A bio-economic model for the ecosystem-based management of the coastal fishery in French Guiana

Ecoviability for small-scale fisheries in the context of food security constraints

Although there have been significant efforts recently to improve fishery management laws and eliminate overfishing in the United States (e.g., Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act Reauthorization in 2006), many of our stocks remain overfished or have not been assessed. New collaborative partnerships and innovative business models are sorely needed to bridge the divide among stakeholders and to reform our ailing fisheries. Fishers are subject to increasing regulatory measures and face dwindling revenues. There are still many examples of destructive fishing practices that have significant impacts on marine ecosystems, and our fisheries are not yet managed in a broader ecosystem context. The perceived lack of common ground between the fishing industry and environmental organizations impedes progress in moving toward more sustainable fisheries. This does not have to be our reality. This situation results from two key problems. First, our system of fisheries management relies principally on top-down management that is too complex, relies too little on the best available science, and is too often at the mercy of increasingly constrained state and federal budgets. Second, the high degree of polarization among fishery stakeholders impedes collaborative solutions. Competing interests weaken incentives for improved economic and biological stewardship, which has, in turn, led fishers to overcapitalize and overexploit the resource in a race for fish. Relationships among stakeholders, especially fishers and environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), are bitterly adversarial, and fishery managers find themselves paralyzed by their constituents’ extreme polarization. Entrenched positions taken by special interest groups and the threat of lawsuits often provide political cover for regulators to avoid hard decisions. The resulting mess can be termed “fish wars.” The casualties of the fish wars have been the consumer, the environment, coastal communities, and small-scale fishers. Although seafood demand in North America has increased in recent decades, many of our fisheries have experienced significant declines in landings. Americans are increasingly relying on imported fish (with unknown associated environmental and health impacts) and are unable to purchase local, sustainably caught seafood. As a result, we are exporting many of our fisheries management problems to other countries that have even less capacity to address them. Fishery managers have sought to solve the problem of too many boats chasing too few fish by trying to reduce fishing pressure through limiting the number of permit-holding fishers and, sometimes, by buying and retiring some permits to reduce effort. Nevertheless, the pendulum has swung hard in the other direction, fueling consolidation in the industry that favors large fishing corporations and pushes out small-scale fishers. Some fishers, strained by years of difficulty, leave the fishery permanently (and sometimes en masse), and barriers for small-boat fishers—such as the cost to purchase a permit to gain access to the fishery—make it difficult for new entrants to participate. Fishing communities are losing fishing-related jobs, access to the local resource, and infrastructure, and we all are losing a part of our maritime heritage that has existed for generations and helps to fuel coastal tourism. Furthermore, we are losing the knowledge held by those who have spent their lives on the water, as well as the energy and innovation new entrants and small businesses could bring to addressing our ailing fisheries. Many small-scale fishers are outcompeted by larger fishing operations, which is unfortunate because small businesses are likely a more sustainable scale of operation, are more nimble and adaptive, and are more likely to try innovative approaches to gain an edge. The lack of good working relationships among stakeholders represents one of the greatest challenges to effecting change in fisheries management. It often appears that managers and fishers have become insular and resistant to change, while environmental groups have become adept at pointing out problems and assigning blame. Fishing industries are often intransigent and incentivized for short-term profitability, not long-term stewardship of the public resource. If a fishery is depleted, the industry often moves on to the next profitable target. In addition, small-scale fishers and their communities are generally insufficiently organized or unified to influence the regulatory and political process necessary to protect local access to and stewardship of resources. Fishery managers have been hampered by lack of funding, capacity, innovation, and political will and instead have resorted to increasingly rigid and complicated regulation in reaction to lawsuits and stock declines. Fishery scientists struggle to assess even a small portion of the stocks and monitor some of the fishing effort, much less consider cumulative impacts of fishing or ecosystem-scale management of fisheries. Environmental NGOs—driven by concern about the threats fishing can pose, scientific uncertainties in fishery management, and the precautionary approach—have traditionally focused on gaining ecosystem protection and restricting fisheries through lawsuits, closed areas, or adversarial means rather than true collaboration. Each faction is focused only on their issues and lacks the resources or the will to consider the whole. In most fisheries long-term economic viability relies on healthy stocks and healthy marine habitats, which sets the stage for environmental NGOs and fishers to become natural partners in the design of truly innovative solutions around which all parties can rally. Together we must develop and test new fishery management models that will protect ecosystem benefits and preserve fishing opportunities. Fortunately, there are some emerging examples of new on-the-water partnerships and demonstration projects in which NGOs, managers, and fishers are stretching beyond their comfort zones to bridge the divide. Some NGOs are starting to get some “skin in the game” by acquiring fishing permits and, together with partners and the community, using those assets as platforms to test new approaches. These partnerships are accelerating the development of new and innovative fishing business models. In some cases NGOs and fishers are collaborating to create permit, license, or quota banks, which can secure access to adjacent fishing grounds and stocks, foster collaborative research and monitoring, and enable sharing of fishing assets and resources. Another approach involves cooperatives or community-based fishing associations, which would operate according to mutually agreed upon environmental and economic performance standards. These entities could hold fishing permits or quotas and provide medical benefits and other economies of scale for small-scale fishers. These ideas, and others, are being pioneered around North America and serve as crucial learning opportunities for both the industry and the environmental community. In New England the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fisherman's Association is a groundbreaking partnership between commercial fishers and coastal residents that is promoting healthier fish stocks and revitalizing the industry through more sustainable fishing practices. Local fishers, concerned about the issues outlined here, initiated outreach to the community to develop a solution. Together, they now play a key role in fishery reform. In addition to using less-damaging gear, such as hook and line and fish weirs, the association is pioneering the allocation of groundfish to sectors; acquiring groundfish, scallop, and lobster quotas for member fishermen; conducting collaborative research; and engaging in community-based management. On the western coast of British Columbia local groundfishers and Ecotrust Canada have designed and implemented a novel business model that not only seeks to improve the economic viability and sustainability of local fishermen, but also strives to make ownership of permits and quotas affordable to rural fishing communities. Ecotrust and others secured private financing and established a license bank—a corporation owned by the fishers that purchases and holds fishing assets in partnership with outside investors. The collaboration allows fishers with smaller operations to have a more substantive stake in the fishery and, by encouraging them to operate and deliver their products closer to home, helps keep the economic benefits within the community. On California's central coast The Nature Conservancy is collaborating with fishers and regulatory agencies to improve the economic performance of the groundfish fishery, rebuild fish stocks, and protect seafloor habitat. Together they are exploring the potential of transitioning some of the fishery's harvest effort away from bottom trawling, which has created significant environmental and regulatory problems for the fishery. On the basis of recommendations from the National Research Council on abating bottom trawling impacts to seafloor habitats, the Conservancy used private buyouts of trawl permits to leverage habitat protection, reduce trawl effort, and convert traditional trawl effort to more selective, less-damaging gear. By acquiring and assembling a trawl permit bank, the Conservancy is now able to lease its trawl permits to local fishers with legal conservation restrictions, transition trawl effort to hook and line, and test collective harvesting and monitoring approaches. Together the Conservancy and partners are also testing a prototype community-fishing association that could hold and manage permits or quotas and build a foundation for a more-sustainable local fishery. One of the greatest benefits of this project has been the new partnership among NGOs, fishers, and managers, who have agreed to work closely together to test new approaches and to learn from each other. Partnerships like these will also strengthen scientific understanding of fisheries in the broader context of marine ecosystem protection and better inform management approaches at ecologically relevant scales. Fishers crave better science to support fisheries management, and NGOs have the resources and expertise to help fill this gap. Although collaborative fisheries research is not new, it needs to be more strategic in bringing together the right partners to address the most important questions to promote more sustainable management. The Northeast Consortium (at the University of New Hampshire) in partnership with the Northeast Fisheries Science Center of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is one example of an effort to bring local input and strategic vision to collaborative research programs. The partnership is also assessing the effectiveness of that research in informing management decisions, building trust and communication between fishers and scientists, and enhancing economic values. Although they may appear to be unlikely partners, fishers and conservationists have started to realize the potential of collaboration. In some cases it may behoove federal managers to step back and allow fishers, NGOs, and scientists to redesign and restructure a pilot fishery and then support these efforts via the regulatory process. When fishers are empowered and incentivized to better steward their local resources, it may well ease the regulatory burden. Creating opportunities to test collaborative management approaches is key to ultimately bringing about fisheries reform in the United States. To be successful we must look to our shared values—in healthy oceans, economic stability in coastal communities, and supplies of fresh local seafood—and actively encourage all stakeholders to work together. Fishery managers can foster and leverage uncommon partnerships to develop new approaches to fishery management. And NGOs can be more effective partners by admitting that they still have a lot to learn about fishery socioeconomics. In the end it may not be a lack of new ideas and resources that block our road toward fishery reform, but rather the unwillingness of key fishery stakeholders to work together. We must take real steps to avoid this outcome. We must stop the fish wars, stop assigning blame, meet each other halfway, and be willing to learn from each other. Only then will we be able to create a brighter future for our oceans, our coastal communities, and our seafood supply.

SAR data for tropical forest disturbance alerts in French Guiana: Benefit over optical imagery

A regular seasonal pattern of periodicity was detected in monthly catch data for Dosidicus gigas during the most recent period of high abundance of the species off Chile. Monthly catch data covering from 2002 to 2005 were grouped into three large zones, and the trend of the time series was removed by using loess smoother. The residuals between the original and the loess trend curve were computed and analyzed using autocorrelation and cross-correlation at different lags, and a trigonometric model was fitted to detect seasonal oscillation. A coherent pattern in the short-term monthly residuals was observed in the three time series, revealing a similar underlying process in the catch data, with a six-month cycle. We postulate that the seasonal and interannual fluctuations observed in the catch records could be related to the reproductive success of the species through the average occurrence of two reproductive cycles per year, and hence the generation of two cohorts per year.

This paper uses the technique of simulated adaptive control to provide a method for comparing the performance of different fisheries management models. The management model is evaluated not in isolation, but rather as part of an integrated fisheries management system which includes the simulated population dynamics of the exploited fish, the simulated fishery, the fishery management policy formulation process, and the analysis of the simulated fisheries data. The technique is used to compare a simple biomass dynamic based model introduced by Ludwig and Hilborn with a more complicated length-based model developed by Fournier and Doonan. A composite model which combines the biomass dynamic based model with the length-based model was also evaluated. The composite model performed better than either of its component models.

As marine ecosystems are under pressure worldwide, many scientists and stakeholders advocate the use of ecosystem-based approaches for fishery management. In particular, management policies are expected to account for the multispecies nature of fisheries. However, numerous fisheries management plans remain based on single-species concepts, such as maximum sustainable yield (MSY) and maximum economic yield (MEY), that respectively aim at maximizing catches or profits of single species or stocks. In this study, we assess the bioeconomic sustainability of multispecies MSY and MEY in a mixed fishery, characterized by technical interactions and therefore joint production. First, we analytically show how multispecies MSY and MEY can induce overharvesting and extinction of species with low productivity and low value. Second, we identify and discuss incentives on effort costs and landing prices, as well as technical regulations, that could promote biodiversity conservation and more globally sustainability. Finally, a numerical example based on the coastal fishery in French Guiana illustrates the analytical findings.

The paper explores the question of diversity in agricultural practice as related to bio-diversity and landscape appearance. It starts with the observation that, in the past, diverse natural conditions have considerably impacted on adapted modes of agricultural production, more than today, and that previously performed farm practices were strongly affiliated with specific natural conditions. These practices positively contributed to a motified, diverse and man-made environment which is frequently considered a beautiful landscape. This has changed dramatically. Particularly, where the European countryside is regarded a natural heritage, today, the public seems to be worried about modern farm practices. After the adoption of modern techniques, farmers prefer to apply unified production technologies and tend to set-up uniform farm structures and product mixes as well as land cultivation practices based on purchased inputs. Farm operations equalise natural conditions and contribute to uniform land rents. However, a rising public concern for the preservation of bio-diversity is asking for change and new measures. Additional to regulations on farm practices governments seek to compensate farmers for nature preservation and production of bio-diversity. Presuming that high biodiversity is dependent on diversity in agricultural practice and landscape appearance due to preserved natural conditions, the paper develops a model that links payments to diversity in farm practice and natural conditions. The applied model is landscape-oriented and classifies farm behaviour according to agronomic conditions. A reference system for a unified technology is presented and implications for payments are discussed using a behavioural approach. This behavioural approach focuses on regional dynamics in natural condition as major determinants for bio-diversity and payments as determinants for farm practices. Payments are directed to re-establish diversity in farm practices, counteract current technology dominance, and assure a new exposure to nature, though only partly. Diversity becomes prevalent; notably according to an economic calculus of costs and benefits from taxpayers' point of view.

Even though small-scale fisheries throughout the globe are based on local ecological knowledge (LEK), it is often not involved in the decision-making process. An attempt is made to review the potential of using LEK of traditional coastal fisher communities in Sri Lanka and self-governing institutions in managing fisheries commons sustainably. Fisheries management in Sri Lanka is mainly a top-down system through the state legislation, while many fishing communities still maintain some level of informal or traditional management systems. The traditional community-based fisheries management (CBFM) systems in coastal fisheries of Sri Lanka, which are essentially based on LEK of fisher communities, hold long history from several decades to centuries. In active fisheries, i.e ., beach seining and stilt fishing, traditional fishers accurately use LEK for day-to-day fishing activities for predicting harvests before operating the fishing gear. Long-term viability of beach seining, stilt fishing, brush park fishing, kraal fishing and stake net fishing systems in coastal fisheries of Sri Lanka confirms that CBFM systems in coastal fisheries provide better economic and livelihood standards for fisher communities. Empirical studies confirm that the coastal fisher communities manage fisheries commons through self-governing institutions through which the property rights are vested to fisher communities averting the common pool dilemma. This synthesis confirms that fishers’ LEK is an integral part of CBFM systems of coastal fisheries, which strengthen the collective action of the fishers, and is invaluable for sustaining the CBFM systems for the long run. It is clear that CBFM systems governed through robust customary institutions and evoked by traditional authority and LEK of fishers are vital for the sustainability of the coastal fisheries. In conclusion, CBFM systems and LEK can be hailed as smart management options, which can be an alternative to centralized fisheries management in Sri Lanka.

Coastal fisheries are vital for food supply, employment, and social stability. However, overfishing is a common problem, often attributed to open access. Territorial Use Rights in Fisheries (TURFs) have gained popularity as a tool to improve the sustainability of coastal fisheries, but research on TURFs in China is limited. This paper examines the island reef fishery lease policy implemented in Shengsi County, Zhejiang Province, within the Ma’an Islands National Marine Special Reserve. The policy leases the use of island reefs to a collective, aiming to address overfishing and resource degradation by establishing fishing area boundaries and limiting the number of users and usage time. Technically, it is an application of TURFs, and it represents a shift from traditional fishing licenses to collective compliance. This experience has disrupted the existing top–down fishery governance structure and signifies a transition to a rights-based fishery management system in China. Through a comprehensive investigation and analysis of the policy’s implementation, this research identifies the factors contributing to its flaws. These include the inadequate provision of national and local government policies, insufficient support for policy implementation from fishery management authorities, and the limited involvement of fishermen’s organizations. To enhance coastal fishery management, we propose that the Chinese government should build upon existing foundations by clarifying fishing rights through central and local laws and policies. Additionally, there is a need to strengthen data monitoring of coastal fisheries, conduct multidisciplinary research to improve the allocation mechanism of fishing rights, adopt diverse fishery management approaches to enhance supervision capabilities, establish a collaborative governance mechanism, and foster coordination and cooperation between grassroots fishermen’s organizations and government departments.

Coastal fisheries provide livelihoods and sustenance for millions of people globally but are often poorly documented. Data scarcity, particularly relating to spatio-temporal trends in catch and effort, compounds wider issues of governance capacity. This can hinder the implementation and effectiveness of spatial tools for fisheries management or conservation. This issue is acute in developing and low-income regions with many small-scale inshore fisheries and high marine biodiversity, such as Southeast Asia. As a result, fleets often operate unmonitored with implications for target and non-target species populations and the wider marine ecosystem. Novel and cost-effective approaches to obtain fisheries data are required to monitor these activities and help inform sustainable fishery and marine ecosystem management. One such example is the detection and numeration of fishing vessels that use artificial light to attract catch with nighttime satellite imagery. Here we test the efficiency and application value of nighttime satellite imagery, in combination with landings data and GPS tracked vessels, to estimate the footprint and biomass removal of an inshore purse seine fishery operating within a region of high biodiversity in Myanmar. By quantifying the number of remotely sensed vessel detections per month, adjusted for error by the GPS tracked vessels, we can extrapolate data from fisher logbooks to provide fine-scale spatiotemporal estimates of the fishery's effort, value and biomass removal. Estimates reveal local landings of nearly 9,000 mt worth close to $4 million USD annually. This approach details how remote sensed and in situ collected data can be applied to other fleets using artificial light to attract catch, notably inshore fisheries of Southeast Asia, whilst also providing a much-needed baseline understanding of a data-poor fishery's spatiotemporal activity, biomass removal, catch composition and landing of vulnerable species.

Coastal resource management, community empowerment and socio economic development are the cornerstones for uplifting the lives of coastal area inhabitants. Japan is one of country who succeed to empowered economy of coastal community by diversify coastal and fisheries livelihoods. This study aims; to explore Japanese experiences on coastal resources management, to assess the fishing activity in case study area of Hiroshima, and to describe livelihood strategy in coastal fishery of case study area of Hiroshima. Primary data were collected from representatives of shrimp-trawl fishermen, and key informants using structured and semi-structured questionnaires. Secondary data such as statistical data and reports and books from previous studies were used as preliminary information. The data were analyzed by using descriptive analysis and qualitative contents analysis. The results of the study showed that Japan has many years’ experiences to manage coastal fishery in effective and sustainable ways using community-based coastal fishery management and co-management approach. Meanwhile, Fisheries Cooperative Associations (FCAs) and Fisheries Management Organization (FMOs) are as institutional tools. In case study of coastal fishery activity, shrimp-trawl fishery in Akitsu has been manage by FCA, even the number of fishermen and their activity gradually decrease. However, the problems faced related to the sustainability of fishing activities in Akitsu is related to catch decreased, initial investment, regeneration of the fishing activities itself, and upwelling in the past. Increased a number of aging fishermen and no successors are another problems in sustainability of fisheries livelihoods. In fact, young people escape from the fishery communities to work in the cities and aging people remain in fishery community. This is occurred in shrimp-trawl fishery ( Sokobikiami ) in Akitsu. Therefore, local government as well as central government can expand the oyster culture by providing incentives or subsidies to attract young generation back to the area to pursue this business.

The objectives of the study are: to compare the model of fisheries management with conventional versus new paradigm; to explore the prospect of new fisheries management model; to formulate the initial strategy of fisheries management model using EBFM. The ecosystem of Karimunjawa is selected as the pilot project of this research. The competent 25 keypersons were selected using purposive quoted sampling for interview. Descriptive statistics, meta-analysis and AHP were employed to analize the data. The results showed that the conventional fisheries management models were rather ineffective to answer the current situation of fisheries resource. We need facing out to find a suitable approach of fisheries management model. One of the proposed new paradigm is EBFM. This model indicates has a good prospect to manage the fisheries resource in the study area. This study suggests that EBFM model should be under-tried out. If it is acceptable, then the model can be implemented for other region.

Multispecies models have existed in a fisheries context since at least the 1970s, but despite much exploration, advancement, and consideration of multispecies models, there remain limited examples of their operational use in fishery management. Given that species and fleet interactions are inherently multispecies problems and the push towards ecosystem-based fisheries management, the lack of more regular operational use is both surprising and compelling. We identify impediments hampering the regular operational use of multispecies models and provide recommendations to address those impediments. These recommendations are: (1) engage stakeholders and managers early and often; (2) improve messaging and communication about the various uses of multispecies models; (3) move forward with multispecies management under current authorities while exploring more inclusive governance structures and flexible decision-making frameworks for handling tradeoffs; (4) evaluate when a multispecies modelling approach may be more appropriate; (5) tailor the multispecies model to a clearly defined purpose; (6) develop interdisciplinary solutions to promoting multispecies model applications; (7) make guidelines available for multispecies model review and application; and (8) ensure code and models are well documented and reproducible. These recommendations draw from a global assemblage of subject matter experts who participated in a workshop entitled “Multispecies Modeling Applications in Fisheries Management”.

Au cours de precedents travaux, des groupes d'especes demographiquemen t homogenes ont ete constitues a partir du dispositif de recherche du Cirad a Paracou en Guyane francaise. Ces groupes ont ete ensuite utilises au sein d'un modele demographique pour rendre compte de la dynamique d'une foret tropicale humide. Ces resultats sont rappeles brievement. Nous proposons ici une reflexion sur deux aspects complementaires. Nous nous interrogeons dans un premier temps sur la signification fonctionnelle de ces groupes (quel est le role des differents groupes dans la structuration et la dynamique de la foret) et surtout sur leur robustesse face a des donnees issues d'un autre dispositif de recherche (celui du Bafog situe egalement en Guyane sur un substrat different). Dans un second temps, la validite du modele plurispecifique est evaluee par rapport aux hypotheses classiques de dynamique de peuplement : - le peuplement simule est-il stable et resilient ; - le comportement du modele rend-il compte de l'impact des perturbations naturelles sur le niveau de diversite specifique ? (Resume d'auteur)

The impacts of climate change on marine fisheries are becoming increasingly evident; however, climate resilient fisheries management and policy making continues to be challenging. In the Arabian Peninsula Region (APR), productivity of the marine and coastal fisheries is largely impacted by climate change. The present study provides perspectives of the existing fisheries management plans of the APR with special emphasis on the Sultanate of Oman (SO) by conducting a comprehensive literature survey that includes primary research articles, academic theses, reports, governmental decisions and legislations and reputable websites. The study proposes future climate-adaptive management strategies for APR and SO, emphasizing the risk assessments, stakeholder collaboration by taking a transboundary approach. Fisheries management in the APR currently faces challenges of overfishing, habitat degradation, and climate change impacts, with each country employing unique approaches; regional cooperation and sharing best practices are deemed essential for long-term sustainability. Fisheries management in the SO, a critical part of the country's economy, includes measures such as licensing and seasonal closures; however, a climate-resilient framework for pelagic fisheries is lacking, which is creating an uncertainty in fisheries management the face of ongoing climate change. Effective climate-adaptive fisheries management in the SO necessitates risk assessments, stakeholder engagement, and cross-border collaborations. The APR as a whole requires integrated short- and long-term strategies for addressing climate change impacts on marine ecosystems and fisheries, with a focus on flexibility and local participation. The study recommends ecosystem-based fisheries management, which incorporates both biotic and abiotic elements, as well as regional evaluations and co-management solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change.