Joshua Kilborn, research assistant professor at USF CMS.
“This study attempts to operationalize the NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center’s 2017 Ecosystem Status Report to help inform an ecosystem-based fishery management approach in the Gulf of Mexico large marine ecosystem (Gulf LME). I used 30+ unique ecosystem-level indicators from the report to model the fishery ecosystem trends and trajectory over time and better understand the factors that influenced their evolution. While these results did capture the fishery ecosystem’s vulnerabilities to shifting environmental and socioeconomic conditions, they also underscored the aquatic resources’ resilience to the rapidly changing pressures observed throughout the study period. This resilience is likely rooted in the complexity and diversity of the Gulf LME but it is also closely linked to informed management and decision making successes.”