Assessing Ecological Risk

Ecological risk assessment is a process that evaluates the likelihood that adverse ecological effects may occur, or are occurring, as a result of exposure to one or more impacts, such as fishing.

The New Zealand hoki fishery under the Deepwater Group is a strong example of this process at work.  The fishery was granted Marine Stewardship Council certification in 2001 and the then Hoki Management Company was required to undertake an ecological risk assessment (ERA) of its fishing activities as part of the ongoing certification requirements.

It was the first time an ERA was used in a New Zealand fishery. A two-phase collaborative stakeholder-driven process was used, the first phase providing a structured approach to identifying, characterising and assessing the on-going adverse effects of the fishery. The second phase sought to characterise the flow-on risks to ecosystems and ecological processes.

Key components of the project included:

• Independent management of discussions between environmental groups, industry and government;
• Use of extensive catch and impact data held by various regulatory and research agencies;
• Disengagement of the risk assessment process from design and implementation of management responses.

The ERA provided a unique opportunity to explore the limits of available information and our understanding of ecological processes and offered new insights into how to best interpret existing and new information in the light of the requirements of ecological risk assessment.

Information gained during the ERA has been used to help develop mitigation action plans, which form a key part of the hoki fishery management plan.

The hoki fishery's ERA has also served as a useful model to fisheries management agencies nationally and internationally as they look to incorporate similar approaches in their jurisdictions.