Icelandic Fisher Women's Experience: Implications,Social Change,and Fisheries Policy

Icelandic women have been a part of the Icelandic fishing fleet since before the seventeenth century and continue to hold positions at all levels of the fishing industry. This appears to be different from any other group of female fishers about whom a study has been done in the industrialized world. This article examines the role of these women and how multiple factors such as social change, fisheries policy, technology, mobility, and economics – including Iceland's 2008 dramatic economic crash – are affecting these women's ability and desire to fish. This article demonstrates the importance and implications of a gendered perspective when considering the effects of fisheries policy, practice, and any potential for sustainable fisheries that includes diverse factors including communities, economics, social change, and the natural environment.     

Thailand's fisheries: A victim of 200‐mile zones

Abstract

During the 1970s, Thailand emerged as the major distant‐water fishing nation in Southeast Asia. By the 1980s, Thailand's neighboring states had introduced 200‐nautical‐mile economic zones with the consequence that the Thai fishing industry faces a loss of approximately 300,000 square kilometers of fishing grounds that had been utilized by the Thai trawler fleet. The Thai fishing industry will face a difficult time in the next decade as neighboring states take action to remove foreign vessels from their 200‐mile zones and the Thais are forced into their small zones in the Gulf of Thailand and Andaman Sea. Thailand, as a developing country with a distant‐water fishing fleet, is a victim of the 200‐mile economic zones.     

Rebound in functional distinctiveness following warming and reduced fishing in the North Sea

Functionally distinct species (i.e. species with unique trait combinations in the community) can support important ecological roles and contribute disproportionately to ecosystem functioning. Yet, how functionally distinct species have responded to recent climate change and human exploitation has been widely overlooked. Here, using ecological traits and long-term fish data in the North Sea, we identified functionally distinct and functionally common species, and evaluated their spatial and temporal dynamics in relation to environmental variables and fishing pressure. Functionally distinct species were characterized by late sexual maturity, few, large offspring, and high parental care, many being sharks and skates that play critical roles in structuring food webs. Both functionally distinct and functionally common species increased in abundance as ocean temperatures warmed and fishing pressure decreased over the last three decades; however, functionally distinct species increased throughout the North Sea, but primarily in southern North Sea where fishing was historically most intense, indicating a rebound following fleet decommissioning and reduced harvesting. Yet, some of the most functionally distinct species are currently listed as threatened by the IUCN and considered highly vulnerable to fishing pressure. Alarmingly these species have not rebounded. This work highlights the relevance and potential of integrating functional distinctiveness into ecosystem management and conservation prioritization.     

The last jewel in a disintegrating crown— The case of japanese distant water Tuna Fisheries

Japan retains its position as one of the world's major distant water fishing nations. This article analyzes Japan's distant water Tuna Fisheries, which are currently facing significant external and internal constraints on operation of their vessels. It examines multipronged strategies that the industry and the government have adopted to ensure survival of Japan's tuna operations—the last important distant water fishery that remains for Japan's fishing industry.     

Comparative size and composition of yield from six Fijian reef fisheries

The size and composition of finfish yield from six Fijian reef fisheries was determined using catch records from a voluntary logbook scheme. A total of 172 logbooks were issued for 30-day periods in October 1992 and February and June 1993 and they provided information on 1369 fishing trips. Catch records were weighted, using the results of contemporaneous fishing activity and fleet size surveys, to provide yield estimates for each fishing ground ( qoliqoli ). Yield from all qoliqoli was dominated by Serranidae and Lethrinidae which were favoured for consumption and sale. Yields were expressed on the basis of reef area for fish from different trophic groups. Macroinvertebrate-feeders and piscivores accounted for more than half the yield in all qoliqoli and there were significant differences in area specific yield between qoliqoli. There was no evidence of fishers adopting more powerful fishing techniques or catching fish from lower trophic levels in order to maintain yield from any qoliqoli. This suggested that the fisheries examined were all capable of sustaining the reported yields of up to 3.4 tonne km⁻² qoliqoli year ⁻¹ or 10.2 tonne km⁻² coral reef year ⁻¹ and that in sites where yields were less they might be increased sustainably.     

Modelling the Spatial Behaviour of a Tropical Tuna Purse Seine Fleet

Industrial tuna fisheries operate in the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, but concerns over sustainability and environmental impacts of these fisheries have resulted in increased scrutiny of how they are managed. An important but often overlooked factor in the success or failure of tuna fisheries management is the behaviour of fishers and fishing fleets. Uncertainty in how a fishing fleet will respond to management or other influences can be reduced by anticipating fleet behaviour, although to date there has been little research directed at understanding and anticipating the human dimension of tuna fisheries. The aim of this study was to address gaps in knowledge of the behaviour of tuna fleets, using the Indian Ocean tropical tuna purse seine fishery as a case study. We use statistical modelling to examine the factors that influence the spatial behaviour of the purse seine fleet at broad spatiotemporal scales. This analysis reveals very high consistency between years in the use of seasonal fishing grounds by the fleet, as well as a forcing influence of biophysical ocean conditions on the distribution of fishing effort. These findings suggest strong inertia in the spatial behaviour of the fleet, which has important implications for predicting the response of the fleet to natural events or management measures (e.g., spatial closures).     

Eliminating driftnets from the North Pacific Ocean: U.S.—Japanese cooperation in the international North Pacific Fisheries Commission, 1953–1993

Japanese negotiators agreed to eliminate driftnet fishing for salmon in the North Pacific Ocean by the end of 1992. The Japanese high seas fishing fleet for salmon had been an economically valuable yet environmentally destructive operation for four decades. The Japanese government progressively phased out lucrative Japanese salmon fishing operations in the North Pacific, apparently capitulating to U.S. pressure. No U.S. enforcement with punitive sanctions proved necessary, however. Specific characteristics of the international market created the possibility of an environmentally benign international agreement. International integration of the market for fisheries products was made possible by the high market value of salmon in the United States and in Japan. In the 1970s, foreign direct investment from vertically integrated, Tokyo‐based fishing firms into canning and processing operations in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest facilitated U.S. Japanese agreement. The high existence (nonuse) value of marine mammals in the United States was also an important factor.     

Mapping Fishing Effort through AIS Data

Several research initiatives have been undertaken to map fishing effort at high spatial resolution using the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS). An alternative to the VMS is represented by the Automatic Identification System (AIS), which in the EU became compulsory in May 2014 for all fishing vessels of length above 15 meters. The aim of this paper is to assess the uptake of the AIS in the EU fishing fleet and the feasibility of producing a map of fishing effort with high spatial and temporal resolution at European scale. After analysing a large AIS dataset for the period January-August 2014 and covering most of the EU waters, we show that AIS was adopted by around 75% of EU fishing vessels above 15 meters of length. Using the Swedish fleet as a case study, we developed a method to identify fishing activity based on the analysis of individual vessels’ speed profiles and produce a high resolution map of fishing effort based on AIS data. The method was validated using detailed logbook data and proved to be sufficiently accurate and computationally efficient to identify fishing grounds and effort in the case of trawlers, which represent the largest portion of the EU fishing fleet above 15 meters of length. Issues still to be addressed before extending the exercise to the entire EU fleet are the assessment of coverage levels of the AIS data for all EU waters and the identification of fishing activity in the case of vessels other than trawlers.     

Linking biology to fishing regulations: Australia’s Murray Crayfish (Euastacus armatus)

Summary Murray Crayfish (Euastacus armatus) can be legally fished by recreational fishers in two states of Australia; however, there is limited published biological information on which recreational fishing regulations can be based. Murray Crayfish populations were surveyed in a 230‐km river reach of the River Murray, New South Wales, Australia. Only 39% of the female Murray Crayfish were sexually matured at the minimum legal length (90‐mm occipital carapace length) set by current fishing regulations. Females first came into berry 16 days after the commencement of the open fishing season. During handling of berried females, an average of 1.3 eggs dropped off when the tail was left closed and 3.9 when the tail was opened. Results of this study suggest that fishing regulations relating to minimum legal length and timing of the open fishing season may need to be re‐evaluated.     

Hundred and eighty years of fleet dynamics in the Belgian sea fisheries

Understanding the impact of fisheries on the commercial fish stocks requires detailed catch statistics and data on the dynamics of fleet and catch effort, at least before industrial fishing started. Most time-series on the fleet dynamics start after the 1980s, at times when major changes in fleet characteristics had already taken place. In the present paper, the results of the integration of data on fleet size (from 1830), tonnage (from 1842) and engine power (kW, from 1912) of the Belgian sea fisheries fleet are presented. The decrease in fleet size and changes in overall tonnage and engine power since the beginning of the reconstructed time-series, are quantified. The data show that the decrease in fleet size (?85 %) and in overall engine power (?5 %) was compensated by an increase in average tonnage per vessel (×10 increase) and in average engine power per vessel (×6 increase). The overall fishing effort of the fleet expressed as the total number of days spent at sea has decreased by approximately ?84 % between 1938 and 2010, while the average amount of fish landed per day per vessel (1,000 kg in 2008–2010) has at least doubled in the same period. The data reconstruction provides a unique view on the dynamics in the sea fisheries fleet of Belgium over 180 years and the political and social events associated to these changes.     

Behavioral responses to encounter of fishing boats in wandering albatrosses

Animals are attracted to human food subsidies worldwide. The behavioral response of individuals to these resources is rarely described in detail, beyond chances of encounters. Seabirds for instance scavenge in large numbers at fishing boats, triggering crucial conservation issues, but how the response to boats varies across encounters is poorly known. Here we examine the behavioral response of wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans), equipped with GPS tags, to longline fishing boats operating near their colony for which we had access to vessel monitoring system data. We distinguish between encounters (flying within 30 km of a boat) and attendance behavior (sitting on the sea within 3 km of a boat), and examine factors affecting each. In particular, we test hypotheses that the response to encountered boats should vary with sex and age in this long‐lived dimorphic species. Among the 60% trips that encountered boats at least once, 80% of them contained attendance (but attendance followed only 60% of each single encounter). Birds were more attracted and remained attending longer when boats were hauling lines, despite the measures enforced by this fleet to limit food availability during operations. Sex and age of birds had low influence on the response to boats, except the year when fewer boats came fishing in the area, and younger birds were attending further from boats compared to older birds. Net mass gain of birds was similar across sex and not affected by time spent attending boats. Our results indicate albatrosses extensively attend this fishery, with no clear advantages, questioning impacts on foraging time budgets. Factors responsible for sex foraging segregation at larger scale seem not to operate at this fleet near the colony and are not consistent with predictions of optimal foraging theory on potential individual dominance asymmetries. This approach complements studies of large‐scale overlap of animals with human subsidies.     

Tendencies in the Herring Population Development of the Baltic Sea

During the 1960's a change in population structure of Baltic herring started which resulted in the dominance of spring spawners in the entire Baltic since the beginning 1970's. Autumn spawning herring is very rare in the yields of fisheries since. This development has been accompanied by a likely increase of the total stock biomass of herring in the area. Yields of herring fisheries increased remarkable up to 1984, partly as a result of increased fishing effort. Recent developments of stock biomasses point to dependencies on fluctuations of growth rates. Growth is influenced by several environmental factors but is very likely especially dependent on abundance of food and on temperature. Eutrophication of the Baltic Sea increased perhaps the abundance of food for the planktonfeeding herring but it may have been contributing to the depletion of autumn spawning herring via the declining oxygen content of bottom water layers during the past 20 years.     

Identification of a nursery area for the critically endangered hammerhead shark (Sphyrna lewini) amid intense fisheries in the southern Gulf of Mexico

Since the 1980s, there has been growing concern in the Mexican Atlantic regarding high catches of neonate and juvenile sharks in small-scale fisheries. Fishery-dependent data from 1993 to 1994 and 2007 to 2017 and fishers' ecological knowledge from 2017 were used to identify nursery areas for scalloped hammerhead, Sphyrna lewini, in the southern Gulf of Mexico. Catch records and fishing areas of neonates, YOYs, juveniles and adults of S. lewini (N = 1885) were obtained from calcareous and terrigenous regions in the western Yucatan Peninsula. The results suggest that a nursery for scalloped hammerhead is found in the terrigenous region, characterized by relatively shallow and turbid waters due to rivers’ discharges. Neonates and YOYs (96% and 86% of their total records, respectively) were commonly found there over the years in May–August in multiple fishing areas identified by fishers, although mainly between isobaths 10–30 m. The enforcement of management measures is necessary because the nursery is located in a region with intense fishing effort.     

西北太平洋柔鱼渔业生物经济模型及其管理策略

西北太平洋柔鱼是中国大陆、日本及中国台湾鱿钓船队共同开发的主要经济头足类之一,如何兼顾鱿钓船队的渔业利益,并综合考虑生态效益、经济效益和社会效益,科学制定渔业管理目标是确保柔鱼资源可持续利用的重要研究内容。根据中国大陆、日本及中国台湾鱿钓船队的渔获统计数据及相关经济参数,构建基于多船队的生物经济模型,模拟了50年内(1997—2047年)各捕捞船队开发柔鱼资源过程中的动态变化,并探讨了在10种不同的管理方案下各船队捕捞努力量、柔鱼资源量、渔获产量及其渔业利润随时间的动态变化。结果表明,在所有设计方案下,随着捕捞努力量的动态变化,资源量在前10a均呈急剧下降趋势,随后经长期波动后逐渐趋于稳定并维持在较低水平。从长期效益来看,方案9(提高中国台湾船队捕捞系数)的累计产量及累计利润中等,但能兼顾各国或地区船队间的经济利益和社会效益,可建议以方案9作为柔鱼渔业的参考管理目标;从柔鱼资源保护角度来看,方案4(提高中国大陆船队作业成本)的资源量保持最好,可以对方案4进行适当的优化作为参考管理目标,即提高中国大陆船队作业成本,同时适当降低日本船队的可捕系数,可确保柔鱼资源量保持在更高的水平上。     

The fishery for black scabbardfish (Aphanopus carbo Lowe, 1839) in the Portuguese continental slope

The black scabbardfish is a deep-sea teleost species with high commercial interest in the NE Atlantic. While it is caught by large offshore trawlers in the North of Europe, in the south it is captured by artisanal longlines. On the Portuguese continental slope, in the south of ICES Division IXa, a longline fleet has been engaged in the capture of black scabbardfish for more than 20 years. This paper reviews and analyses the features of this fishery from a temporal perspective based on information from different data sources. The fishery is based on the port of Sesimbra, where a family type fishing community strives to keep catches profitable without altering the artisanal features that characterizes the fleet. Although the fleet has experienced some technical improvements through time, the fishing operations and strategy have changed very little. Fishing occurs at particular areas on the slope, where individual vessels have their own fishing grounds. Annual landings surpassed 4,000 tonnes in the early 1990’s, but decreased to nearly 3,000 tonnes and have remained at this level since 2000. The length structure of the landings was stable from 2000 to 2005, with a modal (total length) class of 1,090 mm. Monthly landings per unit effort estimated by a generalized linear model did not present any marked trend for the period 2000–2004. The landings reported in mainland Portugal were compared with the ones from other regions of the ICES area and the different characteristics of the fisheries operating in the north and south of Europe were analysed.     

Connectivity,persistence, and loss of high abundance areas of a recovering marine fish population in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean

In the early 1990s, the Northwest Atlantic Ocean underwent a fisheries‐driven ecosystem shift. Today, the iconic cod (Gadus morhua) remains at low levels, while Atlantic halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus) has been increasing since the mid‐2000s, concomitant with increasing interest from the fishing industry. Currently, our knowledge about halibut ecology is limited, and the lack of recovery in other collapsed groundfish populations has highlighted the danger of overfishing local concentrations. Here, we apply a Bayesian hierarchical spatiotemporal approach to model the spatial structure of juvenile Atlantic halibut over 36 years and three fisheries management regimes using three model parameters to characterize the resulting spatiotemporal abundance structure: persistence (similarity of spatial structure over time), connectivity (coherence of temporal pattern over space), and spatial variance (variation across the seascape). Two areas of high juvenile abundance persisted through three decades whereas two in the northeast are now diminished, despite the increased abundance and landings throughout the management units. The persistent areas overlap with full and seasonal area closures, which may act as refuges from fishing. Connectivity was estimated to be 250 km, an order of magnitude less than the distance assumed by the definition of the Canadian management units (~2,000 km). The underlying question of whether there are distinct populations within the southern stock unit cannot be answered with this model, but the smaller ~250 km scale of coherent temporal patterns suggests more complex population structure than previously thought, which should be taken into consideration by fishery management.     

Ecology and conservation of common bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus in the Mediterranean Sea

• 1 Bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus are amongst the best‐known cetaceans. In the Mediterranean Sea, however, modern field studies of cetaceans did not start until the late 1980s. Bottlenose dolphins have been studied only in relatively small portions of the basin, and wide areas remain largely unexplored.
• 2 This paper reviews the ecology, behaviour, interactions with fisheries and conservation status of Mediterranean bottlenose dolphins, and identifies threats likely to have affected them in historical and recent times.
• 3 Whilst intentional killing was probably the most important cause of mortality until the 1960s, important ongoing threats include incidental mortality in fishing gear and the reduced availability of key prey caused by overfishing and environmental degradation throughout the region. Additional potential or likely threats include the toxic effects of xenobiotic chemicals, epizootic outbreaks, direct disturbance from boating and shipping, noise, and the consequences of climate change.
• 4 The flexible social organization and opportunistic diet and behaviour of bottlenose dolphins may allow them to withstand at least some of the effects of overfishing and habitat degradation. However, dolphin abundance is thought to have declined considerably in the region and management measures are needed to prevent further decline.
• 5 Management strategies that could benefit bottlenose dolphins, such as sustainable fishing, curbing marine pollution and protecting biodiversity, are already embedded in legislation and treaties. Compliance with those existing commitments and obligations should be given high priority.

     

Non-management of Natural Resources: The Case of Inland Fisheries in the Mayan Zone,Quintana Roo,México

This study explores the management of inland fisheries on common lands (ejidos) within the Mayan Zone of Quintana Roo, Mexico. Qualitative survey data are used to examine whether there are (a) ongoing fishery conservation activities; (b) local caretakers of fishing sites; (c) restrictions on where fishing can take place; and (d) particular groups of individuals who lack the right to fish within the ejidos. Results indicate that in contrast to other local resources, fisheries in the ejidos have less defined use rights, being viewed as largely “open access”. In particular, most feel that outsiders can fish in an ejido if they abide by local rules (notably not damaging the local water bodies, asking consent to fish, and having a friend or relative in the community). However, there are within-community differences in views concerning management and conservation, with those more dependent on fishing being more likely to support exclusion of outsiders.     

The stabilizability of a controlled system describing the dynamics of a fishery

This work presents two stock-effort dynamical models describing the evolution of a fish population growing and moving between two fishing zones, on which it is harvested by a fishing fleet, distributed on the two zones. The first model corresponds to the case of constant displacement rates of the fishing effort, and the second one to fish stock-dependent displacement rates. In equations of the fishing efforts, a control function is introduced as the proportion of the revenue to be invested, for each fleet. The stabilizability analysis of the aggregated model, in the neighborhood of the equilibrium point, enables the determination of a Lyapunov function, which ensures the existence of a stabilizing discontinuous feedback for this model. This enables us to control the system and to lead, in an uniform way, any solution of this system towards this desired equilibrium point.     

Fisheries-Led Development in the South Pacific: Charting a “Pacific Way” to a Sustainable Future

Considerable debate surrounds the appropriate mix of policies to drive fishing-led development among the developing nations in the South Pacific. Since the 1970s, South Pacific small island states have committed themselves to policies of tuna industry domestication, but serious doubts have emerged as to whether these can deliver improvements to the well-being of Pacific peoples. An alternative policy approach has been suggested by development economists that would see Pacific Island nations largely abandon direct involvement in the industry and return to collective efforts to secure reasonable access fees from distant water fishing nations that take the majority of the region's tuna catches. This article argues that one reason that this policy shift has not been taken is that tuna industry domestication policies remain bound up within the influential discourse of “resource nationalism.” It is contended that any movement toward a more environmentally and developmentally sustainable ocean fisheries policy will require close engagement and transformation of this sovereignty-focused narrative.