that takes account of the impact of proposed 

 harvesting strategies on nontarget species , 

 including marine mammals and threatened or 

 endangered species, and on the health and 

 stability of the marine environment as well 

 as on the harvested resource, itself. 



EVALUATION OF REPRESENTATIVE FMPs 



The FCMA, MMPA and ESA each and together reflect an 

 awareness of the importance of the ecological relationships 

 involving target species. Consequently they require an 

 ecosystem as opposed to a single species perspective on 

 the management of fisheries resources . In order to determine 

 how this ecological awareness has been reflected in the de- 

 velopment of fishery management plans, and to what extent 

 management plans meet the intents of the MMPA and ESA as 

 well as the FCMA, four representative plans have been re- 

 viewed. The four plans encompass marine mammal and endan- 

 gered species issues , different amounts of available data on 

 target and nontarget species, and both single and multiple 

 species considerations. The plans were evaluated with re- 

 spect to the selection of OY levels and the relation of OY 

 to MSY and to relevant ecological considerations, and with 

 respect to the treatment of nontarget species in the plans , 

 particularly marine mammals and endangered species . Some 

 aspects of the four representative plans are compared in 

 Table 3. The evaluations of the four plans that are sum- 

 marized in this section of the report are presented in great- 

 er detail in Appendix F. 



Northern Anchovy Final Plan 



The Northern Anchovy Plan dealt with only one species, 

 but that species is very important as a forage fish, pro- 

 viding food for a number of predator populations including 

 marine mammals and at least one endangered species, the 

 California brown pelican. The Northern Anchovy Plan includ- 

 ed a description of the ecological role of anchovies, al- 

 though with a fairly broad brush treatment in comparison 

 with the detailed social and economic information found in 

 the plan. The plan included the provision of food for pred- 

 ators as one of its objectives, and the OY formula selected 

 was intended to recognize the value of fish left in the wa- 

 ter for predators and to assure that anchovy densities re- 

 main sufficient to support predator populations in the Cali- 

 fornia Current ecosystem. 



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