EUROPEAN LARGE LAKES IV The potential ecologically sustainable yield of vendace (Coregonus albula) from large Finnish lakes Timo J. Marjoma ¨ki . Tapio Keskinen . Juha Karjalainen Received: 30 November 2015 / Revised: 26 February 2016 / Accepted: 15 April 2016 / Published online: 23 May 2016 Ó Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 Abstract Vendace, Coregonus albula (L.), is the main target for commercial fishing in Finnish lakes but is notorious for its strong and unpredictable stock fluctuations. The new Fishing Act in Finland stipulates that fisheries must be managed in an ecologically, economically and socially sustainable manner based on the best available knowledge. We estimated the potential ecologically sustainable yield (ESY) for the Finnish commercial inland vendace fisheries using the available information for the biological variables affecting vendace production, and including the effect of the uncertainty and natural variability of the key variables on the accuracy and precision of our estimate. Our estimate of potential ESY with 50% likelihood is 8–13 M kg a -1 . The high uncertainty in the estimate stems firstly from the fact that estimating the potential requires extrapolation of parameter values from historical time series that have not covered this potential stage of exploitation and secondly from our limited knowledge regarding the probability and duration of the long-term recession periods (i.e. several sequential very sparse year classes) typical of vendace populations. As increasing yield will require increased fishing effort, intensifying the exploitation of the vendace stocks must be accompanied by adaptive fisheries management, a well-functioning management cycle and development of management institutions promoting stakeholder participation. Keywords Adaptive management Á Ecosystem service Á Precaution Á Risk Á Social Á Sustainability Introduction The current paradigm of sustainability in fisheries (e.g. FAO, 1995; Charles, 2001) contains the idea that the management must target ecological, economic and social sustainability, and that the intensity of fishing must be adjusted based on the best available knowl- edge and applying the precautionary principle. The new Fishing Act of Finland (10.4.2015, 379/2015) has adopted this philosophy as its basic principle. By definition, ecologically sustainable yield (ESY) only concentrates on the ecological aspect of the above- mentioned three-pronged approach to sustainability. We see that to evaluate whether the fisheries and their Guest editors: Paula Kankaala, Tiina No ˜ges, Martti Rask, Dietmar Straile & Arkady Yu. Terzhevik / European Large Lakes IV. Ecosystem Services and Management in a Changing World T. J. Marjoma ¨ki (&) Á J. Karjalainen Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyva ¨skyla ¨, PO Box 35, 40014 University of Jyva ¨skyla ¨, Finland e-mail: timo.j.marjomaki@jyu.fi T. Keskinen Natural Resource Institute Finland, Survontie 9A, 40500 Jyva ¨skyla ¨, Finland 123 Hydrobiologia (2016) 780:125–134 DOI 10.1007/s10750-016-2783-x