Ecosystem-based management of coral reef fisheries aims to sustainably deliver a diverse portfolio of ecosystem services. This goal can be undermined if the ecosystem shifts into a different state, with altered ecosystem functions and benefits to people. If levels of drivers that cause transitions between states are identified, management measures could be aimed at maintaining drivers below these levels to avoid ecosystem shifts.
Environmental Defense Fund's Sustainable Fisheries Toolkit is the leading online resource for science-based information on rights-based management. No single organization in the world has invested more time or resources on rights-based management or education. Use the filters below to explore EDF’s fishery tools, manuals, case studies, academic studies, reports, and activities.
Visit Google Scholar’s page on RBM for additional studies.
-
-
Bottom trawling (the act of dragging a net across the sea floor to maximize a catch of fish) might be lucrative in the short term, but in the long term causes massive ecological damage to sea floor habitats and kills organisms. Bottom trawling has been measured to decrease biodiversity by up to 50%. However, while ecologists and environmentalists see this as a greedy way to get more fish, fishers see this as a logical response to bad fisheries management. If fishermen are not given an individual share of the catch, they will strive to get as much fish as they can in the most efficient way-ergo bottom trawling. Fishermen don’t need to be punished, they need to be secured and reformed. In 2005, no-trawl zones were set up along the Western coast of the US. About 3.8 million acres fell into this zone, where only hooks, traps, and other fishing methods were allowed. As a result, the quality of catch increased, sensitive habitats were spared, and the fishermen began working together to try to preserve the fishery instead of working against each other to race for the most fish.
-
A transferable effort share program is a fishery management approach that sets an effort cap (or limit on the use of fishing inputs), allocates secure shares to individuals and allows trading.
-
Fisheries can cause major impacts on ecosystems, but the goal of managing them sustainably requires more and different information than we now have. The complexity of scientific monitoring, the statistical power of the monitoring design, and the benefits to consumptive and nonconsumptive uses and values all increase from information-poor to information-rich management. The most significant scientific hurdle comes with incorporation of ecosystem and environmental variability effects.
-
A TURF-reserve is a spatial fishery management approach often used for small-scale fisheries. This tool allows managers helps managers select TURF-reserve designs to meet fishery goals.
-
One of the first IFQ programs to include a variety of design elements to meet key social goals, this program has helped decrease overcapitalization and increase the value of the fishery.
-
Popularized by the Discovery Channel show, The Deadliest Catch, this fishery designed a rights-based management program to improve safety for fishermen, lengthen seasons and support historic fishing communities.
-
A great example of a Cooperative catch share, this program ended the race to fish, drastically reduced bycatch rates, and allows slower and more targeted harvesting by fishermen.
-
Launched as a pilot in 2007, the successful rockfish management program was extended for ten years in 2011 with some key design changes to meet specific goals.
-
This program began after some fishery participants voluntarily organized into an IFQ-like cooperative, which demonstrated the potential benefits of a rights-based management program.
