Abstract

Large pelagic fish resources, such as tuna and wahoo, are usually migratory and are often not confined to specific sea areas such as the Caribbean Large Marine Ecosystem (CLME), but are shared with and utilised by stakeholders outside the CLME. Implementing an ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF) for these resources therefore requires coordination of policy and management, from local through regional to international levels of governance in order to integrate multiple stakeholder objectives and achieve compatibility across all sea areas relevant to these stocks. In this paper, we propose that a principal EAF authority for large pelagic fish resources be assigned at each recognised level of governance (local, national, regional, international) to serve a central coordinating role for networking and reporting at that level. A management partnership arrangement involving the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and Caribbean regional fisheries organisations (RFOs) may provide the best option for a principal EAF authority at the Caribbean level. As with organisations charged with conventional fisheries management, each principal EAF authority will be expected to pursue good governance and management practices while nurturing the required inter-sectoral integration and compatibility over the entire sea areas and governance boundaries concerned. Capacity building, public education and the cost of implementing an agreed EAF for large pelagic fish resources also warrant special attention.

Introduction

An ecosystem approach to fisheries strives to manage fishery resources by managing and conserving the whole ecosystem concerned. EAF retains a central focus on human well-being but links this to the well-being of the ecosystem that provides for a strengthened approach to a sustainable development of fisheries (Garcia et al. 2003; FAO 2003). Recognised as a critical component of the management of large marine ecosystems (LMEs), EAF is prescribed by a number of legal instruments (Wang 2004).

Applying an EAF to large pelagic fish presents many challenges. Large pelagic fish resources include a range of species from sharks, large tunas and billfishes that can migrate long distances over entire oceans to smaller tunas, mackerels and dolphinfish that migrate over smaller sea areas. All of these species, however, are top predators of the ocean environment, and so their health and survival are closely linked to the health and survival of their prey species.