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An interdisciplinary team of academics and representatives of fishing fleets and government collaborated to study the emerging requirements for sustainability in Canada's fisheries. Fisheries assessment and management has focused on biological productivity with insufficient consideration of social (including cultural), economic, and institutional (governance) aspects. Further, there has been little discussion or formal evaluation of the effectiveness of fisheries management. The team of over 50 people (i) identified a comprehensive set of management objectives for a sustainable fishery system based on Canadian policy statements, (ii) combined objectives into an operational framework with relevant performance indicators for use in management planning, and (iii) undertook case studies that investigated some social, economic, and governance aspects in greater detail. The resulting framework extends the suite of widely accepted ecological aspects (productivity and trophic structure, biodiversity, and habitat-ecosystem integrity) to include comparable economic (viability and prosperity, sustainable livelihoods, distribution of access and benefits, regional-community benefits), social (health and well-being, sustainable communities, ethical fisheries), and institutional (legal obligations, good governance structure, effective decision-making) aspects of sustainability. This work provides a practical framework for implementation of a comprehensive approach to sustainability in Canadian fisheries. The project also demonstrates the value of co-construction of collaborative research and co-production of knowledge that combines and builds on the strengths of academics, industry, and government. Une equipe interdisciplinaire d'universitaires et de representants gouvernementaux et de flottes de peche a collabore a l'etude des nouvelles exigences en matiere de perennite des ressources halieutiques canadiennes. L'evaluation et la gestion de ces ressources ont mis l'accent sur la productivite biologique en ne tenant pas suffisamment compte d'aspects sociaux (y compris des aspects culturels), economiques et institutionnels (de gouvernance). L'efficacite de la gestion des peches a en outre fait l'objet de tres peu de discussions ou d'evaluations formelles. L'equipe composee de plus de 50 membres a (i) cerne un ensemble exhaustif d'objectifs de gestion pour un systeme de peches perenne reposant sur des enonces de principes canadiens, (ii) regroupe ces objectifs en un cadre operationnel comptant des indicateurs de rendement pertinents a utiliser dans la planification de la gestion et (iii) realise des etudes de cas pour examiner plus en detail certains aspects sociaux, economiques et de gouvernance. Le cadre en decoulant elargit l'ensemble des aspects ecologiques (productivite et structure trophique, biodiversite et integrite des habitats et ecosystemes) largement acceptes pour y inclure des aspects economiques (viabilite et prosperite, moyens de subsistance durables, repartition de l'acces et des benefices, avantages pour les regions-collectivites), sociaux (sante et bien-etre, collectivites durables, peches ethiques) et institutionnels (obligations legales, structure de bonne gouvernance, processus decisionnel efficace) comparables de la perennite. Ces travaux fournissent un cadre pratique pour la mise en oeuvre d'une approche integree visant la perennite des ressources halieutiques canadiennes. Le projet demontre egalement la valeur de la construction collective de recherches collaboratives et de la production collective de connaissances qui mettent en commun les forces des universitaires, de l'industrie et des gouvernements. [Traduit par la Redaction], Introduction Canada's legislation and international commitments require attention to ecological, social (including cultural), economic, and institutional (governance) aspects of fisheries. The Federal Sustainable Development Strategy (ECCC 2016), which, along with [...]

This paper aims to provide advice on rebuilding Outside Yelloweye Rockfish (OYE) using a combination of stakeholder-manager-science consultations and closed-loop simulation modelling to test performance of a set of candidate management procedures (MPs) against specific quantitative objectives. The overall approach aims to expose the ecological and fishery consequences of specific analytical (e.g., data collection, assessment methods) and management choices (e.g., harvest control rules, target fishing mortality rates) for Yelloweye rebuilding. The key components of this work are: (i) development of two-stock hierarchical agestructured operating models for OYE that represent a range of hypotheses about natural mortality and exploitation history, (ii) testing MPs comprised of monitoring data, assessments, and harvest control rules (HCR) used to implement rebuilding policies, and (iii) evaluating performance measures that are used in determining the expected conservation performance of alternative MPs relative to stated rebuilding objectives. Alternative data scenarios produced a wide range of estimated stock status, as well as biological and management parameters, from which 4 representative operating models (OMs) (using a 1960 or 1918 start year and alternative catch scenarios) were selected for simulation testing MPs. The 4 OMs ranged in current biomass from approximately 2,600 to 8,200 t in the North (groundfish management areas 5BCDE) and 1,900 to 4,400 t in the South (groundfish management areas 3CD5A). This range is considerably wider than the statistical uncertainty within any particular OM. No single factor clearly explains the range of biomasses because natural mortality, absolute catch levels, and historical recruitments all affect biomass and recruitment estimates either directly or indirectly. The 1960 start year generally has the higher unfished and current biomass, while the lower bound commercial catch scenario leads to the lower unfished and current biomass. None of the 4 OMs indicate that either OYE stock area has been fished to less than 20% of the unfished level or below 40% of BMSY (Biomass at Maximum Sustainable Yield), as inferred in previous assessments. Model estimates of spawning biomass depletion relative to unfished levels range from 29-51% in the North, 21-43% in the South, and 27-48% coastwide. These correspond to 111-185% of BMSY in the North, 75-154% in the South, and 96-173% coastwide. The candidate MPs evaluated include three different assessment methods: i) a catch-at-age (CAA) assessment model, ii) a surplus production (SP) assessment model, and iii) an empirical rule (IDX) using survey index trends. The three assessment methods were used in combination with different harvest control rules or implementation error scenarios to create a set of candidate MPs that were simulation tested for each of the 4 OMs for North and South areas independently. Performance statistics were evaluated using combined outputs across OMs via a 50%-16.67%-16.67%-16.67% weighting scheme. Simulations of MP performance for setting future OYE total allowable catches (TACs) generally showed robust, or potentially robust, performance to a wide range of OM scenarios. The CAA MPs were tuned to achieve a target fishing mortality rate that would provide relatively stable OYE biomass over the projection period and biomass in both the North and South areas. Management procedures based on SP models or survey index trends (IDX) produced a range of increases or stable trends in future OYE biomass. The IDX MPs were tuned to avoid biomass declines in the first 10 years, which produced long-term increases or stable trends in biomass with high inter-annual catch variability. Although the SP models generally led to biomass increases, they did so because of under-estimation biases and often showed erratic patterns in TACs. It is likely that undesirable properties of IDX and SP MPs could be improved via further tuning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been growing international attention in recent years to the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries, Ecologically Sustainable Development, and similar initiatives that demand a comprehensive evaluation of the social, economic, and ecological performance of fisheries. However, the practical integration and application of these aspects continue to present a significant challenge for management. Progress to date has been limited by gaps in governance, objectives, disciplinary breadth, and methods. In this study, we develop an inventory of the methods that have been proposed to be able to incorporate ecological, economic, and social objectives and to provide a more comprehensive evaluation of fisheries and management. Our inventory includes both a description of the range of methods, and an evaluation against a set of criteria related to their utility in an applied, decision support context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]