Scotian shelf (Eastern) - Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries

In 1997 Canada became the first country in the world to adopt comprehensive legislation for oceans management. Canada’s Oceans Act (Oceans Act. 1996) paved the way for the development of a national oceans strategy to guide the management of Canada’s aquatic ecosystems and provide the overall strategic framework for Canada’s oceans-related programs and policies. Canada’s Oceans Strategy goes beyond single species management and its central governance mechanism is applied via the development and implementation of Integrated Management (IM) plans. Integrated Management plans include ecosystem-based management, sustainable development, the precautionary approach, conservation, shared responsibility, flexibility and inclusiveness. They directly involve stakeholders in the planning process, which is intended to be flexible and transparent. The three objectives of IM are (1) Understanding and protecting the marine environment; (2) Supporting sustainable economic opportunities; and (3) effective oceans governance. In Canada, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has the overall mandate for integrated ocean management and the responsibilities for science, fish and fish habitat management. DFO has identified five large oceans management areas (LOMAs) with associated pilot integrated management initiatives. Three of these are situated in the Northwest Atlantic. The eastern Scotian Shelf Integrated Management initiative (ESSIM, Rutherford et al. 2005; http://www.mar.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/oceans/e/essim/essim-intro-e.html) was the first plan to be announced in 1998.

The ESSIM strategic-level plan provides long-term direction and commitment for integrated, ecosystem-based and adaptive management of marine activities (DFO 2007a). The Plan contains a comprehensive set of goals, objectives and strategies for collaborative governance and integrated management, sustainable human use, and healthy ecosystems. It has been shaped and accepted by ocean stakeholders, supported and endorsed by government, and is Canada’s first integrated ocean management plan under the Oceans Act. It uses an objective-based management approach with associated indicators. There are three overarching objectives in the plan, under which all other objectives are nested: Collaborative Governance and Integrated Management, Sustainable Human Use and Healthy Ecosystems (DFO 2007a). The latter goal is organized in the three interconnected themes of biodiversity, productivity and marine environmental quality, each containing a set of more specific elements and supporting objectives.

Several initiatives have contributed to the scientific development of IM and to ecosystem-based management. As part of the National IM planning process in each LOMA, ecosystem overview and assessment reports were produced, summarizing and synthesizing known knowledge about the ecosystem and providing an assessment of that system (eg., DFO 2003a, Zwanenburg et al., 2006). In parallel, a set of criteria were developed and used to identify ecologically and biologically significant areas (DFO 2004), degraded areas, ecologically and biologically significant species and depleted species (DFO 2007b). These are used to help define ecosystem objectives, indicators and, in the cases of EBSAs, Marine Protected Areas (see above).

In Canada plans are underway for a network of MPAs to increase the ecological effectiveness and connectivity between individual marine protected areas. Currently, there is one MPA in the eastern Scotian Shelf, the Gully (a deep channel on the edge of the Scotian Shelf) although another is soon to be announced. Understanding and linking among MPAs is going to be a critical issue as species ranges may shift with climate change such that some species may move out of areas established for their protection (Burns et al. 2003, Cheung et al. 2009).