Assessing Inclusive Ocean Wealth in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands

Fisheries managers are slowly transitioning from thinking about each species individually to an ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM), which considers all species within the environment when making decisions. While the economic value of fisheries harvests can be calculated by the price paid to the fishermen, the value of leaving a species in the water to grow larger or serve as prey for other commercial species is more difficult to calculate and evaluate.

Joshua Abbott, Ph.D., an economist at Arizona State University (ASU), is integrating ecological dynamics and economic valuation in a model to create an indicator of these combined values, known as “inclusive ocean wealth”. This new tool for fishery managers will add economic transparency to fisheries management decisions and illuminate whether proposed management decisions will lead to long-term economic and ecological sustainability of the affected ecosystem.