NOAA Response to the SAB - ESMWG Recommendations on Guidelines for NOAA ’ s Integrated Ecosystem Assessment Program

NOAA thanks the Science Advisory Board (SAB) for its thoughtful review of and comments on NOAA's evolving Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) efforts. The group's interest in and support of NOAA's IEA program is appreciated and welcomed. The main recommendation of the SAB is that " NOAA develop guidance for scientists, managers and their partners to develop timely and effective IEAs ". NOAA will, over the next year, work to develop a guidance document that lays out the general methodological approach for IEAs, based on experience implementing IEAs to date. Similar to many previous ecosystem-based approaches to management (e.g., multi-species stock assessments, fisheries ecosystem plans, and coastal and spatial marine planning), transitioning from the conceptual to on-the-ground implementation of IEAs is a nascent and considerable task. Thus, how IEAs are established and the exact products that will result is difficult to predict until the full IEA process is implemented and completed, in one or more regions, so that pioneering successes and failures can be mined for lessons-learned and best practices. Nonetheless, NOAA cannot wait until a full IEA region is completed to convey IEA guidance. NOAA sees this as a positive challenge that requires creative thinking and problem-solving by the IEA program and its partners. Here, NOAA will illustrate how the existing IEA framework, implementation documents and training efforts can contribute to guidance for regional IEA development and address the SAB recommendations. As presented in the letter report, it is clear that the SAB vision of IEAs coincides with what NOAA's IEA framework is meant to accomplish (See Table). The main elements discussed in the letter – strong and continued stakeholder engagement, unambiguous goals and early identification of management objectives, ecosystem interactions including socioeconomic considerations, quantification of tradeoffs, identification of data gaps, decision-support system using data and models, and routine updates of assessments – are all integral components of NOAA's IEA process. The alignment of elements outlined by the SAB and NOAA IEA components illustrates NOAA is on the right path, yet NOAA recognizes that the IEA vision must be better communicated to its constituencies and customers. The NOAA IEA program has a clear and systematic approach for the development and implementation of IEAs in NOAA's eight regional ecosystems, which mirror the Large Marine Ecosystems used for Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning. Although there is no single source document that guides IEA development, there is a defined framework and methodology to …