MEPS

Marine Ecology Progress Series

MEPS is a leading hybrid research journal on all aspects of marine, coastal and estuarine ecology. Priority is given to outstanding research that advances our ecological understanding.

Online: ISSN 1616-1599

Print: ISSN 0171-8630

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps

Impact Factor2.1 (JCR 2025 release)

Article Acceptance Rate52.2% (2024)

Average Time in Review216 days (2024)

Total Annual Downloads2.769.798 (2025)

Volume contents
Mar Ecol Prog Ser 617-618:341-364 (2019)

Value- and ecosystem-based management approach: the Pacific herring fishery conflict

ABSTRACT: We introduce an innovative value- and ecosystem-based management approach (VEBMA) that exposes resource policy tradeoffs, fosters good governance, and can help to resolve conflicts. We apply VEBMA to the Pacific herring Clupea pallasii fishery in British Columbia, Canada, which is mired in conflict between local and indigenous communities and the fishing industry over the management of herring, a forage fish with significant socioeconomic, ecological, and cultural value. VEBMA integrates an ecosystem-based approach (ecological modelling) with a value-based approach (practical ethics) to examine the ecological viability, economic feasibility, and societal desirability of alternative fishery management scenarios. In the ecosystem-based approach, we applied the Management Strategy Evaluation module within the Ecopath with Ecosim modelling framework to explore scenarios with harvest-control rules specified by various herring fishing mortalities and biomass cutoff thresholds. In the value-based approach, Haida Gwaii community and herring industry participants ranked a set of values and selected preferred scenarios and cutoff thresholds. The modelled ecological impacts and risks and stakeholder preferences of the scenarios are synthesized in a deliberation and decision-support tool, the VEBMA science-policy table. VEBMA aims to facilitate inclusive, transparent, and accountable decision-making among diverse stakeholders, such as local communities, industries, scientists, managers, and policy-makers. It promotes compromise, rather than consensus solutions to resolve ‘wicked’ problems at the science-policy interface.

KEYWORDS

Mimi E. Lam (Corresponding Author)

  • University of Bergen, Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities, 5020 Bergen, Norway
  • University of British Columbia, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Z4
mimi.lam@uib.no

Tony J. Pitcher (Co-author)

  • University of British Columbia, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Z4

Szymon Surma (Co-author)

  • University of British Columbia, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Z4

Jeffrey Scott (Co-author)

  • University of British Columbia, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Z4

Matthias Kaiser (Co-author)

  • University of Bergen, Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities, 5020 Bergen, Norway

April S. J. White (Co-author)

  • Wind Spirit Art, Haida Gwaii, Canada V8A 2K8

Evgeny A. Pakhomov (Co-author)

  • University of British Columbia, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Z4
  • University of British Columbia, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Z4
  • Hakai Institute, Heriot Bay, Canada V0P 1H0

Lawrence M. Ward (Co-author)

  • University of British Columbia, Department of Psychology, Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Z4