Bering Sea Fishery Ecosystem Plan
The Council reviewed reports from the FEP Team and the Climate Change Taskforce (CCTF), and continues to support their work in progress.
Bering Sea FEP Team
The FEP Team provided a report on their May 2021 meeting, at which they discussed the development of a new ecosystem report focused on strategic and long-term indicators as well as the ongoing work of the two FEP Taskforces which are focused on assessing climate change resilience and protocols for using local knowledge, traditional knowledge, and subsistence information in the Council process. The Team clarified the purpose of the proposed new Bering Sea Ecosystem Health Report and how it is different from existing ecosystem reports, and outlined a plan for producing a pilot of the report for next year. At the Council’s direction, the Team will incorporate recommendations from the Ecosystem Committee and the SSC in its ongoing design and development. Staff contact for the FEP Plan Team is Diana Evans.
Climate Change Taskforce Workplan
Proposed “on-ramps” and existing coordination
The Council also received an update from the Bering Sea FEP Climate Change Task Force (CCTF) on the milestones and deliverables for their workplan, which was approved by the council in February. The Council endorsed the work plan and supports the goal of the Climate Change Module as developed by the CCTF: ‘to facilitate the Council’s work towards climate-ready fisheries management that helps ensure both short- and long-term resilience for the Bering Sea’ as well as the steps outlined by the CCTF to achieve this goal. The CCTF workplan, milestones and deliverable are posted to the Council website. The CCTF short-term goals for their fall 2021 meeting include providing a Climate readiness briefing for the Council which outlines how current management is poised to respond to climate change and identifies gaps and areas for improvement as well as an outline of the planned Climate report. The process outlines in the CCTF workplan is displayed below with orange indicating the new climate information feeding into the Council’s management system as a result of the proposed process to be developed by the CCTF between now and 2025. Staff contact for the CCTF is Diana Stram.
