Fisheries Management - Precautionary Principle

Precautionary Principle

The Fishery Manager's Guidebook issued in 2009 by the FAO of the United Nations, advises that the precautionary approach or principle should be applied when "ecosystem resilience and human impact (including reversibility) are difficult to forecast and hard to distinguish from natural changes." The precautionary principle suggests that when an action risks harm, it should not be proceeded with until it can be scientifically proven to be safe. Historically fishery managers have applied this principle the other way round; fishing activities have not been curtailed until it has been proven that they have already damaged existing ecosystems. In a paper published in 2007, Shertzer and Prager suggested that there can be significant benefits to stock biomass and fishery yield if management is stricter and more prompt.