The Origins of Ecosystem-based Management in the Great Lakes Basin

Session: 12. - History of Great Lakes Fish, Fisheries & Governance: Dr. Henry Regier's Legacy

Amanda Guthrie, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, [email protected]
William Taylor, Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Michigan State University, [email protected]
Andrew Muir, Great Lakes Fishery Commission, [email protected]
Ken Frank, Michigan State University, [email protected]
Henry Regier, U of Toronto, [email protected]

Abstract

Fishery management in the Laurentian Great Lakes has been facilitated by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission (GLFC) as the GLFC has taken a lead role in supporting ecosystem-based management for Great Lakes fisheries. Our objective was to explore how the structure of the GLFC Lake Committee meetings (i.e., annual lake-specific fishery management meetings) and the Salmonid Community on Oligotrophic Lakes (SCOL) workshop influenced fishery management agency views towards ecosystem-based management principles. The GLFC facilitated management agencies to share fisheries management decisions and concerns across jurisdictions at Lake Committee meetings. Salmonid Community on Oligotrophic Lakes was found to influence fishery management agencies to view management through a more comprehensive perspective leading to community and ecosystem assessments. Overall, ecosystem-based management principles were developing in the basin through a fisheries perspective as resource managers moved from a single-species approach to an ecosystem approach. Ecosystem-based management techniques and binational agreements developed due to the facilitation of the GLFC though meetings and SCOL.

1. Keyword
policy making

2. Keyword
ecosystems

3. Keyword
fisheries