Research Document 2019/058

Alberta’s Fisheries Sustainability Assessment: A Guide to Assessing Population Status, and Quantifying Cumulative Effects using the Joe Modelling Technique

By MacPherson, L., Sullivan, M., Reilly, J., and Paul, A.

Abstract

Managing fish and fisheries in Alberta is difficult and getting harder, with fewer fish, more stakeholders, and mounting stressors. These include both direct users of fish (Indigenous peoples, and recreational anglers) and indirect users of fish, such as forestry, municipalities, and agriculture, and their effects on fish populations through habitat changes. Effective communication of necessary trade-offs is fundamental in achieving the goal of long-term sustainability of Alberta’s fish and fisheries.

For effective understanding and management of these complex effects on the status of fish populations, Alberta is adopting the principles of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Code of Conduct of Responsible Fisheries. These include the principles of Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE), as adapted to Alberta’s complex issues of cumulative effects threats on multiple fish stocks. These adaptations have resulted in a transparent, easily communicated system of assessing status and threats. This system is called the Fisheries Sustainability Assessment (FSA) and is a two-part process: 1) Assess Status: current status scaled to a provincial reference condition, and contrast this to desired status, and 2) Assess Threats using simple cumulative effects models (called Joe Modelling): model the hypothesized threats to achieving desired status. From this process, effective mitigation actions can be designed, implemented, and tested.

A novel feature of the Joe Modelling process is its ease of design and communication. Built in workshop settings biologists can, in real time, include almost any stressor or management action the participants suggest. Sources of information can readily include academic knowledge, anecdotal descriptions from experienced stakeholders, and traditional knowledge. The model outputs and simulated trade-offs that alter system capacity are considered as hypotheses, not forecasts. As such, the purpose of the Joe Models can best be viewed as a tool for prioritizing impact hypotheses based on management actions and expected effects (i.e., changes in system capacity).

By combining a standardized population status assessment, and the Joe Modelling threats assessment, Alberta’s Fisheries Sustainability Assessment is a logical, transparent process of determining fishery status and prioritizing mitigation actions. Learning and improvement on fisheries management and fish conservation are the ultimate objectives of this system.

Research Document 2019/058 (PDF, 1,580 KB)

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