Benchmarking for data-limited fishery systems to support collaborative focus on solutions

• We propose a method for elaborating improvement plans for data-limited fisheries.
• Process involves stage-wise interaction of critical stakeholders in parity.
• Fishery system is benchmarked against the MSC standard.
• Problems are translated to solutions and prioritized to define group action.
• Demonstration is based on a deep-water longline fishery for black scabbardfish.

Stakeholder participation is a key feature in risk-based frameworks used to assess and promote sustainable exploitation in fishery systems, but participants usually have a limited opportunity to influence the scope and rules of interaction. Here, an extension of this approach of stakeholder engagement is described and tested in a context where the scope and rules of interaction are decided by the participants themselves. Demonstration is based on a deep-water long-line fishery for black scabbardfish (Aphanopus carbo) off mainland Portugal. Managers, scientists and fishery representatives were invited to interact within a facilitated environment with the aim of improving understanding of main problems in the system and of negotiating solutions meaningful to all participants. Mismatches between the scale of biological processes and those at which exploitation is assessed and managed across the Northeast Atlantic and other weaknesses of the fishery system were rapidly identified during an interactive workshop of benchmarking against the Marine Stewardship Council sustainability standard. Specific proposals for action were iteratively developed within the group and evaluated in terms of perceived cost and scope for action. Finally, problems were prioritized in terms of a cumulative score of gravity of anticipated impact, urgency of action and likely degradation rate during a period of inaction to highlight issues most likely to be resolved by the group. The stage-wise approach presented here can be replicated to create or to revise strategies for resolving problems in data-limited fisheries and can be extended to incorporate other critical stakeholders and other tools to stimulate group interaction and joint deliberation.