Abstract

The need to move fisheries management from a single-species to an ecosystem approach is widely recognized. Although both approaches have similar goals, they have fundamentally different scope and philosophy. Traditional single-species management deals with individual species under a “fix it when it breaks” philosophy. Ecosystem management deals with multiple species under a philosophy of preventing fisheries failures by maintaining natural ecosystem structure and function. An essential element of ecosystem management is the establishment of “no-take” marine reserves, areas where extractive activities are prohibited. These areas are needed to better understand ecosystem structure and function and to serve as reference areas for evaluating ecosystem performance and the impacts of fishing and other extractive human activities on the marine ecosystem. Expanded monitoring of populations, habitat, physical factors, and the human dimension is necessary to assess the dynamics, interactions, and performance of key ecosystem components.

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