Declining marine and freshwater fisheries worldwide have increased an interest in release of cultured organisms to enhance or restore fisheries. A responsible-approach concept for developing, evaluating, and managing stock enhancement was proposed by Blankenship and Leber [American Fisheries Society Symposia 15: 167-175 (1995)] and updated by Lorenzen, Leber and Blankenship [Reviews in Fisheries Science, 18(2) 189-210,2010]. There has been wide-acceptance of the “Responsible Approach” including the grey mullet Mugil cephalus enhancement project under the USAID Middle East Regional Cooperation (MERC) Program, which is adapting responsible stock-enhancement technology to the Mediterranean region to help reduce fishing pressure on the wild mullet stocks.
Key components of the Responsible Approach will be discussed and include the need to (1) prioritize and select target species for enhancement; (2) develop a species management plan that identifies harvest opportunity, stock rebuilding goals, and genetic objectives; (3) define quantitative measures of success; (4) use genetic resource management to avoid deleterious genetic effects; (5) use disease and health management; (6) consider ecological, biological , and life-history patterns when forming enhancement objectives and tactics; (7) identify released hatchery fish and asses stocking effects; (8) use an empirical process for defining optimum release strategies; (9) identify economic and policy guidelines; and (10) use adaptive management .