Thoughts on the ecology and ethics of balanced harvesting
The ecosystem-based fishery management policy termed balanced harvesting (BH) aims to take a human catch from all sectors of an ecosystem in proportion to their productive capacity. Precise definitions raise a range of semantic and practical problems: for example are BH and selective fishing incompatible? Tony J Pitcher is a Professor at the University of British Columbia, Canada and a visiting Hjort Scholar
Hovedinnhold
Existing and potential methodologies for the quantitative analysis of BH require ecosystem modelling, although practical implementation has less rigorous requirements. Recent considerations and case studies are critiqued. Balanced harvesting examples are compared using a multidisciplinary rapid appraisal technique. The exploitation of forage fish aiming to minimize impacts across the food web are compared to BH as are simple rules for minimizing the impact of fishing. Historical reconstructions of former fisheries and fisheries prosecuted by Indigenous Peoples may provide salient comparisons. In practice, uncertainty can easily swamp differences in performance when fisheries policies are compared. The selection of target species in balanced harvesting is constrained by fishing technology, fishery products, markets, food security, bioeconomic and cultural issues. Published ethical interpretations of balanced harvesting are reviewed, including impeding the recovery of depleted organisms, encouraging harvesting of charismatic species, compromising the mandates of international organizations, and inconsistency with evolutionary theory. Ethical aspects of fisheries are analyzed in relation to balanced harvesting using a rapid appraisal technique. Some suggestions for possible next steps in research on balanced harvesting are presented for scrutiny and collaboration on future developments of these analyses is invited.
Tony J. Pitcher is a Hjort-scholar.