Part 3 deals with fisheries ecosystems in the Wider Caribbean. In Chapter 10, reef resources are tackled by Appeldoorn, who perceives a “fog of fisheries and ecosystem-based management”. His lucid treatment of the issues helps to clear away some of the confusion while not denying that these fisheries are some of the most complex to manage for multi-objective sustainability among competing resource users. Ehrhardt, Puga and Butler deal specifically with the Caribbean spiny lobster in Chapter 11. It is one of the region's most valuable commercial fisheries resources, and the other is queen conch, discussed in Chapter 12 by Appeldoorn, Castro, Glazer and Prada. Although these can be single-species fisheries, the authors stress the critical importance of habitat and non-fishery interactions that demand an ecosystem approach.

Deepwater snapper fisheries, discussed by Heileman in Chapter 13, are both valuable and vulnerable. The author notes that these resources are easily overfished if targeted intensively, especially at very vulnerable stages in their life histories such as during spawning aggregations or when they become collateral damage through habitat destruction of nursery grounds such as mangroves and seagrass beds. Singh-Renton, Die and Mohammed address large pelagic fish resources and the international complexity of their management in Chapter 14. Although some may argue that the ecological complexity is less than for more coastal species, the migration of these fishes through multiple jurisdictions adds considerable legal-institutional complexity to their management.

Phillips, Chakalall and Romahlo write about management of the shrimp and groundfish fisheries of the North Brazil Shelf LME in Chapter 15. These are continental shelf artisanal and industrial fisheries that span several marine jurisdictions and make a significant contribution to international trade. Although the ecosystem issues pertaining to the flyingfish fisheries of the Eastern Caribbean (Chapter 16) are somewhat different, as explained by Fanning and Oxenford, they are both similar in requiring sub-regional approaches to their management based on ecosystem principles.

The final chapter (17) on coastal lagoons and estuaries by Yáñez-Arancibia, Day, Knoppers and Jiménez tackles the land-sea interface characterised by problems and productivity.