Aquaculture-aided Fisheries Enhancement, Conservation, and Restoration: Towards Responsible Development and Effective Reform

Aquaculture-aided fisheries enhancement, conservation, and restoration initiatives have long been pursued worldwide and are receiving renewed attention in the context of adaptation to global environmental change. Experience with such initiatives shows that, while some make important contributions to fisheries management and conservation, others are ineffective, damaging, or have not been evaluated, yet continue regardless. Therefore, careful and responsible approaches to developing new and reforming existing initiatives are needed, balancing opportunity and need with appropriate caution, rigorous evaluation, and adaptive management. Rapid advances in scientific understanding and availability of powerful planning and assessment tools put such approaches within reach, but their practical implementation has proved extraordinarily challenging. This roundtable brings together a diverse international panel of aquaculture, fisheries management, conservation, and governance scientists and practitioners to grapple with the question: How can we work towards more effective implementation of responsible approaches to aquaculture-aided fisheries enhancement, conservation, and restoration?

Organizers:

Kai Lorenzen, University of Florida, [email protected]
Seth White, Oregon Hatchery Research Center/Oregon State University
Hannah Harrison, Dalhousie University
Neil Loneragan, Murdoch University

Advancing The Contribution Of Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures To Ocean Conservation And Local Communities In Fisheries

The need for integrating effective conservation measures into more holistic ocean management strategies has never been greater, making marine conservation critical to sustainable development efforts. Other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) are taking center stage as countries reconcile the goals agreed to in international agreements. Many area-based fisheries management measures already meet sustainability, ecosystem-based management and marine conservation goals and are well poised to meet the OECM criteria. The workshop objective is to identify challenges, best practices, opportunities, approaches, innovations and solutions related to the application of the OECM criteria in fisheries. The workshop will improve participants’ understanding of the criteria and allow them to use existing case studies to conduct mock OECM evaluations. The discussions will also contribute ideas and content to the Food and Agriculture Organization’s ongoing efforts to produce guidance focused on the identification, establishment, and management of OECMs in fisheries that complements existing non-sectoral guidance.

Organizers:

Amber Himes-Cornell, FAO, [email protected]
Kristin Hoelting, FAO

A Synoptic Framework for Assessing Synergies and Tradeoffs between Decarbonization Solutions and Fishery Ecosystems

This session invites participants to apply their knowledge to practical problem solving by contributing to a resource that will guide decarbonization planners and policy makers in harmonizing emissions-reductions objectives with the objective of supporting fishery ecosystems and the services that depend on them. Participants will review and assemble input collected through an expert elicitation exercise to develop a synoptic framework that qualitatively assesses the known and potential tradeoffs and synergies between a wide range of decarbonization solutions (e.g., emissions reductions in the energy, transportation, agriculture, and industrial sectors, as well as land-based, ocean-based, and engineering-based carbon removal practices) and the ocean, estuarine, and freshwater ecosystems that support fishery-related ecosystem services (food provision, livelihood, traditional cultural value, and recreation).

Organizers:

Sarah Schumann, Shining Sea Fisheries Consulting, [email protected]
Patrick Sullivan, Cornell University
Jynessa Dutka-Gianelli, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Linda Behnken, Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association
Alison Bates, Colby College