Synthesize available evidence to help ensure all major links in the system have been identified, and to indicate which are strongest.

Use any avail­able infor­ma­tion, from stake­hold­er knowl­edge to sec­ondary data, peer reviewed pub­li­ca­tions, key infor­mant inter­views, pow­er analy­sis, or oth­er meth­ods to under­stand the strength of each path­way of influ­ence in the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion. For exam­ple, fish pop­u­la­tions may be influ­enced by cli­mate con­di­tions, habi­tat con­di­tion, preda­tor abun­dance, arti­sanal fish­ing, com­mer­cial fish­ing and recre­ation­al fish­ing. These dri­vers are unlike­ly to be equal­ly pow­er­ful in deter­min­ing fish pop­u­la­tion size and sta­bil­i­ty, and evi­dence from local fish­ers, fish­ery stock assess­ments, land­ings data or oth­er sources should help iden­ti­fy which dri­ver or dri­vers are most impor­tant. The most impor­tant driver(s) will be cap­tured as key chal­lenges in the next step.