Adding dimensions to benchmarking and performance assessment is burdensome, and
strains the disciplinary and sectoral expertise, as well as capacity, of assessors. Similarly, there
are limitations and challenges associated with using expert assessments as a proxy for data
(e.g., [65]). Therefore, there is and will continue to be a role for detailed case studies, but there
are important uses for broad rapid assessment tools that can be applied simply and quickly by
experienced experts with a range of backgrounds in nearly any fishery. We envision application
by academics, local fishery managers, fishery researchers, and development agents and consultants,
contributing to a large reference base of panel data. The FPIs’ strategy of foregoing precision
(but not accuracy) for rapid assessment of individual fisheries facilitates the assembly of a
large-N data set, which is a well-recognized challenge in the literature on the commons [66].
Further, by clearly delineating measures of performance and enabling factors, it provides a lexicon
that can be used flexibly in linking different notions of success with concrete measures.