Rio Plus Ten: The Evolution of International Marine Fisheries Governance

The 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held at Rio de Janeiro was a seminal event that addressed the interplay of economic development and human use of natural resources with the need for protection of the natural environment. The general principles embodied in the Rio Declaration and the provisions included in the comprehensive Agenda 21 expressed the expectations of the international community and set the stage for national and international policy and legal developments in a host of different areas, including the governance of the ocean's living resources. Chapter 17 of Agenda 21 focused on the world's oceans and seas and crystallized growing world community concern with problems such as unregulated fishing, fishing vessel reflagging, overcapitalization of the fishing industry, inadequate fisheries enforcement, and insufficient cooperation among states. Further, the documentation of UNCED evidenced interest in new governance frameworks and concepts such as ecosystem-based management and precaution. In retrospect, it is clear that the ideas discussed at Rio have been important and have been implemented by a variety of governments and international organizations as they exercise their responsibilities for fisheries management. This article examines the principles and approaches suggested by UNCED as they relate to world fisheries and considers how they have been reflected in global fishery agreements such as the FAO Compliance Agreement and the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement, in the work of international fishery bodies such as the FAO Committee on Fisheries, and in the efforts of a number of regional fishery commissions. It also addresses the significance and ramifications of changes suggested by Agenda 21 for the future conduct and management of world marine fisheries.     

Marine Mammal Impacts in Exploited Ecosystems: Would Large Scale Culling Benefit Fisheries?

Competition between marine mammals and fisheries for marine resources-whether real or perceived-has become a major issue for several countries and in international fora. We examined trophic interactions between marine mammals and fisheries based on a resource overlap index, using seven Ecopath models including marine mammal groups. On a global scale, most food consumed by marine mammals consisted of prey types that were not the main target of fisheries. For each ecosystem, the primary production required (PPR) to sustain marine mammals was less than half the PPR to sustain fisheries catches. We also developed an index representing the mean trophic level of marine mammal's consumption (TL(Q)) and compared it with the mean trophic level of fisheries' catches (TL(C)). Our results showed that overall TL(Q) was lower than TL(C) (2.88 versus 3.42). As fisheries increasingly exploit lower-trophic level species, the competition with marine mammals may become more important. We used mixed trophic impact analysis to evaluate indirect trophic effects of marine mammals, and in some cases found beneficial effects on some prey. Finally, we assessed the change in the trophic structure of an ecosystem after a simulated extirpation of marine mammal populations. We found that this lead to alterations in the structure of the ecosystems, and that there was no clear and direct relationship between marine mammals' predation and the potential catch by fisheries. Indeed, total biomass, with no marine mammals in the ecosystem, generally remained surprisingly similar, or even decreased for some species.     

Arctic fisheries catches in Russia, USA, and Canada: baselines for neglected ecosystems

The Amerasian Arctic, covering northern Siberia (Russia), Arctic Alaska (USA), and the Canadian Arctic, extends over seven coastal Large Marine Ecosystems and makes up the seasonally ice-free part of FAO Statistical Area 18 (Arctic Sea). Historically, the harsh climate has limited marine fisheries (here excluding marine mammal hunting) to small-scale operations conducted mainly in estuaries and river deltas. Most of the catches have traditionally not been reported to FAO, with the result that total catch estimated here from 1950 to 2006 is 75 times higher than the sum of the catches reported for FAO 18 (Arctic). Catches were reconstructed from data on fishing communities in Canada and Alaska, and from various government and non-government sources for Siberia. Based on national data supplied to FAO since 1950, catches have been reported as 12,700 t in toto (reported on behalf of the former Soviet Union). This compares with our reconstructed catches of over 950,000 t, i.e., 770,000, 89,000, and 94,000 t by Russia, USA, and Canada, respectively for the same time period. The reconstructed catch (mainly whitefishes in Siberia, various salmonids in Alaska, and Arctic char in Canada) was 24,100 t year⁻¹ in 1950, but declined to 10,200 t year⁻¹ by the mid-2000s. Reasons for these trends are discussed by country, along with sources of uncertainty (particularly large for Siberia). Catches were allocated to Large Marine Ecosystems to present ecosystem-relevant baselines for the impact of fisheries on the Arctic, which can be expected to increase, as industrial fisheries move into a warming Arctic following the invasion of boreal species, unless countries apply precautionary ecosystem-based management approaches.     

Inclusion of discard assessment indicators in fisheries life cycle assessment studies. Expanding the use of fishery-specific impact categories

Purpose

The main purpose of this article is to propose specific discard indexes for their development in fisheries life cycle assessment (LCA). The objective of these is to characterize and standardize discards in worldwide fisheries.

Methods

The global discard index (GDI) is intended to be an easily understood index whose use is extendible to any fishery in the world. It is presented as a dynamic index that aims to characterize and standardize discard rates between fisheries by direct comparison with the global discard rates reported periodically by FAO. Furthermore, a simplified approach excluding characterization is presented for scenarios in which the data quality linked to discards is poor. Two additional indicators, survival rate of discards and slipping, are proposed to improve the reporting and quantification of biomass waste by fishing vessels.

Results

GDI implementation, together with two other fishery-specific impact categories, showed remarkable differences in the environmental impacts of several fishing fleets when compared with the obtained results for conventional impact categories. Results for the conventional categories were strongly influenced by the energy use in the fishery, while results obtained for fishery-specific categories presented variable trends due to the dependence on a wider range of factors. GDI inclusion favored direct comparison with worldwide average discard rates on a time scale basis, from a wet weight or a net primary productivity perspective, depending on the selected approach.

Conclusions

Proposed indicators achieved the important objective of integrating discard data as a fishery-specific impact in fishery LCAs, increasing the benefits of implementing LCA in fisheries assessment. Specific advantages of these indicators include assessing changes in capture and landing composition, evaluating the selectivity of the fishing gears, and monitoring the behavior of fisheries in a normalized context respect to other fisheries. GDI was identified as an adequate methodological improvement for regular use in fisheries LCA. Future developments GDI include its harmonization for inclusion in damage assessment.     

Spatio-temporal data comparisons for global highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 outbreaks

Highly pathogenic avian influenza subtype H5N1 is a zoonotic disease and control of the disease is one of the highest priority in global health. Disease surveillance systems are valuable data sources for various researches and management projects, but the data quality has not been paid much attention in previous studies. Based on data from two commonly used databases (Office International des Epizooties (OIE) and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)) of global HPAI H5N1 outbreaks during the period of 2003-2009, we examined and compared their patterns of temporal, spatial and spatio-temporal distributions for the first time. OIE and FAO data showed similar trends in temporal and spatial distributions if they were considered separately. However, more advanced approaches detected a significant difference in joint spatio-temporal distribution. Because of incompleteness for both OIE and FAO data, an integrated dataset would provide a more complete picture of global HPAI H5N1 outbreaks. We also displayed a mismatching profile of global HPAI H5N1 outbreaks and found that the degree of mismatching was related to the epidemic severity. The ideas and approaches used here to assess spatio-temporal data on the same disease from different sources are useful for other similar studies.     

基于渔获统计的太平洋岛国渔业资源开发利用现状评价

全面评价渔业资源开发利用状况能够为资源的合理利用提供依据,营养指标作为以生态系统为基础的渔业管理方法与模式在近年来广泛运用于渔业管理中,用于评估捕捞活动的影响。根据联合国粮农组织FAO提供的1950—2010年太平洋岛国的渔获生产统计数据,结合Fishbase提供的相关鱼种营养级(Trophic level,TL)以及Sea Around Us Project数据库提供的无脊椎动物营养级,探讨了1950—2010年澳大利亚、新西兰、基里巴斯和斐济等四国的渔获物平均营养级(Mean trophic level,MTL)的变化情况,以此判定各国海洋渔业资源可持续利用情况。结果表明:澳大利亚资源状况较好,尽管其MTL在1950—1984年以0.09/10a的速度下降,但通过剔除TL低于3.25的物种,从而排除生物量受环境影响而波动较大的植食动物、腐生生物和食浮游生物动物对MTL造成的影响,观察TL大于3.25渔获物平均营养级(~(3.25)Mean trophic level,~(3.25)MTL)的变化情况,其~(3.25)MTL在1950—2010年呈波动上升趋势,说明MTL的下降是由低营养级鱼种产量的增加所引起的。新西兰海洋渔业资源遭到了一定程度的破坏,尽管其MTL自20世纪70年代中期开始大幅上升,并在1990—2010年处于高水平上稳定波动,未出现明显的下降趋势;但在不统计TL低于3.25的物种情况下,其~(3.25)MTL经过1977—1980年的加速上升以及1981—1998年的缓慢上升,在1999—2010年稳定下降并趋于平衡。从基里巴斯和斐济整个海域的营养指标变化情况来看,两国渔业资源状况较好,但将基里巴斯和斐济渔业分为外海渔业和沿岸渔业两类时,伴随产量的持续上升,两国的外海渔业MTL均未出现明显的降低,资源处于加速开发状态;而两国的沿岸渔业MTL在近年来均出现下降,资源被过度捕捞。为促使渔业的可持续发展,各国需加强对资源的动态监测与评估,以掌握捕捞活动下资源的变化情况。     

The rising tide of fisheries instruments and the struggle to keep afloat

Since agreement was reached in 1982 on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and particularly since the conclusion of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development, the rate of development of global instruments impacting on fisheries has escalated considerably and is apparently continuing to do so. A flood of global and regional instruments relevant to fisheries has been generated, including, for example, the 1973 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora which pre-dates the UN Convention, the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity, 1992 Agenda 21: Programme of Action for Sustainable Development, the 1993 FAO Agreement to Promote Compliance with International Conservation and Management Measures by Fishing Vessels on the High Seas, the 1995 UN Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks, the 1995 FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and its four international plans of action and strategy, and the 2001 FAO Reykjavik Declaration on Responsible Fisheries in the Marine Ecosystem reflecting the growing international interest in ecosystem approaches to fisheries. Most recent has been the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development's Plan of Implementation. These instruments have been motivated by real problems associated with environmental degradation and living resource depletion, in several cases specifically in connection with fisheries. They have attempted to address these problems, and each instrument is recognized as being a positive contribution towards the sustainable use of resources and ecosystems. However, taken collectively they form a large, often confusing and potentially overwhelming set of recommendations and requirements that is putting many fishery management agencies under severe pressure as they seek to implement them. This paper provides a brief overview of the range of recent instruments and their implications for sustainable fisheries management, considers the progress being made in implementing them, identifies general problems being encountered and how they might be ameliorated in the future. A key problem is a lack of political will, or political ability, to address effectively the problems facing fisheries and marine ecosystems. One consequence of this is that the agencies charged with fisheries management are not provided with adequate technical and financial capacity to implement the instruments in most, if not all, countries. The problem is especially acute in developing countries where they are strained by the full effects of "instrument implementation fatigue".     

Review of albacore tuna, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Thunnus alalunga</Emphasis>, biology,fisheries and management

Albacore is one of the most important commercially harvested species in the world’s oceans. Despite a long history of scientific research, there is no global review or synthesis of knowledge about the species across all oceanic regions. We analysed 613 published studies that report on albacore and summarize the current state of knowledge on biology, stock structure, fisheries and management. To describe the trends in albacore fisheries, we examined the catch and effort databases of Regional Fisheries Management Organisations. The stocks of albacore are generally largest in the Pacific Ocean and smallest in the Mediterranean Sea. The biology of Atlantic and Pacific Ocean stocks are well documented, while the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea stocks are more data deficient. These two latter areas should be considered as priorities for future research and data collection in order to better understand the state of global stocks of albacore tuna. Improved information would also assist with delineating stock boundaries needed for sustainable management of this species.     

Cephalopod and Groundfish Landings: Evidence for Ecological Change in Global Fisheries?

Cephalopod fisheries are among the few still with some local potential for expansion; in fact, as groundfish landings have declined globally, cephalopod landings have increased. We propose the hypothesis that, although increased cephalopod landings may partly reflect increased market demand, overfishing groundfish stocks has positively affected cephalopod populations. Data from 15 key FAO areas reveal that, with the exception of the north- east Atlantic, cephalopod landings have increased significantly over the last 25 years while groundfish have risen more slowly, remained stable, or declined. In terms of volume, cephalopods have not replaced groundfish. This is hypothesized as owing to the shorter life cycle of cephalopods, and rapid turnover and lower standing stocks than for longer-lived finfish species. Under high fishing pressure, groundfish are probably poor competitors, having less opportunity for spawning and replacement. In West Africa, the Gulf of Thailand and Adriatic there is strong circumstantial evidence that fishing pressure has changed ecological conditions and cephalopod stocks have increased as predatory fish have declined. We recommend that this hypothesis be tested thoroughly in other areas where suitable data exist. Most coastal and shelf cephalopod fisheries are likely to be fully exploited or overexploited, and current annual fluctuations in cephalopod landings are probably largely environmentally-driven.     

Downscaling climate information for local disease mapping

The study of the impacts of climate on human health requires the interdisciplinary efforts of health professionals, climatologists, biologists, and social scientists to analyze the relationships among physical, biological, ecological, and social systems. As the disease dynamics respond to variations in regional and local climate, climate variability affects every region of the world and the diseases are not necessarily limited to specific regions, so that vectors may become endemic in other regions. Climate data at local level are thus essential to evaluate the dynamics of vector-borne disease through health-climate models and most of the times the climatological databases are not adequate. Climate data at high spatial resolution can be derived by statistical downscaling using historical observations but the method is limited by the availability of historical data at local level. Since the 90s', the statistical interpolation of climate data has been an important priority of the Agrometeorology Group of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), as they are required for agricultural planning and operational activities at the local level. Since 1995, date of the first FAO spatial interpolation software for climate data, more advanced applications have been developed such as SEDI (Satellite Enhanced Data Interpolation) for the downscaling of climate data, LOCCLIM (Local Climate Estimator) and the NEW_LOCCLIM in collaboration with the Deutscher Wetterdienst (German Weather Service) to estimate climatic conditions at locations for which no observations are available. In parallel, an important effort has been made to improve the FAO climate database including at present more than 30,000 stations worldwide and expanding the database from developing countries coverage to global coverage.     

Age, growth, maturity, and mortality of the Alaska skate, Bathyraja parmifera, in the eastern Bering Sea

The Alaska skate, Bathyraja parmifera, is the most abundant species of skate on the eastern Bering Sea shelf, accounting for over 90% of total skate biomass. However, little is known regarding the life history of this species despite its common occurrence as bycatch in several Bering Sea fisheries. This is the first study to focus on the age and growth of B. parmifera. From 2003 to 2005, more than one thousand specimens were collected by fisheries observers and on scientific groundfish surveys. Annual banding patterns in more than 500 thin sections of vertebral centra were examined for age determination. Caudal thorns were tested as a potentially non-lethal ageing structure. Annual band pair deposition was verified through edge and marginal increment analyses. A three-parameter von Bertalanffy growth function and a Gompertz growth function were fit to observed length-at-age data. Both models provided significant fits, although the Gompertz function best described the overall pattern of growth in both males and females, based upon statistical criteria and parameter estimates. Age and size at 50% maturity were 9 years and 92 cm TL for males and 10 years and 93 cm TL for females. The maximum observed ages for males and females were 15 years and 17 years, respectively. Estimates of natural mortality (M) ranged from 0.14 to 0.28, and were based on published relationships between M and longevity, age at maturity, and the von Bertalanffy growth coefficient. Due to these life history characteristics and a lack of long-term species-specific stock data, a conservative management approach would be appropriate for B. parmifera.     

Trophic segregation of Falkland Islands seabirds: insights from stable isotope analysis

Seabird colonies provide rare opportunities to study trophic segregation in an entire bird community. We here present data on nitrogen and carbon isotope ratios of eight species of seabirds from New Island, Falkland Islands, and compare trophic levels (TL) and foraging distributions. We included adult feathers representing the interbreeding season, as well as chick feathers or down representing the breeding season. The stable isotope ratios indicated differences in feeding areas and TLs between species, consistent with the data of previous conventional diet analyses and observations at sea. We further reviewed conventional and stable isotope seabird community studies calculating the means and ranges of TLs observed across these studies. The mean TL (3.7) of the seabird community on New Island was at the lower end of the mean value range (3.5–4.5), but not significantly different, from the reviewed seabird communities. Seabirds on New Island had a range of 1.3 TLs, which is on the upper end of ranges within a community (0.4–1.5), indicating strong trophic structuring.     

Sustainability of port activities within the framework of the fisheries sector: Port of Vigo (NW Spain)

Sustainability of the fisheries sector is nowadays a key issue due to the significant impact that this activity may have on the environment. Besides fishing activity itself, other indirect impacts, like those originated from related activities and services also need to be addressed. For assessing the environmental burden of this sector, the Ecological Footprint (EF) indicator can be used. The application of EF to the fisheries sector is still uncommon and studies of associated activities (such as ports) even more. In this work, classical EF methodology was applied in order to evaluate the environmental impact of the fisheries sector, taking as a representative sample the global activity (fishing and transportation) of the Port of Vigo (Spain), one of the biggest fishing ports in the world. A high value of total EF for both port and fishing activities was obtained. However, relative EF is much higher in the case of fishing, due to the low natural productivity associated to fish resources. Energy-land and sea area were the most affected land-components within the footprint, while among the different categories, resources consumption was the main contributor to the EF value in all the assessed scenarios.     

Sharing the water column: physiological mechanisms underlying species-specific habitat use in tunas

Tuna species support some of the world’s largest commercial and recreational fisheries. Their extensive migratory patterns expose them to multiple national and international fisheries and fishery management regimes. Several prized species have become the focus of global conservation efforts and there is a growing worldwide interest in establishing optimal strategies for sustainable tuna fisheries. Although this task has proven to be very challenging, it has taken on a new sense of urgency in the face of the potential effects of global climate change. A better understanding of the interactions between environmental conditions and tuna physiology and how they affect tuna behavior will offer population and stock assessment modelers and fisheries biologists a more mechanistic understanding of tuna distribution patterns and may help predict changes in both geographic and depth-related movement patterns. Indeed, physiological data comprise a growing component of multi-trait analysis approaches to species conservation. Our review aims to summarize what is known about differences among tuna species in distribution patterns, tolerances to environmental conditions, and physiological characteristics that correlate with the capacity to inhabit cooler (deeper, higher latitude) and even hypoxic waters. To achieve this goal, we discuss how these physiological traits are associated with habitat partitioning within the three-dimensional oceanic environment and with niche expansion into cooler and hypoxic waters. We also point out areas where additional research is needed to predict more accurately how future changes in oceanographic conditions will affect the distributions and movement patterns of tunas and their availability to fisheries.     

Contribution of pollinator-mediated crops to nutrients in the human food supply

The contribution of nutrients from animal pollinated world crops has not previously been evaluated as a biophysical measure for the value of pollination services. This study evaluates the nutritional composition of animal-pollinated world crops. We calculated pollinator dependent and independent proportions of different nutrients of world crops, employing FAO data for crop production, USDA data for nutritional composition, and pollinator dependency data according to Klein et al. (2007). Crop plants that depend fully or partially on animal pollinators contain more than 90% of vitamin C, the whole quantity of Lycopene and almost the full quantity of the antioxidants β-cryptoxanthin and β-tocopherol, the majority of the lipid, vitamin A and related carotenoids, calcium and fluoride, and a large portion of folic acid. Ongoing pollinator decline may thus exacerbate current difficulties of providing a nutritionally adequate diet for the global human population.     

Accuracy assessments of the GLOBCOVER dataset using global statistical inventories and FLUXNET site data

The spatio-temporal distribution of land cover provides fundamental data for global climate and environmental change research. In recent decades, five global land cover maps have been produced based on remote sensing data sources and methodologies. Related research have shown that the availability and quality of the first four global land cover datasets are poor at the regional or the continental scale for a variety of reasons. There is still no consensus on the accuracy of the latest global land cover map. Based on comparison of the land cover dataset with the statistical cropland data from FAO and the FLUXNET site data, this paper discusses the accuracy of the fifth global land cover map, namely, the GLOBCOVER dataset, at different spatial scales. At the global scale, the cropland area obtained from the GLOBCOVER dataset is greater than that of the FAO statistical data by 47.06–84.49%, and the land cover types of the GLOBCOVER dataset have a 65.02% consistency with that of the FLUXNET site data. At the continental scale, the difference between cropland areas obtained from the GLOBCOVER dataset and the statistical cropland area vary from ?43.42% to 502.36%; continents that have a more accurate cropland area compared to the FAO statistical data tend to be less consistent with the FLUXNET site data. In general, North America has a higher accuracy and Oceania has a lower accuracy. At the country scale, the accuracy estimates vary sharply over a wide range: between ?100.00% and 190670.37%. It is recommended that future studies should pay careful attention to the data validation step before using the GLOBCOVER dataset for any particular problem. Future studies are also required for the development of a universal land cover classification system and advanced algorithms for remote sensing classification of global land cover maps.     

So long to genetic diversity,and thanks for all the fish

The world faces a global fishing crisis. Wild marine fisheries comprise nearly 15% of all animal protein in the human diet, but, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, nearly 60% of all commercially important marine fish stocks are overexploited, recovering, or depleted (FAO 2012 ; Fig.  1 ). Some authors have suggested that the large population sizes of harvested marine fish make even collapsed populations resistant to the loss of genetic variation by genetic drift (e.g. Beverton 1990 ). In contrast, others have argued that the loss of alleles because of overfishing may actually be more dramatic in large populations than in small ones (Ryman et al. 1995). In this issue, Pinsky & Palumbi (2014) report that overfished populations have approximately 2% lower heterozygosity and 12% lower allelic richness than populations that are not overfished. They also performed simulations which suggest that their estimates likely underestimate the actual loss of rare alleles by a factor of three or four. This important paper shows that the harvesting of marine fish can have genetic effects that threaten the long‐term sustainability of this valuable resource.     

Bycatches of endangered,threatened and protected species in marine fisheries

Bycatch remains one of the most significant fisheries issues in the world and its monitoring and reporting is now expected in many regions. This paper provides a global synthesis of the data that are available on one of the most controversial components of bycatch, that associated with the capture and discarding of endangered, threatened and protected (ETP) species in marine commercial and artisanal fisheries. We examine the available literature regarding estimates for the key taxa in this category of bycatch (seabirds, turtles, sea snakes, marine mammals, sharks, rays and teleosts) and use the data to try to provide a total global estimate. We estimate (albeit quite imprecisely) that at least 20 million individuals of such species are discarded annually throughout the world. However, there remain far too many gaps and uncertainties across fisheries and regions in the information to provide any robustness (or variance) around such an estimate, nor to determine the actual fates of these animals (many may survive). This is exacerbated because: (1) the occurrences of such species are often rare and controversial and so go either unnoticed and/or unrecorded; (2) different levels of protection are afforded to different ETP species in different countries and fisheries and; (3) discarding practices vary greatly across a hierarchy of spatio-temporal scales and according to individual fishing conditions and procedures—the latter affecting actual mortalities. Nevertheless, there have been major initiatives established in recent years to provide better data on such interactions in addition to novel fishing methods and practices that reduce them and also improve the survival of discarded individuals. This paper discusses the data currently available and the quite significant gaps that remain.     

Effects of stocking-up freshwater food webs

The establishment of exotic game fishes to enhance recreational fisheries through authorized and unauthorized stocking into freshwater systems is a global phenomenon. Stocked fishes are often top predators that either replace native top predators or increase the species richness of top predators. Many direct effects of stocking have been documented, but the ecosystem consequences are seldom quantified. New studies increasingly document how species and community shifts influence ecosystem processes. We discuss here how predator stocking might increase top-down effects, alter nutrient cycles and decrease links between aquatic and surrounding terrestrial ecosystems. As fisheries management moves beyond species-specific utilitarian objectives to incorporate ecosystem and conservation goals, ecologists must address how common management practices alter food-web structure and subsequent ecosystem-level effects.