Fisheries management is always a dynamic process that must respond to fluctuations in environmental conditions, fishing behaviors, variable productivity of the resource, and changing market and economic conditions. Climate change is likely to make such fluctuations larger and result in new kinds of changes, such as shifts in species ranges and species composition. In addition, data- and resource-limited fisheries managers must often make management decisions in the face of data gaps that create uncertainties around the appropriate actions to implement, and the likely outcomes of those actions. In these fisheries it is therefore even more important to implement an adaptive management program that allows fisheries managers and stakeholders to re-visit fisheries goals, re-evaluate progress towards those goals, and re-examine the management measures that have been put in place to reach those goals based on new data, observations about fishery conditions, and learning from the outcomes of previous management decisions. Thus, we recommend going through the 11 Step FISHE process on a periodic basis – annually is recommended, but the appropriate period will depend on the individual patterns of the fishery and the target stock life cycles.
See the information and resources provided under the Collect More Data section of this website to learn about implementing and improving your data collection regime so that more and higher-quality data can inform each iteration of the FISHE process.