Decision Structure to Aid the Council and Commissions of NASCO and the Relevant Authorities in Implementing the Precautionary Approach to Management of North Atlantic Salmon Fisheries

Does the fishery exploit salmon from more than one river?

If no, see A.
If yes, see B.

A. Single Stock

1. Is the stock threatened by external factors (e.g. acidification, disease)?

If yes, take special management action as appropriate (e.g. establish gene bank).

If no, go to A2.

2. Assess status of the stock (abundance and diversity)

(a) Have age-specific conservation limits been set?

(i) If yes, is the conservation limit being exceeded according to agreed compliance criteria (e.g. 3 out of 4 years)?

(ii) If no, assess other measures of abundance.

(b) Is the stock meeting other diversity criteria?

3. If either abundance or diversity are unsatisfactory, then seek to identify the reasons.

(a) Immediately implement pre-agreed procedures to introduce appropriate measures to address reasons for failure (including stock rebuilding programmes).

(b) Monitor the effect of the measures and take the results into account in future management and assessment; include identification of information gaps, process and timeframe for resolution.

4. If both abundance and diversity are satisfactory:

(a) Implement pre-agreed management actions to permit harvest of the surplus taking into account uncertainty (where appropriate use management targets to establish the exploitable surplus).
(b) Monitor the effect of the measures and take the results into account in future management and assessment; include identification of information gaps, process and timeframe for resolution.

B. Mixed Stock

1. Identify river stocks that are available to the fishery

2. Identify stock components that are exploited by the fishery

3. Assess abundance and diversity of individual stocks contributing to the fishery (see A above)

4. Is abundance and diversity satisfactory (consider the % of stocks that are unsatisfactory and the extent of failure for each stock)?

(a) If yes, go to 5.

(b) If no, consider closing the fishery (taking into account socio-economic factors). If the decision is made not to close the fishery, then continue to 5.

5. Is the combined conservation limit(s) for all stocks subject to the fishery being exceeded?

(a) If yes, implement pre-agreed procedures for the management of the fishery based on effort or quota control:

· Quota control

- define management target based on an assessment of risk of failing conservation limits
- predict pre-fishery abundance
- determine exploitable surplus
- apply pre-agreed rules on setting quotas

· Effort control (and quota control in the absence of management targets and/or prediction of pre-fishery abundance)

- evaluate effectiveness of previous effort control measures and apply appropriate changes.

(b) If no, consider closing the fishery taking into account socio-economic factors. If the decision is made not to close the fishery, apply pre-agreed reserve measures to minimize exploitation.

6. Monitor the effect of the measures and take the results into account in future management and assessment; include identification of information gaps, process and timeframe for resolution