On October 13-15, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) held three successful ‘Ambassador Webinars’ to explain and gather support for the Atlantic bluefin tuna Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) process. Each webinar was offered in either English, French, or Spanish, providing a forum for stakeholders from across the world to have substantive discussion in their native languages. The Bluefin Tuna Ambassadors Program is an initiative that was pioneered by ICCAT’s science body, the Standing Committee on Research and Statistics (SCRS), with the goal of fostering understanding and engagement in the bluefin tuna MSE process ahead of the upcoming Panel 2 meeting on November 12th, the first in a series of dialogue meetings in the lead up to MSE completion next year. In total, over 100 participants attended from a wide range of member states.
As ICCAT gears up to adopt a long-term management procedure (also known as a harvest strategy) for Western and Eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna in 2022, dialogue and education about the development of MSE, a tool that is used to test the effectiveness of candidate management procedures, is critical. The bluefin tuna MSE process has been underway since 2014 and is nearing completion. The successful development and adoption of the bluefin tuna management procedure relies on active engagement from fishery managers and many diverse stakeholders throughout the MSE process. Therefore, a forum for parties to provide feedback and direction and request additional components to be evaluated within the MSE is essential. Each ambassador session began with a detailed presentation summarizing the MSE approach, using some of harveststrategies.org’s MSE communication slide templates, and substantive discussion followed. The chairs of the meetings noted that all participants’ suggestions would be considered as the MSE is finalized.
In addition, there has been a significant effort to familiarize and engage European stakeholders on the harvest strategy process and how an MSE-tested management procedure will affect the future management of Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea bluefin tuna. On July 19, 2021, a joint stakeholder meeting on the bluefin tuna MSE process was held by the South-Western Waters Advisory Council (SWWAC) and the Mediterranean Advisory Council (MEDAC). The meeting was attended by 45 stakeholders and included presentations from leading bluefin tuna scientists and MSE ambassadors. Along with this meeting, both SWWAC and MEDAC have hosted multiple working group meetings in April and October that included discussions on the bluefin tuna MSE. Various questions have been raised about the technicalities of the methodology, uncertainty surrounding the stock assessment, and mixing between the Eastern and Western component of the stock. The joint workshop was an important step by European stakeholders to publicize and disseminate information regarding the BFT MSE and led to a recommendation to the European Commission calling for continued consultation and collaboration as adoption of a full management procedure nears.
Certified tuna fisheries in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) could be suspended without urgent action by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC). That warning was issued by The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) in a July 2021 announcement. Industry stakeholders in the WCPO need the WCPFC to adopt precautionary, science-based harvest strategies to maintain their certifications and meet the MSC’s certifying standards. If these standards are not met by the agreed-upon deadline, 73% of all MSC certified tuna will no longer be able to tout the MSC’s “certified sustainable seafood” ecolabel.
The MSC requires that the WCPFC implement harvest strategies, pre-agreed management frameworks for making fisheries management decisions, for albacore, skipjack, yellowfin, and bigeye tuna stocks by June 2023. The MSC has determined that harvest strategies are the most effective way to control and implement sustainable catch levels. At present moment, it does not appear that the WCPFC is on track on to meet this deadline. And, the WCPFC only has two chances left on its calendar to adopt measures: its annual meetings in December 2021 and 2022.
A unified voice calling on the WCPFC to accelerate the development of harvest strategies will be critical in allowing stakeholders to maintain their certifications and meet the MSC’s conditions. The MSC urges stakeholders to voice to the WCPFC that it must revisit its current harvest strategy workplan at the upcoming 2021 Commission meeting to help fast-track adoption for these tuna stocks in 2022. The holdup for adoption is not due to a lack of progress on the scientific work. In fact, the development of the management strategy evaluation (MSE), a tool that is to used simulate fisheries and test harvest strategies, is significantly advanced and will provide a basis for harvest strategy adoption by 2022.
If industry stakeholders work in hand with their governments and the WCPFC, harvest strategies can be adopted by the close of the 2022 WCPFC Commission Meeting. The question is: will stakeholders and managers heed this warning?
Image details: Introduction to Management Strategy Evaluation Training Course group photo – Credit: ICES, 2021
This week, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) is demonstrating their commitment to harvest strategy capacity building by hosting a training course, titled “Introduction to Management Strategy Evaluation” (MSE). Expert scientists in the field of MSE are instructing the course, notably Drs. José De Oliveira and Simon Fischer of the UK government’s Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) and Dr. Carryn de Moor of the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
The course (held 23-27 August 2021) seeks to educate interested scientists and managers about the ins-and-outs of MSE through conceptual lectures on specific elements of MSE and explorations of practical case studies. Topics include an introduction to operating models, management strategies (also known as harvest strategies or management procedures), uncertainty, risk, and communication of results. In addition to these modules, small group discussions are being held to help participants embed learnings and explore practical examples. Participants are using Excel and FLR, a fisheries library of quantitative tools that uses the coding language R, to navigate course exercises.
Management strategy evaluation is a key tool in the harvest strategy development process. Through MSE, scientists can simulate the workings of a fisheries system and test whether potential harvest strategies can achieve pre-agreed management objectives. Simulating the fishery years into the future by incorporating a breadth of operating models into the MSE framework allows scientists to determine which harvest strategy performs best over a range of potential scenarios, providing the information managers need to choose which harvest strategy to adopt. To this end, a critical element of MSE is transforming results into accessible visualizations to ensure that non-experts can interpret the outcomes of the MSE when selecting a final harvest strategy for adoption. Harveststrategies.org has developed a package of graphical tools to help scientists deliver their results clearly and concisely to managers and stakeholders.
Continued education regarding MSE and other aspects of a harvest strategy is a key ingredient to real-world implementation of the approach. Harvest strategies are a particularly effective form of management because their development incorporates input from managers throughout the entire process. Thus, familiarizing managers and other stakeholders with key concepts, as is being done at this week’s ICES workshop, ensures that all decision-makers can play a role in harvest strategy development. This continued dedication by ICES to harvest strategy and MSE instruction is integral to advancing harvest strategies towards adoption in the Northeast Atlantic and across the globe.
In light of the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, policymakers and fishermen alike were forced to adapt to a different world, both on the water and in the negotiation room. Regardless of this challenge, the work towards the development of harvest strategies in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) has continued with the help of considerable support from The Pacific Community (SPC). To highlight these efforts, Scott et al. published a paper in advance of the 17thRegular Session of the Scientific Committee of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), held August 11-19, 2021. The report detailed the latest in capacity building and engagement to educate managers, scientists, and stakeholders about all aspects of a harvest strategy by the SPC (WCPFC’s science provider), the WCPFC, the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), and member states.
Most recently, SPC led educational workshops for Tuvalu, Solomon Islands, and Palau in an online format due to ongoing travel restrictions stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, R-Shiny training tools that allow users to explore the performance of a variety of harvest strategies have been developed to promote capacity building, including introductions to harvest control rules and performance indicators, as well as more specialized decision-making tools that explore the preliminary results of management strategy evaluation (MSE) frameworks for skipjack and South Pacific albacore. An online course, hosted on the open-source learning management system Moodle, is also currently in production to offer easy access to a training course that is dedicated to harvest strategies. Funding has been provided for these projects by New Zealand.
Also noted in the report, a science-management dialogue (SMD) process has been recommended as way to continue the discussion and push harvest strategy development forward. A SMD would provide a forum for scientists, managers, and other stakeholders to have an iterative exchange on their visions for the fishery, structure of the harvest strategy, and eventually, selection of a final harvest strategy. Along with the activities noted above, the formal creation of a SMD by the WCPFC in 2021 would provide an ideal environment to progress the development of harvest strategies for the many stocks already undergoing MSE testing.
Harveststrategies.org commends the WCPFC, SPC, and New Zealand for their dedication to educate stakeholders about the harvest strategy development process, their transparency in updating interested parties in these ongoing efforts, and their impressive harnessing of technology that has allowed work to continue in this extraordinary time. This commitment to capacity building offers a great model for how both governments and RFMOs should engage their stakeholders to help build comfort with the harvest strategy approach. WCPFC members should utilize these many tools to better understand harvest strategies – both generally and in the context of specific stocks, in order to progress harvest strategy development toward adoption.
This EU-focused factsheet on the benefits of harvest strategies to European scientists, stakeholders, and managers is now available in 1 additional language: Spanish!
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Strategie-di-cattura-gestione-delle-attivita-di-pesca-per-il-XXI-secoloThis EU-focused factsheet on the benefits of harvest strategies to European scientists, stakeholders, and managers is now available in 2 additional languages: French and German! Stay tuned for Portuguese, coming soon.
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Fangstrategien-Fischereibewirtschaftung-fur-das-21.-JahrhundertIn early February, over 300 participants gathered to attended a webinar, co-hosted by WWF and The Pew Charitable Trusts, to discuss the future of Atlantic bluefin tuna management. A variety of sessions were offered on 4 different topics, including science, markets, IUU, and harvest strategies. If you were unable to attend, read the report below for a detailed summary.
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