Characterization and analysis of fisheries related risks to significant species, habitats and ecosystem/community properties with the propsed Scott Islands marin National Wildlife area /

The focus of the paper was to characterize and evaluate the nature and extent of potential impacts posed by commercial fishing activities on examples of Significant Ecosystem Components (SECs) within the SImNWA which included: seabird species; marine habitats of key prey species of seabirds; and ecosystem functioning and community properties. [...] The Ecological Risk Assessment Framework (ERAF) used by DFO Pacific was used to scope out the interactions in terms of issues associated with understanding the nature and extent of the interactions and the risks posed to the selected SECs. [...] The key findings of this exercise were: that the pathways of effects of the fishery/SEC interactions are not consistently recognized and addressed in the management of the all fisheries; collection of information on the extent of the interactions is inadequate to be of any use for the management of the interactions; collection of research data in some cases needs to be modified to insure it is ade [...] The methodology outlined in the ERAF document is broken up into two key elements (Figure 2): • Scoping: This is a process to identify the Significant Ecosystem Components (SECs) (DFO 2014) or properties of the system (which in this case is the SImNWA), and the nature of the activities and stressors that have the potential to affect the SECs, or system properties; and • Risk Assessment: This is an [...] Identification of the SECs The first step in the scoping phase of the exercise is the identification and selection of examples of ecosystem components at the species, habitat and community/ecosystem properties levels that will used in the evaluation.