The Role of Research in Fisheries Management: The Conservation of Dolphins in the Eastern Tropical Pacific and the Exploitation of Southern Bluefin Tuna in the Southern Ocean

This article uses two case studies to assess the role of research in policy formation and fishery management. One study focuses on measures to limit the mortality of dolphins taken when tuna are harvested in the eastern tropical Pacific. The other studies measures taken to limit harvests of Southern Bluefin Tuna. Both of these fisheries involve fugitive resources and transboundary resources spreading across both national exclusive economic zones and the high seas. Both fisheries were initially based on open access, but public policy has led to greater exclusive use through individual transferable quotas for Southern Bluefin Tuna and dolphin mortality limits. A number of policy conclusions are drawn.     

Implementing Article 28 of the UN Fish Stocks Agreement: The First Review of a Conservation Measure in the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation

This article assesses the contribution of the 2013 Review of the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation's measure on jack mackerel to effective decision making as mandated by the UN Fish Stocks Agreement. Though positive overall, the review highlights some potential flaws, notably the dilemma that the requirement of an alternative measure equivalent in effect to the one challenged may, if interpreted strictly, lead to a replacement measure just as unacceptable to the state initiating the review. Other issues emerging from the review are the incentive to overreport catch in anticipation of an allocation and a doubtful interpretation of a central provision in the treaty that created the organization.     

Fisheries management in practice: review of 13 commercially important fish stocks

This paper comparatively reviews several commercially important fish stocks, their state and their management in various regions of the world including Japanese anchovy, Bay of Biscay anchovy, North Sea sandeel, North Sea herring, Icelandic cod, Barents Sea cod, South African cape hakes, sockeye salmon, chinook salmon, southern bluefin tuna, Pacific halibut, Greenland halibut and Patagonian toothfish. The reviewed fish stocks are systemized in three categories: (1) stock properties and status; (2) management structure and objectives; and (3) management advice. We gather evidence to outline qualities of management regimes that are recommended and highlight those that most often fail. Robust management, biological limits (reference points), implementation and consensus are critical points that separate successful and unsuccessful management regimes. We evaluate each fish stock’s management performance relative to its management objectives and current conservation issues. Furthermore, we point out the importance of stakeholder involvement in fisheries management as well as the problems that international fisheries commissions face through examples from the case studies. Management successes tended to be single-nation and single-stock fisheries with capacity control and clear stakeholder involvement. Fisheries with fleet overcapacity, unclear objectives and illegal activity characterized the case studies with management problems.     

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.     

Fisheries in the Southern Ocean: an ecosystem approach

The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) is bound by its Article II, 3 to follow an ecosystem approach to management. This approach has been extended to the application of a precautionary approach in the late 1980s. In our review, we deal primarily with the science-related aspects of CCAMLR and its development towards an ecosystem approach to the management of the living resources of the Southern Ocean. To assist the Commission in meeting its objectives, as set out in Article II, 3, the Scientific Committee established the CCAMLR Ecosystem Monitoring Programme to detect possible effects of krill fishing on the performance of top-level predators, such as albatrosses, penguins, petrels and fur seals. Fisheries in the Southern Ocean followed the fate of other fisheries worldwide in which target species were depleted to low level one after the other. Currently, two types of fisheries are open: the longline fisheries on Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides) and Antarctic toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni) and the trawl fisheries on mackerel icefish (Champsocephalus gunnari). Both fisheries are managed in a single-species context, however, with conservation measures in place to protect by-catch species, such as rattails (Macrouridae) and skates and rays (Rajidae). Two major problems still exist in fisheries in the Southern Ocean: the by-catch of birds in longline fisheries primarily in the Indian Ocean and the high level of IUU fishing again in the Indian Ocean. Both, the by-catch of birds and high IUU catches undermine the credibility of CCAMLR to safeguard the marine living resources in the Southern Ocean.     

A Game of Cat and Fish: How to Restore the Balance in Sustainable Fisheries Management

This article argues that continued reliance on input/output controls and restrictions in fisheries management may be insufficient to protect global fish stocks. Instead, a transition beyond supply-side measures to those aimed at reducing demand for fish stocks may be necessary. The article offers a proposal for five types of demand-side or market-based measures: elimination of fishing subsidies, bolstering of import restrictions, ceasing trade in endangered and threatened fish stocks, strengthening civil and criminal penalties against illegal fishers, and pursuit of punitive trade sanctions against flag states flouting international fishery guidelines to help prevent and deter global overfishing.     

Shedding new light on the life cycle of mackerel icefish in the Southern Ocean

Mackerel icefish have a widespread distribution in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean sectors of the low-Antarctic region. Biological characteristics differ considerably between populations in the southern Scotia Arc and those living further to the north. Fish living in the north mature 1 year earlier than in the south. They have a much shorter life span and die after they have spawned two to three times. The number of eggs produced per gram of body mass is higher in the north. Stocks have declined in most parts of the distributional range due to the impact of fishing and due to natural causes. Increases in populations of Antarctic fur seals at South Georgia and parts of the Indian Ocean appear to have led to increased predation on stocks of icefish. Shifts in hydrological regimes in the northern part of the distributional range have either started to lead or will lead to deteriorating living conditions for mackerel icefish in the near future. Fish stock assessment needs to take these constraints into consideration when providing advice on total allowable catches for fisheries management.     

The effects of natural iron fertilisation on deep-sea ecology: the Crozet Plateau, Southern Indian Ocean

The addition of iron to high-nutrient low-chlorophyll (HNLC) oceanic waters stimulates phytoplankton, leading to greater primary production. Large-scale artificial ocean iron fertilization (OIF) has been proposed as a means of mitigating anthropogenic atmospheric CO(2), but its impacts on ocean ecosystems below the photic zone are unknown. Natural OIF, through the addition of iron leached from volcanic islands, has been shown to enhance primary productivity and carbon export and so can be used to study the effects of OIF on life in the ocean. We compared two closely-located deep-sea sites (～400 km apart and both at ～4200 m water depth) to the East (naturally iron fertilized; +Fe) and South (HNLC) of the Crozet Islands in the southern Indian Ocean. Our results suggest that long-term geo-engineering of surface oceanic waters via artificial OIF would lead to significant changes in deep-sea ecosystems. We found that the +Fe area had greater supplies of organic matter inputs to the seafloor, including polyunsaturated fatty acid and carotenoid nutrients. The +Fe site also had greater densities and biomasses of large deep-sea animals with lower levels of evenness in community structuring. The species composition was also very different, with the +Fe site showing similarities to eutrophic sites in other ocean basins. Moreover, major differences occurred in the taxa at the +Fe and HNLC sites revealing the crucial role that surface oceanic conditions play in changing and structuring deep-sea benthic communities.     

Population dynamics of Themisto gaudichaudii in Kerguelen Islands waters, Southern Indian Ocean

Fieldwork was carried out at Kerguelen Islands. Two groups of stations in a coastal area, the Morbihan gulf, were surveyed. At both stations, macroplankton biomass ranged from 2.3 mg dry weight m⁻³ to 89 mg dry weight m⁻³ and consisted mostly of Themisto gaudichaudii with values ranging from 1.9 mg dry weight m⁻³ to 50.6 mg dry weight m⁻³. Biomass was high for sub-Antarctic waters with marked seasonal and inter-zone differences. Biomass minima were observed at the end of the winter, from September to November, while maxima were recorded in summer and in early fall at the beginning of the year between January and April. T. gaudichaudii showed a recruitment of new size classes, mainly from November to January, followed by a rapid growth phase in summer, which slowed down during the southern winter period. Individuals breed after 1 year. Large individuals, older than 1 year, were not a significant presence in the gulf of Morbihan. The main pattern of the population dynamics were characterised by an univoltine life cycle with a very high biomass marked by a strong seasonal signal linked with the hydrological and trophic parameters of the Gulf.     

The 1998 Agreement on the International Dolphin Conservation Program: Recent Developments in the Tuna-Dolphin Controversy in the Eastern Pacific Ocean

The problem of incidental dolphin mortality in the eastern Pacific Ocean fisheries for yellowfin tuna is one of the longest running controversies in the modern international law of fisheries. Although initiatives in the last 30 years have been successful in reducing incidental mortality from very high levels to relatively modest levels, most of these have been either unilateral actions, principally by the United States, or voluntary agreements among the states concerned. In 1998, however, these states concluded a binding agreement that formalized and extended the existing voluntary arrangements. This article reviews the developments that led to the adoption of the 1998 agreement, summarizes its provisions, and looks at events since its adoption.     

Spain,the European Union,and Canada: A New Phase in the Unstable Balance in the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries

The past stormy fisheries relations between Canada and the European Union, in particular with Spain, has been replaced by uncertainty in the application of the newly amended Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Convention. These issues are addressed in this article that sheds light on the more peaceful fishing relations between the two leading international actors in this area of the oceans.     

Pacta Tertiis and Regional Fisheries Management Mechanisms: The IUU Fishing Concept as an Illegitimate Short-Cut to a Legitimate Goal1

This article considers how international management of fisheries under the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement and regional fisheries management organizations is affected by one of the basic principles of the law of treaties: the rule pacta tertiis nec nocent nec prosunt, by which international fisheries regulations as treaty-based obligations bind only the parties to the treaty concerned and not third states without their consent. It is shown that the relatively recent concept of IUU (illegal, unreported, and unregulated) fishing, often seen as a way to circumvent this problem, is flawed as a solution, largely because the leading global and European Union instruments in which it is embodied in effect equate unregulated fishing with illegal fishing in a way that pays insufficient heed to the constraints of the pacta tertiis rule.     

Habitat modelling of tracking data from multiple marine predators identifies important areas in the Southern Indian Ocean

Aim

The distribution of marine predators is driven by the distribution and abundance of their prey; areas preferred by multiple marine predator species should therefore indicate areas of ecological significance. The Southern Ocean supports large populations of seabirds and marine mammals and is undergoing rapid environmental change. The management and conservation of these predators and their environment relies on understanding their distribution and its link with the biophysical environment, as the latter determines the distribution and abundance of prey. We addressed this issue using tracking data from 14 species of marine predators to identify important habitat.

Location

Indian Ocean sector of the Southern Ocean.

Methods

We used tracking data from 538 tag deployments made over a decade at the Subantarctic Prince Edward Islands. For each real track, we simulated a set of pseudo‐tracks that allowed a presence‐availability habitat modelling approach that estimates an animal's habitat preference. Using model ensembles of boosted regression trees and random forests, we modelled these tracks as a response to a set of 17 environmental variables. We combined the resulting species‐specific models to evaluate areas of mean importance.

Results

Real tracking locations covered 39.75 million km², up to 7,813 km from the Prince Edward Islands. Areas of high mean importance were located broadly from the Subtropical Zone to the Polar Frontal Zone in summer and from the Subantarctic to Antarctic Zones in winter. Areas of high mean importance were best predicted by factors including wind speed, sea surface temperature, depth and current speed.

Main conclusions

The models and predictions developed here identify important habitat of marine predators around the Prince Edward Islands and can support the large‐scale conservation and management of Subantarctic ecosystems and the marine predators they sustain. The results also form the basis of future efforts to predict the consequences of environmental change.

     

台湾海峡南部异足类一少见种——胎盘心足螺记述

胎盘心足螺Cardiapoda placenta(Lesson,1830)属于中国海洋浮游软体动物的少见种,《中国海洋生物种类与分布(增订版)》和《中国海洋生物名录》均未见收录。2005年7月14日在台湾海峡南部采得一个雄性胎盘心足螺标本,现对其外部形态特征进行详细的描述,并拍摄照片以资对照,文中还讨论了胎盘心足螺与长尾心足螺C.richardi Vayssiere,1903的区别。     

The biological standard of living in Taiwan under Japanese occupation

This paper presents evidence on the biological standard of living in Taiwan from 1842 to 1931 using Taiwanese height and weight data collected by the Japanese authorities from 1921 to 1931. This study shows that in the late Ch'ing adult heights were not increasing over time, while the adult heights of those born after the Japanese takeover did begin to increase rapidly. Evidence from children's heights confirms that this growth in height continued through the 1920s. The body mass index of Taiwanese, however, did not increase in the 1920s. By most measures, the biological standard of living was better in the north of the island. Comparison with modern data shows that heights have continued to increase.     

The seasonal detection of AcSBV (Apis cerana sacbrood virus) prevalence in Taiwan

The epizootic disease caused by Apis cerana sacbrood virus (AcSBV) occurred in Eastern hive bee, A. cerana, since 2015 in Taiwan. A large-scale survey of this disease from September and December 2016 in Taiwan was performed including symptom check and molecular identification in honey bees of A. cerana hives and several A. mellifera hives, which were co-cultured with A. cerana. Based on the nucleotide sequences of partial VP1, the phylogenetic analysis with those of the known AcSBV isolates revealed that most of AcSBV isolates from Taiwan were closely relative to SBV-FZ and -JL isolates from China, whereas only one sample (N15-5-1) was in a distinct cluster, which was closely relative to SBV-LN from China too. The AcSBV prevalence was occurring in A. cerana hives in most areas of Taiwan except for those in Hualien and Pingtung Counties in Taiwan. Notably, the AcSBV prevalence rate showed the temporal increase from 47.1% to 69.6% within 4?months. In addition, 37.5% of AcSBV prevalence rate was found in A. mellifera hives. It showed that A. mellifera was also susceptible to AcSBV infection. The present results would provide the information on the epidemiology and for prospective research.     

The direct influence of fishing and fishery-related activities on non-target species in the Southern Ocean with particular emphasis on longline fishing and its impact on albatrosses and petrels – a review

Finfishing in the Southern Ocean began morethan 30 years ago at South Georgia and theKerguelen Islands. Although the fisheryextended further south for a few years in thesecond half of the 1970s, these two islandsremained the most important fishing groundsuntil 1996/97. Longlining for Dissostichuseleginoides began in 1985/86 and remainedrestricted to South Georgia and the KerguelenIslands for more than 10 years. Catches rarelyexceeded 12,000 tonnes in one season. Thefishery, however, is important because the fishare valuable and highly priced. The Commissionfor the Conservation of Antarctic Marine LivingResources (CCAMLR) is regulating fishing in theSouthern Ocean. CCAMLR first receivedinformation on this fishery and its possiblehigh by-catch of albatrosses and larger petrelswas first estimated in 1991. From 1996/97 onwards, illegal, unreportedand unregulated (IUU) fishing expandeddramatically within a single season. Limitedcontrol could be exerted in those areas whichwere under national jurisdiction. A number ofdetrimental effects from fishing activitiescould be seen on birds and mammals. Estimatedcatches in the illegal fishery amounted toseveral tens of thousands of birds per seasonwith little appparent reduction over the firstfour seasons. The sudden development of theillegal fishery placed a great strain onCCAMLR's fishery management. Vessels fishinglegally gradually improved their compliancewith CCAMLR conservation measures over the lastcouple of years. This may be insignificant compared to the potential in the IUU fisheriesbut testifies to our ability to makesignificant improvement using simple mitigationmethods.After setting precautionary catch limits in1997, CCAMLR was able to adopt a `CatchDocumentation Scheme' (CDS) in November 1999which came into force on 7 May 2000. Mauritius,the main port where IUU fish were landed in2000, was willing to accede to CCAMLR and adoptthe CDS. An International Plan of Action forReducing Incidental Catch of Seabirds inLongline Fisheries was adopted by the FAO inJune 1999 and various activities ofgovernmental and non-governmental groups alsoseemed likely to address the problem moreeffectively with the assistance of the fishingindustry.     

Fishy Business: The High Seas Boarding and Inspection Regime in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean

The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) was created in 2004 to more effectively conserve and manage the region's tuna fishery. One of the Commission's principal enforcement tools is the high seas boarding and inspection regime, which authorizes each member state to board and inspect fishing vessels engaged in a regulated fishery to verify compliance with the Commission's conservation and management measures. This article examines the structure of the WCPFC's high seas boarding and inspection regime and analyzes its effectiveness in furthering the Commission's conservations and management mandate.