A national Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFM) Working Group (WG) was established in 2018 to (1) advance the integration of climate, oceanographic and ecological variables into single-species stock assessment and advice to support the further implementation of EAFM; and (2) to identify practical steps to advance the longer-term goal of ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) involving multispecies assessment and advice.
To better understand the strengths and challenges of what is currently being done across DFO stock assessments and to provide guidance on how to incorporate environmental considerations throughout the data-to-decision process, the National WG established three sub-groups, one of which was directed to develop a compilation of existing Science methods used by DFO for incorporating ecosystem variables into stock assessments and other assessment-related research activities. This data set, called the EAFM Science Methods Toolbox, is the resulting product from the Toolbox sub-group.
Note that the contents of the Toolbox are meant to serve as a starting point for researchers looking to incorporate ecosystem information into their stock assessment activities, and not intended to provide an exhaustive list of available analytical tools. Researchers are cautioned to make their own assessments regarding the suitability of any tools in the Toolbox to their particular research, as well as to investigate the possibility of other tools not presently included in the Toolbox (pre-existing or new). It is expected that the Toolbox will remain ‘evergreen’ with periodic updates to reflect emerging best practices, although the exact timing and process to conduct such updates has yet to be determined.