A Framework for Identifying Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems in the North Pacific Ocean

The United Nations General Assembly called upon States to manage fisheries sustainably and protect vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) from destructive fishing practices when they adopted Resolution 61/105 in 2006. The North Pacific Fisheries Commission (NPFC) has a mandate to identify and protect these ecosystems from significant adverse impacts (SAIs). Specifically, the Convention on the Conservation and Management of High Seas Fisheries Resources (henceforth the Convention) in the North Pacific Ocean requires NPFC members to develop a process to identify VMEs using the best scientific information available. NPFC identified four orders of corals as indicators of potential VMEs but has not yet developed objective and quantitative definitions of VMEs based on catches, visual surveys, predictive models, or other sources of information. We propose the first step in a framework to use the best available data to identify VMEs, including fisheries bycatch data, visual data, predictive models, and other sources of available information. Canada primarily has limited visual data and extrapolated model predictions of the distribution of VME indicator taxa in the northeast part of NPFC’s Convention Area where it fishes for Sablefish (Anaplopoma fimbria). We propose to use these data to begin developing quantitative methods for VME identification that integrate these data in a manner that aligns with the precautionary approach, the Convention, and the research plan of NPFC’s Scientific Committee.