MANAGEMENT INDICATORS:
POSITIVE STEPS IN 2019
IFMP and rebuilding plans are core elements of modern fisheries management. These plans provide conservation, ecosystem, socio-economic and cultural objectives for the stock; an assessment of its current status; and the actions required to keep or return the stock to healthy levels. Nearly 90 per cent of all stocks are now included in an IFMP, a significant increase since Oceana Canada’s 2017 Fishery Audit. Progress on developing rebuilding plans remains slow, however: currently, there are plans in place for just over 18 per cent of critically depleted stocks.
Stocks included in Integrated Fisheries Management Plans
Purpose: Provide a planning framework for the conservation and sustainable use of Canada’s fisheries, clearly outlining how a fishery will be managed over a given period
2017
2018
2019
GOVERNMENT COMMITMENT:
DFO has committed to develop and release IFMPs for all major stocks.
Stocks in the critical zone with rebuilding plans in place
Purpose: Provide a planning framework to rebuild stocks out of the critical zone. Serious harm is occurring to stocks in the critical zone, and conservation actions are crucial.
2017
2018
2019
Work Plan Deliverables
At Oceana Canada’s 2016 symposium, Rebuilding Abundance: Restoring Canada’s Fisheries for Long-Term Prosperity, DFO committed to improving its transparency. Since then, progress has been made toward making information open and accessible. DFO’s Sustainability Survey for Fisheries was released, providing more detailed information about stock results, and three annual work plans were produced, with the resulting deliverables publicly available.
DFO work plan deliverables completed
Purpose: Achieve the departmental priorities set out each year, including developing LRPs, IFMPs and rebuilding plans.
Completed
Ongoing as expected
Delayed
Suspended
IF COMMITMENTS WERE MET, WE WOULD SEE CHANGE
If all deliverables outlined in all three fiscal-year work plans (2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20) were completed, here’s how Canada’s fisheries would benefit:
Stocks with LRPs:
currently
would be
Stocks with USRs:
currently
would be
Stocks included in IFMPs:
currently
would be
Critical zone stocks with rebuilding plans:
currently
would be
7 2018 Report to Congress on the Status of U.S. Fisheries, available online at: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/2018-report-congress-status-us-fisheries
8 Garcia, S.M., Ye, Y., Rice, J. & Charles, A., eds. (2018). Rebuilding of marine fisheries. Part 1: Global review. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper No 630/1. http://www.fao.org/3/ca0161en/CA0161EN.pdf
Credit: iStock/IvanMikhaylov
REBUILDING PLAN RECOMMENDATIONS
Evidence from other jurisdictions, like the EU and U.S.,7 shows that rebuilding plans that include targets and timelines have a higher likelihood of rebuilding depleted fish stocks,8 creating resilient ecosystems and providing long-term economic prosperity for fishing communities.
Oceana Canada has developed 10 recommendations for improving rebuilding plans in Canada, based on international best practices and existing DFO policy. These include requiring that the healthy zone is the target for rebuilding the stock, ensuring plans are developed with the support of recent scientific stock assessments and making the progress and results of rebuilding plans publicly available. For a complete list of these recommendations, visit oceana.ca/FisheryAudit2019.