Mitigating impacts of natural hazards on fishery ecosystems: Synthesis

The "Mitigating Impacts of Natural Hazards on Fishery Ecosystems" symposium looked at forecasting, impacts, and mitigation of a variety of natural hazards, including hurricanes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. A number of themes emerged, including the need to use pre-existing emergency management systems when responding to natural hazard impacts on fishery ecosystems; the utility of ecological forecasts, monitoring systems and effective communication in mitigating the impacts of natural hazard events; the imperative to increase the resiliency of fishery ecosystems; and the ability of pre-existing conditions to exacerbate the effects of these events. Beyond identifying the themes, we also discuss lessons learned to help mitigate the impacts of future events.