Australian and Canadian fisheries face the challenges of evolving domestic and international policies, the move to full implementation of ‘ecosystem’ and ‘integrated’ management approaches, and increasing market (and general public) pressure for certification of sustainability. The evolving landscape of management demands increased participation of fishers in management processes and shared stewardship responsibility, along with the need to adapt to changes in the ecosystem and public perceptions of sustainability. Several individuals and groups in Australia and elsewhere are wrestling with these issues. The need to develop sound and workable methods of implementing ecosystem based approaches to fisheries, has as one of its outcomes a benefit of generating reportable benchmarks of management performance that can generate increased public trust in the management of common resources. At this time there is need for a review of the approaches and priorities that have been developed around ecosystem based approaches to management, how easily and effective they are to implement, and how these can contribute to the generation of a ‘licence to manage’ for fisheries management agencies.