CRFM 2nd Annual Science Conference Trinidad and Tobago, March 2006 By Dan Hoggarth, Scales Consulting Ltd

2. Background • Funding from Fisheries Management Science Programme (FMSP) • of the UK Department for International Development (DFID) • New guides developed by FMSP Project R8468 to develop capacity for the use of existing FMSP stock assessment tools and management guidelines – especially CEDA, LFDA, Yield and ParFish • Developed as a collaboration between fisheries scientists (MRAG, Scales etc), educators (UK Field Studies Council, Indian Centre for Environmental Education), and with input from potential users in India and CRFM • Guides build on discussions at 2005 CRFM Ad Hoc Methods ‘Communications’ WG, re ‘unpacking’ of management objectives • Objective to develop a simple, clear process, promoting the adoption of a science-based framework for objectives-based management

3. FMSP Stock Assessment Guidelines • Two part set from project R8468: I. How to manage a fishery – A simple guide to writing a fishery management plan (the ‘Managers’ Guide’) II. A guide to fisheries stock assessment using the FMSP tools • More detailed technical guide from project R8360: • FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 487. Stock assessment for Fishery Management. A framework guide to the use of the FMSP stock assessment tools. • Free downloads available as PDF files • from FMSP website (www.fmsp.org.uk, on project R8468 page), • and from FAO website, oneFish etc.

4. The new international legal regime • 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity • Chapter 17 of UNCED’s Agenda 21 • 1995 UN ‘Fish Stocks Agreement’ • 1995 FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries • 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) • Require management planning, precautionary approach etc

5. Status of 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement (as at 16 Sep 2005)

6. The ‘Managers Guide’ - Table of Contents • Preface, Introduction… • Phase I. Preparing to write your management plan – Where are you now? • Stages 1 – 4 • Phase II. Developing the management plan – Where do you want to be? • Stages 5 – 8 • Phase III. Developing the management plan – How are you going to get there? • Stages 9 – 11 • Phase IV. Planning to implement, evaluate and review the management plan - • How will you know you are there? Stage 12 – 14 • Annex 1. Glossary of terms • Annex 2. Links to useful internet sites • Annex 3. Example management plans for different goals and objectives.

7. Phases in the management planning process

8. Phases and stages in developing a management plan • (Managers Guide – • Table 1)

9. Manage-ment planning as a cyclic process

10. Required flows of information between managers and fishery scientists • (Managers Guide • Table 2)

11. What is a management plan? • In simple terms, a document that: • Analyzes the current situation in a fishery; • Sets out some principles that should be followed in management; • Details goals and objectives for the fishery; • Says how they are to be achieved; and • Says how they are to be monitored. • To monitor progress, objectives must be expressed in quantitative terms • To achieve sustainable fisheries, the plan must have a base in stock assessment

12. Summary of the management plan – the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ Phase III How are you going to get there? Phase II Where do you want to be? How to quantify the goals and objectives How to achieve the goals and objectives

13. Phase I. Preparing to write your management plan – Where are you now? • Stage 1. Define the fishery. What is the fishery you are writing the management plan for? • Stage 2. Stakeholder analysis. How are you going to involve the stakeholders? • Stage 3. What is your fishery like now? Situation analysis. • Stage 4. What is your ‘management approach’?

14. Stage 1. Define the fishery • Decide on: • • the species or type of fish; • • the area of water or seabed; • • the seasonality of fishing; • • the method of fishing and class of boats; and • • the people involved in the fishery. • And the level of ecological complexity: • (a) Single species management • (b) Multi species management • (c) Ecosystem management

15. Stage 2. Stakeholder analysis • Describe stakeholder numbers, and their importance and influence • Decide approach for involving stakeholders in plan development (co-management). Effective participation is critically important. • For guidance on stakeholder analyses, see Adaptive Learning Guidelines produced by FMSP Project R8292 (see www.adaptivelearning.info) and also in Tool 5 of the ParFish Guidelines.

16. Stage 3. Situation analysis – What is your fishery like now? • Consider each ‘dimension’ of the fishery: • Biological • Ecological • Social • Economic • Governance and others? • For each dimension, describe: • the current situation and ‘how it works’; • how the situation is changing – the trends over time • Identify current problems and key management questions • E.g. using ‘Pressure-State-Response’ or SWOT frameworks

17. Stage 4. Management ‘approach’ • Two possible approaches to dealing with uncertainty: • The precautionary approach says ‘let’s be careful’. • Now required by UN Fish Stocks Agreement. • The adaptive approach uses planned experiments to reduce uncertainty by ‘learning from experience’. • Both approaches can be used together • Management plan should be proactive more than reactive

18. Phase II. Developing the management plan – Where do you want to be? • Stage 5. Overall purpose of your plan • Stage 6. What are your goals? • Stage 7. Developing your objectives • Stage 8. Setting management standards – indicators and reference points

19. Stage 5. Define the Purpose of the Plan • A statement that summarises and combines all of the goals of the fishery into one single sentence. • May be proactive, simply based on the stakeholder desires for the fishery, or also reactive if responding to some key perceived problems. • Will usually emphasise ‘sustainable development’.

20. e.g. Stage 6. Setting the goals • Define one or more goals for each dimension of the fishery – biological, ecological, social, economic etc • In an ideal world, we would like to maximise each of these goals (or minimise in some cases, such as bycatch)

21. e.g. Stage 7. Setting the Objectives • Objectives are used to clarify the goals in quantitative terms, and to define the priorities between them • Should be ‘SMART’ and may follow the format: • a verb – an indicator – a relation – and a reference point • To maintain… • the ribbon fish stock… • at all times above… • 50% of its mean unexploited level

22. Prioritising the objectives Constraint added here

23. Stage 8. Setting Management Standards – Indicators and Reference Points • Use indicators and reference points to help define the objectives • ‘Indicators’ show where you are at the moment, or where you might be in future • ‘Reference Points’ show where you would like to be. • Indicators and ‘RP’s should be used in combination to express the objectives in ways that can be measured in quantitative fisheries assessments.

24. Indicators • Key biological indicators fall into three categories: • The catch of fish (C) • The size of the fish stock (the ‘biomass’, B) • The amount of fishing (the ‘pressure’ on the stock, F) • In the short term, these are directly related to each other as ….. C = F x B

25. Long term (equilibrium) relationships between Catch, Effort and Stock size Indicators(not directly related!) Catch Catch Stock size (biomass) Fishing effort Catch per unit effort (CPUE) or Stock size (biomass) Fishing effort

26. e.g. Reference points • Give the point to aim at (target) or to avoid (limit) for each indicator and objective • Can estimate using stock assessment tools (e.g. FMSY, F0.1) (or set as arbitrary, but agreed values, e.g. C=450mt) • Management advice is provided by comparing current values of indicators with the reference points, e.g.: • If Fnow > FMSY ‘Over-fishing’ • If Fnow > F0.1 Potential over-fishing • If Fnow < F2/3 MSY Assumed to be sustainable

27. Risk of alternative reference points Maximum Catch at FMSY Fcrash riskier Point at which species becomes extinct Size of Catch Amount of Fishing

28. Limit RP - avoid danger zone below here • Indicator X Using reference points as targets or limits(defining the objectives and control rules) • Target RP - aim here, slightly above or below both OK • Indicator X E.g. Catch rate E.g. spawning stock size

29. And ‘precautionary’ reference points... • Limit • RP • Precautionary • RP Take action at the Precautionary RP to avoid the risk of getting to the Limit RP • Indicator X

30. Adding the Indicators and RPs to our example…

31. Phase III. Developing the management plan – How are you going to get there? • Stage 9. Action – Management measures • Stage 10. Decision control rules • Stage 11. Finding the resources for your management plan

32. Stage 9. Management measures • Input controls (fishing effort restrictions) • Output controls (catch limits) • Technical measures (size limits, closed seasons, closed areas etc) • Input and output controls often vary between years, depending on the harvesting strategy and the state of the stock (as measured by the indicators) • Technical measures control where, when and how fish are caught, and are usually fixed, or only updated every few years based on long-term assessments

33. e.g. Stage 10. Decision control rules • Decision control rules define which measures or levels of controls will be used depending on the state of the fishery (as measured by the position of the indicators relative to the reference points). • % of immature Management measures • fish in the catch • ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ • 20% or less Management measure is working • Up to 30% Introduce a mesh size limit of X cm • 30 - 40%% Increase the mesh size limit to X+5 cm • More than 40% Introduce a closed area or closed season to protect the nursery grounds or the seasons in which juvenile fish are caught

34. Decision control rules for setting level of fishing effort – a simple ‘on-off’ example FMSY Fishing mortality rate to be allowed next year If Bnow < BMSY, no fishing allowed next year (danger zone) If Bnow > BMSY, fishing allowed at rate of FMSY next year BMSY Stock size this year

35. And a more precautionary ‘sliding scale’ example If Blim < Bnow < Bpa, fishing allowed next year at a rate below Fpa, as set by the sliding scale Flim Fpa If Bnow < Blim, no fishing allowed next year (danger zone) If Bnow > Bpa, fishing allowed at rate of Fpa next year Fishing mortality rate to be allowed next year Blim Bpa Stock size this year

36. Allowing for uncertainty and risk in the RPs Low risk Bpa at ~90th percentile of Blim distribution Blim (BMSY) Bpa (%ileBMSY)

37. … and for a higher risk threshold Higher risk Bpa at ~75th percentile of Blim distribution Blim (BMSY) Bpa (%ileBMSY)

38. Completing our example Management Plan summary…

39. Stage 11. Finding the resources for the plan • • Budget : Have you got enough money? • • Staff : Have you got enough staff – in the right places and with the right skills and qualifications? • • Facilities : Have you got the right technical resources and equipment? • • Systems : Have you got the right management structure and systems in place? • Note you would need to have thought about this before now!

40. Phase IV. Planning to implement, evaluate and review the management plan – How will you know you are there? • Stage 12. Planning for implementation • Stage 13. Planning to monitor your plan! • Stage 14. Planning the review process

41. Stage 12. Implementation of the plan • Publish the plan and consult with stakeholders (again) • Develop detailed action plans with specific tasks: • Who should do each task • When should it be done by • Who should check it has been done, etc • See e.g. in Table 12 of Manager’s Guide

42. Stage 13. Planning to monitor the plan! • Monitoring the indicators provides feedback on the state of the fishery for management by ‘decision control rules’ (see next slide) Also monitoring other factors may help to explain the results observed

43. Fpa Flim 1990 1991 TARGET ZONE 1992 OVERFISHING 1993 2000 1994 Bpa 1999 1995 BUFFER ZONE Blim 1996 1998 1997 HIGH RISK ZONE Stock size (biomass) OVERFISHED Fishing mortality rate Monitoring fishery indicators against limit and precautionary reference points • The precautionary plot used by ICES (North Atlantic) • Note axes reversed • X-axis: fishing • Y-axis: stock size

44. Stage 14. Reviewing the plan • Monitor the fishery and adjust input/output controls or other management measures as required say every 1-2 years • Review and update the plan say every 3-5 years, or when circumstances or policy priorities change

45. Adaptive management Capacity (Management) Carrying Capacity Decision control rules Ecosystem Management FMSP Goals Indicator Input / output controls Limit reference point Livelihood Management measures Management plan Management standards Mortality rates Objectives Precautionary approach Precautionary reference point Prioritisation (of objectives) Reference point Risk Stakeholder Stock Assessment (SA) Stock assessment tools (SA tools) Strategic stock assessments Tactical stock assessments Target reference point Technical reference points Uncertainty Unit stock Annex 1. Glossary of terms used

46. Annex 2. Example management plans

47. Stock assessment process Data/Inputs Intermediate parameters Indicators Reference points Management advice in terms of risk, allowing for uncertainty Chapters 3 and 4 and Parts 2 and 3 For more details see other guidebook (FAO Fish. Tech. Paper 487) • The management context • The legal regime • Domestic laws • International agreements • Management approach to uncertainty • Precautionary or adaptive management? Or both? • Management scope • Single or multi-species? • Ecosystem approach? • Property rights • Use rights? • Control rights? • Stakeholder roles in management • State or community control? • Co-management? • Fishery scale • Industrial or artisanal? • Economically important? • Management capacity • Technical skills, staff, funds? • Sections 1.1 and 2.1 – 2.4 • Fishery Policy • Define management intentions • Policy goals and operational objectives (biological, ecological, economic, social, other sectors) • Section 2.5.1 • Management process • Fishery Management Plan • Define management standards • For each operational objective: • Conceptual reference points • (target, limit, precautionary) • Indicators • Technical reference points • Set management measures • Decision control rules defined by • reference points and harvesting strategy • Management strategy, comprising • one or more control measures • (inputs; outputs; technical, ecological etc) • Monitoring Control and Surveillance • Sections 2.5.2 – 2.5.5