Astles KL (2012) Qualitative Ecological Risk Assessment in Fisheries – Challenges for Scientists and Managers. In: Chapter 6, J.A. Daniels (ed), Advances in Environmental Research, Volume 6. ISBN 978-1-61728-163-1. Nova Science Publishers, Inc. e-book available on-line at https://www.novapublishers.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=23_29&products_id=15750

Summary

Qualitative ecological risk assessment is used in fisheries management to identify and prioritise issues and to evaluate fishery management plans. The methods used rely on two important mechanisms – expert judgement and integration of scientific and other information. This chapter examines the use of these two mechanisms in a fisheries context. Experts can include fisheries scientists, managers, commercial or recreational fishers and community leaders. The judgements of experts can be influenced by the way they think about issues, over-confidence, interpretations of ambiguous terms, their values and motivations. Processes for how the judgements of experts can be obtained more reliably are discussed. Risk assessment requires the bringing together of a range of different information including scientific data and analysis, understanding of fishery operations and local knowledge. The various methods used to integrate this range of information are discussed. A list of the knowledge and skills that experts need to undertake qualitative ecological risk assessment in fisheries is presented. Fisheries managers and scientists will be better able to do more rigorous and reliable ecological risk assessments for fisheries with these greater range of knowledge and skills.