Distilling the best available information to prioritize habitat actions: The Lake Erie PMA exercise

Session: Great Lakes Fish Habitat Priorities Development, Implementation, and Adaptive Management (2)

Stephen Marklevitz, Ontario Ministry of Natural Reources, Lake Erie Management Unit, [email protected]
Cleyo Harris, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, [email protected]
Jeff Tyson, Great Lakes Fishery Commission, [email protected]

Abstract

In 2016, the Council of Lake Committees (CLC) adopted draft Environmental Principles (EPs) with the premise that “sustainable fisheries can occur if functional habitats are protected or improved through systematic, adaptive, cumulative, and collaborative approaches that accommodate fishery value in decisions to act on manageable anthropogenic stresses.”  The CLC-EPs intention was to aid in prioritization of areas, where focused habitat actions will produce the greatest benefits for Great Lakes fisheries.  In Lake Erie, the development of a systematic and adaptable framework for identifying and prioritizing areas was the responsibility of the Habitat Task Group (HTG) of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission’s Lake Erie Committee. The HTG successfully developed a three-stage approach which used the best available information (ranging from professional opinion to quantitative studies) to define the function habitats used during each life stage (egg, larval, juvenile, adults) of various fish species, then applied fisheries management priorities to systematically prioritize areas where management actions could be applied. This information can now be used to aid in the communication of complex fisheries management priorities and align priorities to broader initiatives with various levels of Great Lakes governance groups including land-use, water quality, community groups, agencies, and committees/commissions.