In recent years, Canadians have become increasingly aware of the dynamic and changing nature of fishery systems, which include not only the fish and their environment, but also people and their associated social and economic institutions and communities. As a result of the challenges created by our constantly changing fisheries, the Canadian Global Change Program of the Royal Society of Canada formed an interdisciplinary Fisheries Panel of nine people in 1996. The panel’s mandate was to write an authoritative and comprehensive review of the implications of physical, biological, economic, and sociopolitical changes for Canadian marine fisheries and to present options for how to deal with those changes.

This report outlines a vision for future sustainable marine fisheries for Canada and reviews the state of Canadian marine fishery systems. It also examines the complexities and major processes of change and variability in fishery systems, which lead to uncertainties and create risks, i.e., biological risks for fish populations, economic risks for those in industry, and social and economic risks for people in coastal communities who rely on renewable aquatic resources. These risks have important implications not only for how management agencies should operate, but also for how industry, fishermen, and coastal fishing-dependent communities should plan and act. The last part of the report therefore emphasizes the features of an effective social response to the challenge of managing these risks: stewardship and conservation, participation and cooperation, and compliance and accountability. We develop several guiding principles that, in the presence of change, uncertainty, and risks, can help attain the overall goals of biologically productive aquatic systems, economically viable fishing industries, and sustainable fishing-dependent communities. These principles include (a) incorporating analysis of structural and dynamic complexities of fishery systems into decision-making; (b) incorporating explicit analysis of change, uncertainties, and risk into decision-making; (c) promoting and conserving biological, economic, and social diversity; (d) collecting, analyzing and openly communicating data and information; (e) estimating and documenting the social and ecological consequences of decisions and actions; and (f) clearly defining roles, rights, and responsibilities of all fishery participants to align their interests with the overall objectives of sustainability. Finally, we identify several strategies that can be used by management agencies, industry, fishermen, and coastal fishing-dependent communities to follow these principles. These strategies include implementing (a) a precautionary approach, (b) risk-assessment and risk-management procedures, (c) eco-system-based management and promoting diversity, (d) measures to ensure adequate collection and communication of information, (e) institutional reform and promoting compliance, and (f) informed social decisions through appropriate pricing, accounting, reporting, and charging. The benefits and drawbacks of these different strategies are assessed and examples are provided of their application in fishery systems.