'Horses for courses' -an interrogation of tools for marine Ecosystem-Based Management

Nadia Papadopoulou ^1* Christopher John Smith ^1* Anita Franco ² Mike Elliott ^2,3 Angel Borja ⁴ Jesper H. Andersen ^5,6 Eva Amorim ² Jon P Atkins ² Steve Barnard ² Torsten Berg ⁷ Silvana Birchenough ^8,9 Daryl Burdon ² Joachim Claudet ¹⁰ Roland Cormier ¹¹ Ibon Galparsoro ⁴ Adrian Judd ⁹ Stelios Katsanevakis ¹² Samuli Korpinen ¹³ Luminita Lazar ¹⁴ Charles Loiseau ¹⁰ Christopher Lynam ⁹ Iratxe Menchaca ⁴ Christina O'Toole ¹⁵ Debbi Pedreschi ¹⁵ Gerjan Piet ¹⁶ Dave Reid ¹⁵ Irene Antonina Salinas-Akhmadeeva ¹⁰ Vanessa Stelzenmüller ¹⁷ Jacqueline Tamis ¹⁶ Laura Uusitalo ^13,18 Maria C Uyarra ⁴

• ¹ Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), IMBRIW, Heraklion, Crete, Greece
• ² International Estuarine and Coastal Specialists Ltd, Hull, United Kingdom
• ³ School of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Hull, Hull, United Kingdom
• ⁴ AZTI, Marine Research, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Pasaia, Spain
• ⁵ NIVA Denmark Water Research, Copenhagen, Denmark
• ⁶ Other, Copenhagen, Denmark
• ⁷ Other, Schönkirchen, Germany
• ⁸ Environmental Resources Management (United Kingdom), London, United Kingdom
• ⁹ Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS), Lowestoft, United Kingdom
• ¹⁰ Other, Paris, France
• ¹¹ Other, Moncton, Canada
• ¹² Department of Marine Sciences, University of the Aegean, Mytilene, Greece
• ¹³ Marine Research Centre, Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland
• ¹⁴ National Institute for Marine Research and Development Grigore Antipa (INCDM), Constanța, Constanta, Romania
• ¹⁵ Other, Galway, Ireland
• ¹⁶ Wageningen Marine Research, Wageningen University and Research, Den Helder, Netherlands
• ¹⁷ Thünen Institute of Sea Fisheries, Bremerhaven, Germany
• ¹⁸ Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland

Marine Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) approaches are a well-established and fundamental component of international agreements and treaties, regional seas conventions, assessment strategies, European Directives and national and regional instruments. However, there is the need to interrogate and clarify the implementation of EBM approaches under current marine management.Although particular focus here is within the European Union Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), all lessons learned are applicable to marine assessments and management in seas worldwide given that all marine management instruments aim to ensure sustainability in marine ecosystems and human uses. Notably, the MSFD aims to ensure that Good Environmental Status (GES) will be achieved thereby enabling the sustainability of coastal and marine ecosystems to deliver ecosystem services and societal goods and benefits while at the same time being adaptive to rapid climate and environmental changes. As a clear understanding of EBM and the tools available to achieve it is needed for practitioners, regulators and their advisors, the analysis here firstly presents the current understanding of EBM (including its origin and application) and the wider 26 principles on which it is based. Secondly, we identify the key elements that are addressed by those principles (18 key EBM elements). Thirdly, we identify the types of tools available for use in the EBM context (19 tool groups). Fourthly we analyse the suitability of tool types to deliver the key EBM elements using an expert judgement approach. Finally, we conclude with the lessons learned from the use of those tools and briefly indicate how they could be combined to help achieve EBM in the most effective way. It is emphasised that no single tool is likely to satisfy all aspects of EBM and therefore employing a complementary suite of tools as part of a toolbox is recommended.