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China's 13th Five-Year Plan elevated the national mandate for environmental sustainability. Chinese fisheries are characterized by full retention of high diversity catch harvested using unselective gears, creating ecological risks. Therefore, China launched pilot projects in management by Total Allowable Catch (TAC) in five coastal provinces in 2017 and 2018 to build experience with output controls. Fujian province launched an important pilot in its swimming crab fishery, the first to adopt a multispecies approach. To guide Fujian and other provinces in multispecies management, a workshop in April 2018 shared international experience. The workshop considered 13 case studies spanning a wide range of underlying scientific models and types of harvest controls. Multispecies harvest controls based on simple survey- or index-based models that aggregate trends for many species are typically operationally easier for managers and fishers. However, inadequate management can cause declines of individual species, sometimes leading to adoption of species-specific models and then species-specific harvest controls. This transition often incurs economic costs through scientific and management demands, and constraints on harvest of co-occurring species. The lessons revealed by the case studies suggest multispecies TACs might be effective in the Fujian swimming crab fishery given the modest number of species with similar and productive life history traits, and the market demand for all species. Continued experimentation with different management approaches through pilot projects can enable China to maintain progress toward sustainable fisheries goals under the 14th Five-Year Plan.

Fisheries are complex systems comprised of scientific, management, fishing fleet, and ecological sub-systems. Although the composition, behavior, and functions of these sub-systems vary considerably, a review of case studies, research, and theory illustrates that one positive and pervasive influence across all can be at-sea monitoring of fishing activity and catch. At-sea monitoring provides reliable and high-resolution data on spatial and temporal patterns in effort and total catch, and the taxonomic and life stage composition of catch, thereby improving the science underlying management decisions. Those decisions can draw upon a wider range of approaches, such as rights-based management and finer scale spatial, temporal, and catch restrictions, that require the greater oversight facilitated by monitoring. Improved science and implementation can in turn increase confidence in management among the fishing fleet, bolstered by the knowledge that other fishers are equally accountable for their actions. This series of positive outcomes represent a self-reinforcing virtuous cycle in the fishery. Conversely, breakdowns in science, management, and fishing behavior can create an ‘accountability cascade’ of blame, distrust, and dysfunction. Therefore, effective at-sea monitoring, in combination with other reforms, can move fisheries away from overexploitation and toward sustainability. Critical to this transformation is a growing toolkit of technological innovations that increasingly make at-sea monitoring more feasible in fleets spanning diverse ecological, economic, political, and operational gradients. Keywords: Monitoring, Accountability, Uncertainty, Incentives, Compliance

Fisheries monitoring in the United States exists in many forms and serves many functions due to geographically varying objectives, practices, technology, institutional structures, and funding. In the U.S and abroad, diverse catch methods commonly exist for the same stock, thus monitoring and reporting strategies need to be tailored to unique operational needs. Common management challenges include funding limitation, survey design, coverage, and implementation. We describe three innovative examples of fisheries monitoring in the United States. These stories of success and failure can inform the design and implementation of new monitoring pilots and aid crafting both regional and national policies. We explore the innovative vessel monitoring and electronic logbook practices across multiple sectors for Gulf of Mexico red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus). Then, we examine a unique monitoring program that produces critical, near real-time genetic and population surveys for sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) in Bristol Bay, Alaska. Our final case study describes the many fishery-dependent and -independent data streams for American lobster (Homarus americanus) in New England. Across all monitoring cases exists an explicit focus on the most critical aspects of organism life history. We find strong cross-institutional working relationships and adept agency coordination are imperatives in instances of stocks occupying multiple state or federal boundaries. Our results suggest the most effective approaches address the unique data needs of a fishery, and for this, thorough understanding of both biological and socioeconomic aspects of the fishery is a prerequisite. Ultimately, the monitoring program should jointly incentivize compliance while promoting continued and evolving interaction between resources users, scientists, and management. Keywords: Fisheries, Fisheries monitoring, Fisheries management, Sustainability

Small scale fisheries are critically important for the provision of food security, livelihoods, and economic development for billions of people. Yet, most of these fisheries appear to not be achieving either fisheries or conservation goals, with respect to creating healthier oceans that support more fish, feed more people and improve livelihoods. Research and practical experience have elucidated many insights into how to improve the performance of small-scale fisheries. Here, we present lessons learned from five case studies of small-scale fisheries in Cuba, Mexico, the Philippines, and Belize. The major lessons that arise from these cases are: (1) participatory processes empower fishers, increase compliance, and support integration of local and scientific knowledge; (2) partnership across sectors improves communication and community buy-in; (3) scientific analysis can lead fishery reform and be directly applicable to co-management structures. These case studies suggest that a fully integrated approach that implements a participatory process to generate a scientific basis for fishery management (e.g., data collection, analysis, design) and to design management measures among stakeholders will increase the probability that small-scale fisheries will implement science-based management and improve their performance.