Hidden in plain sight: Using optimum yield as a policy framework to operationalize ecosystem-based fisheries management

An often-cited impediment to the operationalization of ecosystem-based fisheries management is the lack of a governance structure that explicitly provides the authority and framework for implementing this holistic approach to fisheries management. However within the United States and elsewhere in the world, the concept of optimum yield appears to be an explicit mandate and framework that can and should be used to operationalize ecosystem-based fisheries management. This optimum yield policy has been hidden in plain sight for close to 40 years, largely due to happenstance, as other factors facing society-at-large have masked the original intent behind this concept. This paper describes the similarities between optimum yield and ecosystem-based fisheries management, how it has been overlooked in the past, and how the concept can be used to operationalize ecosystem-based fisheries management.