Risk management within an RFMO - The case of Greenland halibut and NAFO

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In 2003 NAFO Fisheries Commission established a fifteen year rebuilding plan for Greenland halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides), a valuable straddling stock off the east coast of Canada, following a period of declining biomass and increasing fishing mortality. The rebuilding plan was, however, ad hoc, developed without consultation with NAFO Scientific Council and has been strongly criticized for being risk-prone and inconsistent with the Precautionary Approach. This criticism has been borne out by subsequent assessments of the stock that have shown that fishing mortality increased under the rebuilding plan to over 2.5 times Fmax and four times F0.1. The development of the rebuilding plan reflects how NAFO has traditionally worked - mainly behind closed doors, making selective use of scientific advice and arriving at decisions on TACs and other regulations though a process that is not always transparent. At the NAFO meeting in 2005 a renewed commitment was made to rebuild the Greenland halibut stock based on scientific principles and the Precautionary Approach. This encouraged NAFO Scientific Council to form a study group to evaluate rebuilding options for the stock using a management strategy evaluation approach, utilizing the open-source FLR environment. This is a transparent approach, necessitating involvement from all stakeholders, which aims to find rebuilding strategies that are robust to risk and uncertainty. We report on progress of the study group, describing how a WIKI was used to encourage participation and how a review meeting in Vigo in February 2008 which included scientists, fisheries managers and industry has been instrumental in guiding the approach