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The environmental variability and the intense use of ecosystems by man is widely recognized; as well as the need to consider the ecosystem dynamics as part of the management criteria. This is of particular relevance if one of the aims is to ensure its sustainable use. Considering that most practices of management remains at the level of individual populations, this contribution proposes a set of indicators which consider the performance of populations and ecosystems, which can provide management criteria. All indicators are based on theory of information and are defined through the flows of energy in the ecosystem. The indicators used are: sustainability, which expressed the capacity of self-organisation of the system; vitality, defined by the relationship between the density of connections and the role of components in different states of the system; ecosystem health, expressed by changes in the intensity of the flows of energy; resilience, defined by the elasticity of the supply-demand of energy; and as performance analysis, the relation between survival and the role of the groups in the ecosystem. In general, indicators use thermodynamic expressions as the degree-of-order and the energy-in-reserve in the ecosystem. This allows a direct link between them, expressing ecosystem attributes; so, when a perturbation impacts the ecosystem we can obtain an immediate diagnosis of the ecosystem and its components. Indicators can also be used for sustainable exploitation and management of fish resources. The use of these indicators is illustrated with two study cases; the northern Gulf of California, where a conflict between conservation and fishing persist; and the second, represents a coastal ecosystem on the Southern Gulf of Mexico where a spectacular decline of shrimp yields was observed. In both cases the effect of climate change, in addition to fishing, has been considered.

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