Terms of Reference. What does Ecosystems Approach & Marine Spatial Planning Mean?

There are some terms of reference that appear in the new draft General Policy and sector-specific policies that newcomers to the commercial fishing industry might not fully understand. One of them is the “ecosystems approach to fisheries management”, another is “marine spatial planning”. There may have been some advances over the years, but the following article addresses these terms as they also appeared prior to the 2013 rights allocation process.