At the interface between fisheries management and marine biodiversity conservation, spatial-based measures – namely zoning and area-time-gear type closures – are among the oldest forms of fisheries management. With the move of fishery management towards the ecosystem approach to fisheries – that is, a broader conception of ecosystem well-being – the use of spatial management tools is becoming more prevalent.

Through its ecosystem approach to fisheries, the GFCM has adopted spatial measures through fisheries restricted areas (FRAs). A FRA is a geographically defined area in which all or certain fishing activities are temporarily or permanently banned or restricted in order to improve the exploitation and conservation of harvested living aquatic resources or the protection of marine ecosystems (FAO, 2008).

In the GFCM, a FRA is the area-based management tool used to protect marine ecosystems/sensitive habitats, such as vulnerable marine ecosystem (VME), from potentially significant adverse impacts (VME FRAs) and/or enhance the productivity of marine living resources (EFH FRAs), including in the deep sea. Essential fish habitats are defined as essential to the ecological and biological requirements for critical life history stages of exploited fish species, and which may require special protection to improve the status of the stocks and long-term sustainability.

A FRA can potentially be established to protect any kind of marine resource and habitat (e.g. aggregations of vulnerable sponges, seamount areas, coralligenous formations, seagrass meadows, spawning grounds and reproduction sites for fish resources, etc.) from fishing activities.

The GFCM also adopts spatio-temporal measures, including to reduce fishing pressure in specific areas during particular periods/seasons (e.g. at spawning time or during migrations of vulnerable species) . These measures are sometimes incorporated in GFCM multiannual management plans or taken into account in FRAs, and in a few cases are used on a stand-alone basis.