Connecting co-management and ecosystem-based fisheries management

Leslie Lab lab alumna Marina Cucuzza, together with her co-advisors Heather Leslie and Joshua Stoll, just published a paper in Marine Policy on the conceptual connections between ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) and fisheries co-management. While EBFM and fisheries co-management are not new ideas, growing interest in both compels reflection on the interplay of these concepts, even though they have traditionally been viewed as disparate approaches. We report on the results of a literature review that explored the extent to which EBFM and fisheries co-management are linked.

In this paper, which was one of the thesis chapters for Marina’s dual degrees in Marine Biology and Marine Policy at the University of Maine, we describe the fundamental drivers, attributes, and desired outcomes commonly used to characterize these management concepts. We also present three examples of how EBFM and co-management are integrated in practice. These examples highlight that these concepts exist on a continuum, with elements of co-management regularly appearing in conventional management regimes and elements of EBFM appearing in fisheries co-management initiatives.

Congratulations to Marina on getting this work out, and on her current position as a 2021 Sea Grant Knauss Fellow and Climate and Fisheries Specialist with NOAA Fisheries’s Office of Science and Technology!