How can existing fisheries legislation incorporate an ecosystem based approach?
National law and policy mandate EBFM. To date, most progress in this area has been conceptual, focusing on definitions, broad statements of goals and objectives, and compilations of lists of ecosystem indicators. New policies and institutional frameworks are needed to put ecosystem-based management into practice. Moreover, research is required to develop useful performance measures for specific ecological and social indicators, so that they can be implemented directly into decision rules for fisheries management.
