An evaluation of systems for the integrated assessment of capture fisheries

Integrated fishery assessments are intended to take an integrated and wholistic view of fisheries management, to provide comprehensive systems-based evaluations of the sustainability of individual fisheries and their products. Using guidance derived from decision theory and management science, we develop 18 criteria to evaluate the likely effectiveness of nine integrated fishery assessment systems. The assessment systems do not consistently consider four key criteria: the socio-economic impacts of fisheries, the provision of food security, the local relevance of the assessment to the fishery under assessment, and the independent peer review of assessment outcomes. Other important areas of weakness include the lack of appropriate consultation processes relating to both the design of the assessment system and the outcomes of fishery assessments, and limitations in the quality of data and information used in assessments. Improvements will be needed in these areas across all the systems we evaluated if fishers, consumers, managers and other stakeholders are to be provided with consistently reliable assessment outcomes, and an assurance of the sustainability of capture fisheries.