What Is Ecosystem-Based Fishery Management?

Ocean life doesn’t live in a bubble—if you want to take care of one fish species, you also have to preserve where it lives and understand the other animals it interacts with. This big picture approach to marine conservation is called ecosystem-based fisheries management.

As cartoonist and conservationist Jim Toomey explains above, "EBFM" recognizes that every part of the marine ecosystem, from the kelp forest to the blue whale, is interconnected.

Cartoonist Jim Toomey—whose daily comic strip, Sherman’s Lagoon, is syndicated in more than 250 newspapers in the United States—joined forces with The Pew Charitable Trusts to illustrate "ecosystem-based fisheries" and other terms associated with our oceans.

Watch the full ocean terms video series.