Ecosystem and Socioeconomic Profiles in the Northeast United States

Two venn diagrams of linkages between fisheries management, ecosystem/economic assessments, and stock assessments with a right facing arrow between the two. A missing link between ecosystem/economic assessment in the venn diagram on the left is replaced by ecosystem and socioeconomic profiles in the diagram on the right. — The Ecosystem and Socioeconomic Profile completes the ecosystem-based fisheries management feedback loop by integrating ecosystem and socioeconomic information into fisheries advice for decision makers. Credit: NOAA Fisheries/Kalei Shotwell and Rebecca White

Overview

The Ecosystem and Socioeconomic Profile is a next-generation stock assessment tool used to respond to our changing climate. An ESP directly informs the fisheries stock assessment process, providing an ecosystem-based fisheries management feedback loop that integrates ecosystem and socioeconomic information into scientific advice for decision-makers.

Project Goals

Provide easy access to stock-relevant and actionable syntheses of existing ecosystem and socioeconomic data, products, and knowledge
Increase the use of ecosystem and socioeconomic information in fisheries management and policy decisions
Share our ESP reports and findings

Project Description

We plan to develop ESPs for most Northeast stocks undergoing a research track stock assessment. During these assessments, a formally appointed working group critically reviews and updates the population dynamics model used to provide scientific advice. This advice is used by fishery managers to establish a stock's overfished/overfishing status and to develop harvest control rules.

ESPs provide a way to meet the standard requirement for research track stock assessments to address ecosystem and climate influences. They are developed using NOAA Fisheries open science principles so they can be reproduced and updated as needed.

The ESP framework makes ecosystem and socioeconomic data more accessible and interpretable for managers and provides a foundation for future data monitoring and updates. It supports NOAA Fisheries' ecosystem-based fisheries management goals (under Guideline 2 of NOAA Fisheries EBFM Roadmap).

ESP Process

Step 1: Focus on Ecosystem and Socioeconomic Priorities

Review information from the national initiatives and regional priorities to determine if a fish stock is a priority for producing an ESP. Determine priority stocks and assemble an ESP project team.

Step 2: Synthesize Ecosystem and Socioeconomic Vulnerabilities

Identify vulnerabilities to overfishing, ecological pressures, and climate change throughout the life stages of the stock. Combine this information with ecosystem and socioeconomic processes driving stock dynamics. Conduct a literature review and develop models outlining major environmental and economic drivers of the stock’s distribution, life cycle, and fishery.

Step 3: Analyze Ecosystem and Socioeconomic Indicators

Create, select, analyze and monitor a suite of indicators of the health of the stock and fishery. Conduct tests on trends between ecosystem and socioeconomic indicators and stock metrics.

Step 4: Communicate Ecosystem and Socioeconomic Considerations

The final step culminates in a stock-specific report and presentations that concisely convey the status of leading indicators to fisheries scientists and managers. Indicators can inform stock advice and management decisions through four pathways:

Providing context
Supporting model assumptions
Informing model parameters
Providing model covariates

Products

Ecosystem and Socioeconomic Profile Development and Reports

The first ESPs in the Northeast were developed for the shortfin squid and bluefish research track stock assessments in 2022. The American plaice research track stock assessment in 2022 included a similar ecosystem considerations section. We completed the ESPs for black sea bass and Atlantic cod in 2023, golden tilefish in 2024, and Atlantic herring in 2025. A snapshot ESP and life history working for longfin squid are currently underway and are slated for peer review in August 2026.

Typically, ESPs are working papers in collaboration with the research track stock assessment working group. We also present them to the stock assessment peer review committee and then to the respective fishery management councils.

Snapshot ESPs

After receiving feedback from science and management partners, we explored the development of a short-form ESP product, called a Snapshot ESP. Snapshot ESPs are 2-3 page report cards that are produced for stocks with or without an already-existing full ESP report. They include a ‘Year in Review’ highlighting recent trends in the fishery or ecosystem, species information from Council Risk Assessments, and time series of ecosystem and/or socioeconomic indicators (either new or updated from a past ESP) with implications to stock dynamics and the fishery.

The Northeast ESP team is working with the New England and Mid Atlantic Fisheries Management Councils to determine potential management onramps for snapshot ESPs. We produced the first Snapshot ESPs for black sea bass and Atlantic herring in 2025. A Snapshot ESP is in review for the 2026 longfin squid research track stock assessment.

Science and Management Applications

An ESP provides qualitative context on stock status by summarizing how the stock may be influenced by ecosystem and socioeconomic factors. It identifies research priorities by flagging gaps in knowledge or data. This ecosystem and socioeconomic context can be incorporated into fisheries management decisions through processes such as that used by the Mid Atlantic Fisheries Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee to account for statistical uncertainty when setting an overfishing limit (pdf, 13 pages).

Quantitatively, ESPs can support stock assessment model assumptions by exploring mechanistic linkages, identifying consistencies with stock life history, and improving biological realism. Stock assessment model choices can be validated using information from the ESP.

ESPs integrate ecosystem and socioeconomic information into scientific research, stock assessments and fisheries advice for decision-makers. Credit: NOAA Fisheries

For example, the working group for the 2022 bluefish research track stock assessment developed a companion (non-operational) stock assessment model. They used the forage fish index from the ESP to inform a catch-per-unit-effort index, which improved model diagnostics. However, the spatial extent of this index did not cover the entire bluefish distribution area. Thus the working group recommended additional research before incorporating the forage fish index into the stock assessment model used to set harvest control rules.

The 2023 black sea bass ESP also developed a bottom temperature indicator after concluding that greater numbers of juvenile fish survived when offshore waters in their overwintering habitat were warmer. This information was added to the stock assessment model to improve estimates of recruitment into the adult population.

Workshops

Workshops bring together experts to collaborate on specific topics and to learn from one another. We have held two workshops to further develop ways to incorporate ESPs into the fishery science and management processes in the Northeast.

Adding Ecosystem and Socioeconomic Context to Scientific Advice for Fisheries Management

This workshop was held on , May 21-22, 2024, in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The purpose of this workshop was to:

Identify fisheries management needs for ecosystem and socioeconomic data to help inform scientific advice for fisheries decision making
Develop a roadmap to improve ecosystem and socioeconomic data reporting for individual stocks using the ESP framework

Participants included scientists from our science center and other research institutions as well as staff from fisheries management bodies and academia. Workshop attendees supported development of the Northeast ESP roadmap. They provided insights on how the ESP initiative can be strengthened to better meet scientific needs for fisheries management in the Northeast region.

Participants actively engaged to define:

The core components of existing Northeast ESPs
The role of socioeconomics within ESPs and management decision-making
How ESPs meet Term of Reference 1 for research track stock assessments
How our science center can use an iterative approach to create and maintain ESPs.

Workshop organizers prepared a technical memo summarizing the objectives and outcomes of the workshop and are creating additional ESP guidance to share with the broader community in the near future.

Northeast Ecosystem and Socioeconomic Profile Workshop

This workshop was held virtually on August 10 and 11, 2021. It brought together NEFSC scientists and representatives from relevant management bodies to discuss the utility and process of developing ESPs for the Northeast region. A technical memo summarizes the objectives and outcomes of the workshop.

Workshop attendees largely agreed that the stock assessment and management process in our region would benefit from more ecosystem and, especially, socioeconomic data. The group proposed that these data could feed into stock assessment directly or, more feasibly, by informing stock assessment model assumptions and risk tolerance. Workshop participants identified next steps to begin mapping out specific ESP protocols following the workshop.

Attendees identified multiple potential end users for an ESP product, and discussed the circularity of defining ESP content, process, and audience. Participants also highlighted the tradeoffs of an automated and/or standardized ESP report (efficient and reproducible), versus a more tailored report (finer detail and specific). They agreed that an iterative approach would be the most successful strategy, where a foundational core report for a species would be updated and improved over time as resources allow.

Overall, workshop attendees agreed that an acceptable next step would be to form a steering committee to work with stock assessment scientists and fishery management council Scientific and Statistical Committee members to facilitate the production of Northeast ESP reports. Lastly, the research track stock assessment process was identified as a suitable on-ramp for the first Northeast ESPs.

Funding Sources

Magnuson-Stevens Act Implementation funds from the Office of Sustainable Fisheries
Fisheries Information System funding from the Inflation Reduction Act