A qualitative risk-based assessment of impacts on marine habitats and harvested species for a data deficient wild capture fishery

Fisheries management in most areas of the world is concerned with the effects of resource exploitation on the broad marine environment that includes all major ecological components. However, all fisheries lack some information about many of these components particularly marine habitats and non-target species. Such data deficiencies make it difficult to identify priorities for management action. Qualitative ecological risk assessment is one tool that can be used by management to prioritise and evaluate management strategies. This paper demonstrates the mechanics of a qualitative ecological risk assessment applied to a currently operating data deficient commercial fishery. In particular, we demonstrate how the method applies to two distinct ecological components - marine habitats and harvested species - and shows how it contributed to the formation of management responses. The method combines biological and ecological information about each component with knowledge on the operations of the fishery. Using pre-defined decision rules and criteria the available information is used in a rigorous, transparent and repeatable manner. The paper demonstrates that the method can be used generally to apply to all ecological components of a marine fishery where data is deficient.