David D. Chagaris

Ecosystem-based fisheries management is a crucial advancement to address natural and anthropogenic stressors on marine ecosystems. Although there has been a shift toward more holistic management approaches over the past few decades, Fishery Management Councils still face challenges in implementing ecosystem-based strategies. Here, we present a case study on incorporating harmful algal blooms, known as red tides, into U.S. federal fisheries management on the West Florida Shelf. Red tides are first defined as a fishery ecosystem issue by outlining their ecological, economic, and societal impacts on the relevant fisheries. We then review the history of including red tides in the stock assessment process and how management actions have responded to episodic mortality attributed to devastating red tides. Fishery managers have encountered significant challenges when addressing red tides because the root causes are beyond fisheries management jurisdiction. The primary method to account for red tides in fisheries management has been to incorporate extra mortality in stock assessments. While integrating ecosystem information can reduce scientific uncertainty in stock assessments, the setting of catch limits also benefits from such information. Red tide-related management actions have been reactive, and frequent reversals of catch advice highlight the complexity of red tide impacts. The directionality of catch advice for Gulf groupers has been dependent upon additional information such as ecosystem modeling results and stakeholder observations. We offer a review of potential fishery management policy options that include, but are not limited to, the management of fishing mortality. We outline research recommendations to better characterize impacts and inform fisheries management’s response to red tides. Effective ecosystem-based fisheries management necessitates a clear definition of the problem, goals, expectations, metrics to measure progress, and a work plan that includes stakeholder engagement.

Artificial structures deployed in marine environments as reefs are often presumed to increase fish production. However, our literature review found a lack of evidence, with only 12 studies empirically quantifying secondary production at artificial reefs, and only three studies using a control site. We propose the forthcoming large‐scale construction of offshore wind (OSW) energy structures presents a natural experiment to examine the ecological function of artificial reefs, including their effects on fish production. To provide causal inferences of OSW effects, studies must obtain appropriate ‘before’ data, per before‐after‐control‐impact and related designs. This requirement dictates that society must begin planning and collecting data now, prior to OSW deployment. We also highlight that responses beyond fish biomass measures, including life stage specific survival, site fidelity and trophic dynamics, must occur at appropriate spatial and temporal scales to maximise causal inference. By leveraging a timely opportunity and natural experiment with OSW development, the long‐running ‘attraction–production debate’ about artificial reef ecological function may be addressed.

Objective: Offshore wind (OSW) farms are slated for development in the Gulf of America (also known as the Gulf of Mexico), presenting a timely need to understand the potential effects of their construction and operation on marine ecosystems. Methods: To help address this need, we convened a transdisciplinary working group of scientists, managers, and representatives of commercial and recreational fisheries to identify and assess research priorities and recommendations related to the effects of OSW farms on fish and fisheries in the Gulf of America. Results: Here, we share these research priorities for shrimp, reef fishes, coastal migratory pelagics, forage fishes, oceanic pelagic fishes, coastal elasmobranchs, and invasive species. We then detail OSW research needs that are related to oceanographic and ecological processes, and we provide specific recommendations for fisheries management, marine spatial planning, and detection of social and economic effects. Our synthesis highlights three overarching considerations: (1) targeted data collection is needed to disentangle the effects of OSW from those of concurrent natural and anthropogenic stressors, (2) measuring the effects of OSW will require maintaining the integrity of long-term fisheries-independent surveys and augmenting such surveys with comprehensive before-after-control-impact or before-after-gradient research designs, and (3) there are differences in public participation processes for nascent OSW development versus established fisheries management that should be considered to allow meaningful societal participation. Conclusions: Scientists and natural resource managers have a unique opportunity to address these priorities and recommendations, shaping the understanding of the effects of OSW.

In Yellowstone Lake, Wyoming, the largest inland population of nonhybridized Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout Oncorhynchus clarkii bouvieri, hereafter Cutthroat Trout, declined throughout the 2000s because of predation from invasive Lake Trout Salvelinus namaycush, drought, and whirling disease Myxobolus cerebralis. To maintain ecosystem function and conserve Cutthroat Trout, a Lake Trout gill netting suppression program was established in 1995, decreasing Lake Trout abundance and biomass. Yet, the response of Cutthroat Trout to varying Lake Trout suppression levels, collectively with the influence of disease and climate, is unknown. We developed an ecosystem model (calibrated to historical data) to forecast (2020–2050) whether Cutthroat Trout would achieve recovery benchmarks given disease, varying suppression effort, and climate change. Lake Trout suppression influenced Cutthroat Trout recovery; current suppression effort levels resulted in Cutthroat Trout recovering from historical lows in the early 2000s. However, Cutthroat Trout did not achieve conservation benchmarks when incorporating the influence of disease and climate. Therefore, the National Park Service intends to incorporate age-specific abundance, spawner biomass, or both in conservation benchmarks to provide better indication of how management actions and environmental conditions influence Cutthroat Trout. Our results illustrate how complex interactions within an ecosystem must be simultaneously considered to establish and achieve realistic benchmarks for species of conservation concern.