Ecosystem-Based Fishery Management

Ecosystem-based fishery management (EBFM) is a new direction for fishery management, essentially reversing the order of management priorities so that management starts with the ecosystem rather than a target species. EBFM aims to sustain healthy marine ecosystems and the fisheries they support. Pikitch et al . describe the potential benefits of implementation of EBFM that, in their view, far outweigh the difficulties of making the transition from a management system based on maximizing individual species.