Ecosystem-Based Fishery Management (EBFM)

Ecosystem-based fishery management widens the lens from single-stock targets to the predator-prey links, habitat, and bycatch interactions that shape a fishery, accepting that harvesting one species ripples through the food web. It sets forage-fish reserves to feed predators, accounts for top-down control, and integrates spatial and habitat protection. CCAMLR’s krill management is the textbook case, and NOAA has issued EBFM roadmaps, though full multispecies models remain data-hungry.