Progressing Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management Through MSE: Highlights from the ICES/PICES Small Pelagic Fish Symposium

27 mai 2026

AuthorRebecca Scott
Program Officer, The Ocean Foundation

Earlier this month, Ash Wilson (The Pew Charitable Trusts) and I co-convened a workshop titled ‘Operationalizing Ecosystem-Based Management of Forage Species using Management Strategy Evaluation.’ The workshop was part of the program at the Small Pelagic Fish International Symposium hosted by ICES, PICES, and FAO in La Paz, Mexico. Held on May 4, 2026, the half-day workshop brought together 25 participants working in management strategy evaluation (MSE), ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM), and the intersection between the two. Through expert presentations and breakout discussions, workshop attendees explored how MSE-tested management procedures, also known as harvest strategies, can help advance ecosystem-based management approaches for forage fisheries under increasing environmental uncertainty.

Why MSE for forage species?

Forage species (e.g., sardine, anchovy, herring) play a critical role in the marine food web, linking low and high trophic levels by providing a key prey resource for predators such as marine mammals, seabirds, and large commercially important fishes (e.g., tunas, billfishes). However, their abundance in space and time is highly dependent on changing environmental conditions. Effective management of these species therefore poses a challenge, as patterns in their recruitment and biomass are driven by multiple interacting ecosystem and environmental factors, the individual impacts of which can be difficult to tease apart and simulate. Additionally, perceived relationships between the environment and forage fish population dynamics often break down over time, leading to high uncertainty in estimating recruitment and natural mortality using traditional stock assessment methods.

MSE is an ideal tool for addressing these management challenges for forage species, as MSE frameworks can be built to capture a wide range of possible ecosystem conditions and uncertainties, allowing managers to identify management procedures that remain robust under changing environmental and ecosystem conditions.

Showcasing emerging tools and real-world applications

In six presentations delivered by experts in the field, the workshop showcased existing research initiatives, case studies, and emerging tools designed to incorporate ecosystem considerations into fisheries management through MSE.

• Dr. Chris Lynam (ICES) presented on the ICES experience with operationalizing ecosystem-based management for forage species including the development of the ICES Framework for Ecosystem-Informed Science and Advice (FEISA), which aims to explicitly incorporate environmental and ecological information into advice frameworks.
• Dr. Carryn de Moor (University of Cape Town) provided a synthesis of methodologies for explicitly incorporating EBFM into MSE, with a focus on small pelagics. Approaches include using ecosystem models as MSE operating models, unidirectionally coupling operating models with ecosystem considerations, considering predation mortality when defining natural mortality, the use of ecosystem-related thresholds in MSE performance indicators, incorporating ecosystem considerations in the parameterization of harvest control rules (HCRs), and accounting for ecosystem effects in reference points.
• Dr. Tom Carruthers (Blue Matter Science) showcased multiple emerging MSE tools relevant to the intersection of EBFM and MSE for forage species, including software packages within the openMSE modeling framework to test climate-resilient management procedures (‘ClimateTest’), conduct multi-stock MSE (‘EcoTest’), and implement MSE for short-lived species (‘slMSE’).

Three case study presentations highlighted regional examples of ecosystem considerations in MSE.

• Dr. Isaac Kaplan (NOAA NWFSC) discussed three research projects from the Future Seas project in the California Current system. This included a single-species MSE for Pacific sardine (Sardinops sagax) that assessed the robustness of HCRs that are responsive to environmentally-driven changes in recruitment, an ecosystem MSE using an Atlantis ecosystem model as the operating model and multispecies HCRs that consider predator-prey relationships, and an MSE framework for sardine that used a suite of process-based models (including of distribution, recruitment, and predation mortality) to inform operating models.
• Dr. Ricardo Oliveros-Ramos (UMR MARBEC) showcased how environmental variability has been integrated into MSE frameworks in the Eastern South Pacific Ocean through the design of an MSE for jumbo squid (Dosidicus gigas). This research highlighted the need for tools capable of realistically reproducing short-term environmental variability, such as El Niño and La Niña events, particularly as they relate to the productivity and distribution of short-lived species.
• Jaclyn Cleary (Fisheries and Oceans Canada) presented on knowledge co-production in the Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) MSE process, where Indigenous knowledge of key predators was utilized to develop consumption rates for Pacific herring predators. These were used to drive historical patterns of natural mortality in an operating model and allowed for validation of a density-dependent mortality approach used for operating model projections. The talk highlighted the benefits of engagement and capacity building with First Nations and other stakeholders early in the MSE process.

Regional discussions reveal shared challenges

Following the presentations, participants broke into regional discussion groups, where they discussed region- and stock-specific considerations for operationalizing EBFM, including identifying key drivers of variability, potential ecosystem indicators, critical data needs (including for building MSE frameworks), and the remaining hurdles to bridge science and management. Example fisheries discussed included Pacific sardine in the California Current, Gulf of Mexico menhaden, Bay of Biscay anchovy, Iberian sardine, and North Sea and Central Baltic herring. Across stocks, workshop participants repeatedly identified the need for a better mechanistic understanding of links between environmental variability and fish population dynamics in order to successfully incorporate ecosystem considerations into management. Similar ecosystem drivers, including upwelling and predation mortality, were identified across systems. At the same time, possible or existing approaches for incorporating ecosystem information into management (including MSE frameworks) varied among regions and species, reflecting differences in available data, ecosystem dynamics, and institutional contexts.

Looking ahead

A summary of the workshop, including a synthesis of breakout group findings on common challenges, shared ecosystem drivers, feasible indicators for MSE frameworks, and opportunities for collaboration across regions and forage stocks, will be published in the July 2026 edition of PICES Press. Additionally, key takeaways from presentations and discussions will be incorporated into a joint paper with other Symposium convenors and attendees, to be submitted to a special issue of a peer-reviewed journal.

Overall, the workshop highlighted the growing momentum and available tools for using MSE to operationalize ecosystem-based fisheries management for forage species and other stocks. As climate change and increasing environmental variability continue to impact ecosystems and fishery dynamics, implementing ecosystem-informed management approaches including MSE will become even more important for supporting sustainable fisheries.