Advancing climate adaptation for inland fish and fisheries

Inland fisheries assessment and management are challenging given the inherent complexity of working in diverse habitats (e.g., rivers, lakes, wetlands) that are dynamic on organisms that are often cryptic and where fishers are often highly mobile. Yet, technoscience is offering new tools that have the potential to reimagine how inland fisheries are assessed and managed. So-called “technoscience” refers to instances in which science and technology unfurl together, offering novel ways of spurring and achieving meaningful change. This paper considers the role of technoscience and its potential for modernizing the assessment and management of inland fisheries. It first explores technoscience and its potential benefits, followed by presentation of a series of synopses that explore the application (both successes and challenges) of new technologies such as environmental DNA (eDNA), genomics, electronic tags, drones, phone apps, iEcology, and artificial intelligence to assessment and management. The paper also considers the challenges and barriers that exist in adopting new technologies. The paper concludes with a provocative assessment of the potential of technoscience to reform and modernize inland fisheries assessment and management. Although these tools are increasingly being embraced, there is a lack of platforms for aggregating these data streams and providing managers with actionable information in a timely manner. The ideas presented here should serve as a catalyst for beginning to work collectively and collaboratively towards fisheries assessment and management systems that harness the power of technology and serve to modernize inland fisheries management. Such transformation is urgently needed given the dynamic nature of environmental change, the evolving threat matrix facing inland waters, and the complex behavior of fishers. Quite simply, a dynamic world demands dynamic fisheries management; technoscience has made that within reach. • Assessing and managing freshwater fisheries is challenging. • Technoscience offers opportunities to reimagine fisheries assessment and management. • Methods to aggregate real-time data streams are needed to yield actionable knowledge. • Challenges and barriers exist in adoption of new technologies but they can be overcome. • Dynamic fisheries demand more dynamic real-time assessment & management.

The habitat concept in inland fisheries has been less studied than wildlife ecology. Since 1950, the cumulative number of publications about “freshwater or inland habitat and fisheries management” has been 60%–95% less than those considering “habitat and wildlife management.” The number of publications about “marine, river, and stream habitat and fisheries management” has also generally exceeded those for “lake habitat and fisheries management.” We provide a perspective comparing inland fish and wildlife habitat management systems and highlight lessons from wildlife ecology that could benefit inland fisheries. We reason that wildlife habitat management has become widespread and accepted because humans share habitats with wildlife and positive/negative responses to habitat restorations/loss are directly observable. We recommend that inland fisheries habitat studies and restorations include opportunities for humans to directly observe the ecological benefits of such practices. To support aquatic habitat management efforts, we suggest that dedicated funding solutions be considered to mitigate aquatic habitat loss. In theory, such a system would provide benefits to inland fish populations that parallel those provided to wildlife through state and federal stamps. Although aquatic habitat conservation and restoration may not solve management issues as rapidly, it will promote long-term sustainability and resiliency of diverse inland fish populations.

This paper reviews the fisheries management question of inland (floodplain) systems in the developing world and proposes a paradigm shift in approach. Inland fisheries management is largely based on classical fisheries formulations derived on temperate freshwater and marine single-stock fisheries. The basic models to manage inland fisheries are based on steady state equilibrium models. However, inland, flood-pulsed fisheries are dynamic and driven by external factors which are incongruent with the classical approach. Therefore, adopting this management approach in inland, flood-pulsed fisheries has created a management conundrum because of the obvious fundamental differences that exist between these two systems. Marine fisheries contribute to the macroeconomic growth of fishing countries, inland fisheries from developing countries are largely focused on recreational activities, while inland (floodplain) fisheries are key sources of food and nutrition security for marginalized riparian communities in the developing world. This review also uses lessons from the Okavango Delta fishery to illustrate the uniqueness of floodplain fisheries and the management questions therein. One key debate highlighted in this review is that inland fisheries are a livelihood of the last resort for poor (and sometimes malnourished) communities. Management should therefore mainstream this value into management interventions, especially since a sustainable utilization of this resource can assist developing countries to achieve some of the MDG’s. The paper concludes with an argument of the need for a paradigm shift in inland fisheries management, where key factors such as enhanced data collection, co-management regimes based on “real” democratic principles constitute some of the germane attributes of fisheries management plans.

Inland recreational fisheries have social, economic, and ecological importance worldwide but these fisheries are increasingly challenged by the diverse effects of climate change. Coupled with other anthropogenic stressors, climate change has contributed to declines in freshwater biodiversity of greater severity than those observed across marine or terrestrial taxa. At a macro level, inland fisheries are experiencing declines. There are, however, a number of success stories, or ‘bright spots,’ in inland recreational fisheries management, where innovative approaches are leading to increases in social and ecological well-being in the face of climate change. Cases such as these are important sources of inspiration and learning about adaptation to climate and environmental change. In this article, we analyze 11 examples of such ‘bright spots’ drawn from multiple jurisdictions around the world from which we extracted lessons that might apply to fisheries management challenges beyond the region and context of each case. Collectively, these bright spots highlight adaptive initiatives that allow for recreational fisheries management to mitigate to stressors associated with current and future climate change. Examples identified include community-based restoration projects, collaborative and adaptive approaches to short-term fisheries closures, transdisciplinary large-scale conservation projects, and conservation-minded efforts by individuals and communities. By highlighting examples of ‘small wins’ within inland recreational fisheries management, this review contributes to the idea that a ‘positive future’ for inland recreational fisheries in the face of climate change is possible and highlights potential strategies to adapt to current and future climate scenarios.

<em>Abstract</em> .—The assessment process is fundamental to ensuring that inland fisheries are managed sustainably and valued appropriately so that they can support livelihoods, contribute to food security, and generate other ecosystem services. To that end, a global group of leaders in inland fishery assessment convened to generate a list of recommendations and specific actions for improving assessment of inland fisheries. Recommendations included the needs to assess the global contribution of inland fisheries to food security, develop and implement rigorous approaches to evaluate various inland fishery management actions, develop and implement creative approaches to improve the assessment of illegal fishing activities, and improve statistical data for unreported and unregulated catches in inland waters. The group also identified a need to develop standardized and defensible methods of biological assessment of inland fish and fisheries that include data collection, database management, and data sharing and reporting to reflect diverse ecosystem types. Moreover, it was recommended that assessment be designed to better inform inland fishery management and other sector planning and decision making at the appropriate scales (e.g., integrated water resource management) through stakeholder engagement, valuation of fisheries outputs, and identification of policy alternatives with consideration of trade-offs. The inherent diversity of inland fisheries in terms of ecological, socioeconomic, and governance attributes was recognized throughout the process of developing the suggested actions, including how such attributes combine to provide fisheries-specific contexts for management. Using appropriate and accessible communication channels is critical to more effectively package, present, and transfer information that raises awareness about inland fisheries values and issues; alter human behavior; and influence relevant policy and management actions. Creating mechanisms to facilitate dialogue among the diverse range of stakeholders is equally important. Improved assessment techniques should play a fundamental role in supporting sustainable inland fisheries management and contributing to food security and livelihoods, while also maintaining or improving ecological integrity.

In northern industrialized countries, the inland fisheries sector has long been dominated by recreational fisheries, which normally exploit fish for leisure or subsistence and provide many (poorly investigated) benefits to society. Various factors constrain the development and existence of inland fisheries, such as local user conflicts, low social priority and inadequate research and funding. In many cases, however, degradation of the environment and loss of aquatic habitat are the predominant concerns for the sustainability of inland fisheries. The need for concerted effort to prevent and reduce environmental degradation, as well as conservation of freshwater fish and fisheries as renewable common pool resources or entities in their own right is the greatest challenge facing sustainable development of inland waters. In inland fisheries management, the declining quality of the aquatic environment coupled with long‐term inadequate and often inappropriate fisheries management has led to an emphasis on enhancement practices, such as stocking, to mitigate anthropogenic stress. However, this is not always the most appropriate management approach. Therefore, there is an urgent need to alter many traditional inland fisheries management practices and systems to focus on sustainable development.This paper reviews the literature regarding the inputs needed for sustainability of inland fisheries in industrialized countries. To understand better the problems facing sustainable inland fisheries management, the inland fisheries environment, its benefits, negative impacts and constraints, as well as historical management, paradigms, trends and current practices are described. Major philosophical shifts, challenges and promising integrated management approaches are envisaged in a holistic framework. The following are considered key elements for sustainable development of inland fisheries: communication, information dissemination, education, institutional restructuring, marketing outreach, management plans, decision analysis, socioeconomic evaluation and research into the human dimension, in addition to traditional biological and ecological sciences. If these inputs are integrated with traditional fisheries management practices, the prospects for sustainability in the inland fisheries will be enhanced.

To date, there are few comprehensive assessments of how climate change affects inland finfish, fisheries, and aquaculture at a global scale, but one is necessary to identify research needs and commonalities across regions and to help guide decision making and funding priorities. Broadly, the consequences of climate change on inland fishes will impact global food security, the livelihoods of people who depend on inland capture and recreational fisheries. However, understanding how climate change will affect inland fishes and fisheries has lagged behind marine assessments. Building from a North American inland fisheries assessment, we convened an expert panel from seven countries to provide a first-step to a framework for determining how to approach an assessment of how climate change may affect inland fishes, capture fisheries, and aquaculture globally. Starting with the small group helped frame the key questions (e.g., who is the audience? What is the best approach and spatial scale?). Data gaps identified by the group include: the tolerances of inland fisheries to changes in temperature, stream flows, salinity, and other environmental factors linked to climate change, and the adaptive capacity of fishes and fisheries to adjust to these changes. These questions are difficult to address, but long-term and large-scale datasets are becoming more readily available as a means to test hypotheses related to climate change. We hope this perspective will help researchers and decision makers identify research priorities and provide a framework to help sustain inland fish populations and fisheries for the diversity of users around the globe.

The cumulative harvest pressure exerted by recreational anglers can be intense in some locations. Sustainable management and conservation of inland fisheries requires an understanding of the spatial ecology of fish-angler interactions (e.g., direct, indirect, and feedback). Advancement towards this goal requires study of the complex interdependencies of human and natural systems, which can be achieved, in part, by looking beyond the wetted confines of individual waterbodies towards the broader angling landscape. It has been hypothesized that fish stocks should experience strong reductions in areas near large aggregations of recreational anglers where fishing effort is presumed to be greatest. To test this hypothesis, we examined a complex of direct, indirect, and feedback effects among recreational anglers, bluegill sunfish Lepomis macrochirus, and largemouth bass Micropterous salmoides across inland recreational fisheries (n = 29 reservoirs) using path analysis and structural equation modeling. We found that recreational anglers imparted detectable effects on recreational bluegill (direct) and bass (indirect) fisheries across the landscape, which we attributed to (1) short travel distances of individuals at local scales (<40 km), and (2) a spatially and numerically heterogeneous distribution of anglers (i.e., anglers within counties) at the regional scale. Our study identified the presence of an emergent landscape-scale feedback, driven by angler numbers, mediated via angling effects on bluegill and bass populations, and which manifested as spatially variable movements of anglers. These dynamics collectively shaped inland fisheries across the landscape via a suite of direct, indirect, and feedback effects and highlight the complex relationships between fishes and anglers. Consideration of direct and indirect effects of angling pressure from the landscape should aid in prioritizing or identifying areas in need of management, conservation, public outreach, and education, and improve understanding of how changes to one or many species may feedback to other social, ecological, and economic systems.

Even with long-standing management and extensive science support, North American inland fish and fisheries still face many conservation and management challenges. We used a grand challenges approach to identify critical roadblocks that if removed would help solve important problems in the management and long-term conservation of North American inland fish and fisheries. We identified seven grand challenges within three themes (valuation, governance, and externalities) and 34 research needs and management actions. The major themes identified are to (1) raise awareness of diverse values associated with inland fish and fisheries, (2) govern inland fish and fisheries to satisfy multiple use and conservation objectives, and (3) ensure productive inland fisheries given nonfishing sector externalities. Addressing these grand challenges will help the broader community understand the diverse values of inland fish and fisheries, promote open forums for engagement of diverse stakeholders in fisheries management, and better integrate the inland fish sector into the greater water and land use policy process.

Inland fish and fisheries provide food security, livelihoods, cultural and religious identity, recreation, and a source of income for millions of people globally (Welcomme et al. 2010; Lynch et al. 2016, this volume). Human connections to fish and fishing have existed for millennia on inland waters systems as diverse as the Mekong River (Voeun 2004) to the glacial lakes of the northern United States (Bogue 2000). Given the long-term importance of inland fisheries to societies, the lack of attention given to maintaining their sustainability during development of management policies and allocation decisions for inland water resources is alarming yet all too common. Further, globally, even the most basic information about inland fisheries is generally lacking, such as basic life history of important food fishes, total harvest and production, total contribution to employment and livelihoods, and contribution of inland fish to nutrition and human well-being (Welcomme et al. 2010; Beard et al. 2011). When in-depth analyses are attempted, the numbers reported often underestimate the true contribution of inland fisheries to society (Baran et al. 2007; Hortle 2007; Bartley et al. 2015). Increased pressure on inland waters to support multiple uses, such as the proposed damming of the Mekong River system for hydropower (Ziv et al. 2012), the diversion of water for municipal and agriculture use in California (Tanaka et al. 2006), and the conversion of forests to agriculture in the Amazon basin (Davidson et al. 2012), creates numerous challenges for inland fisheries management. The development of improved and integrated approaches (e.g., integrated water resources management; Hooper 2003; Grigg 2008) to understand the important role of inland fisheries to society and provide better governance mechanisms that cross political and sectoral boundaries will be important to ensure inland fisheries sustainability.

The contribution of inland fisheries to food security, livelihood provision, poverty alleviation, and economic development in developing African countries is well documented, but there is surprisingly little literature on the history, current status and potential of South Africa’s inland fishery resources. This presents a constraint to the management and sustainable development of inland fisheries. A literature review of peer-reviewed and grey literature was thus undertaken which is presented as a synthesis of knowledge on inland fisheries in South Africa. We track the chronology of literary themes on inland fisheries from the colonial era to the present, provide an overview of the recreational, subsistence and commercial sub-sectors, the production potential of inland waters, interventions to promote fishery development, and attempts to value inland fisheries. The review summarises the current state of knowledge on fisheries resources, outlines potential sources of data, highlights relevant and important information, and identifies knowledge gaps. The literature survey reveals an urgent need for research covering the biological, social, economic and governance aspects, if inland fisheries are to be developed in a rational and sustainable manner which promotes South Africa’s national policy goals.

Tingley RW III, Paukert CP, Sass GG, Jacobson PC, Hansen GJA, Lynch AJ, Shannon PD. 2019. Adapting to climate change: Guidance for the management of inland glacial lake fisheries. Lake Reserv Manage. 35:435–452.Climate change is altering glacial lake fisheries in the United States, presenting a complex challenge for fisheries managers. Here we provide a regional perspective to guide management of heterogeneous and yet interdependent fishery resources in glacial lakes of the upper Midwest. Our main objective was to promote the adaptation of inland glacial lakes fisheries management to climate change by outlining processes that support regional plans. Using examples from the glacial lakes region, we outline an approach for regional prioritization, specify strategies for moving from regional prioritization to on-the-ground action, and provide guidance on the implementation of management plans given resource limitations and potential stakeholder conflict. We find that integrating ecological, social, and economic data with climate change vulnerability assessments can be useful in generating “lake-priority levels” to help identify where to focus actions to support system resilience. Managers can use lake-priority levels and ecosystem-specific strategies to make decisions about where and when to apply fisheries management action ranging from traditional (i.e., stocking, harvest regulations) to nontraditional approaches (i.e., catchment land management). Although the implementation of several approaches may be beyond an agency’s financial and logistical capacity, funds can be secured through other sources ranging from grant programs to nontraditional partnerships identified by “thinking outside the lake.” Regional plans may be an important step toward successful climate adaptation for inland glacial lakes fisheries management, and the proactive efforts of managers may help facilitate their development and implementation.

Climatic variability threatens inland ecosystems, fisheries, societies and economies globally. The impacts are evident in India as manifested by altered geographic distribution, loss of species, change in breeding period, life cycle and physiological behaviour of inland fishes. In India, several inland fisheries research advancements have been made including development of innovative environmental, climatological and biological thresholds associated with successful spawning of fish species in the Ganges River basin, which is a landmark in predicting reproductive adaptation and minimum fitness required for natural breeding. The innovative concept of determining a threshold condition factor of the female fish population to indicate readiness for spawning, expressed as pre-spawning fitness (Kspawn50), has been used to map and benchmark several freshwater fish species and thereby identify potential climate resilient species. A flow chart showing the impact of climatic variability in inland fisheries and climate resilient fisheries have been conceptualized. Moreover, research pertaining to climate change and its impact on aquatic ecology and fisheries, heat wave studies, climate resilient adaptation techniques, carbon sequestration potential of wetlands, and vulnerability assessment framework at various levels has also been reported. In the present compilation we synthesize, report, and discuss the status of scientific advancements on the impact of the climate change, and associated impacts on inland ecosystems and fisheries at various levels, which would help in developing mitigation and adaptation strategies.

The evaluation of skill development programs helps to improve training programs' effectiveness for its wider adaptability. The present study evaluated the knowledge, skill and attitude of selected PGDIF&AM (Post Graduate Diploma in Inland Fisheries and Aquaculture Management) trainees. The knowledge-skill index and attitude scale were developed for evaluating the same. The majority of trainees perceived medium knowledge and skill gain after completion of the course. The knowledge (0.63) gain was predominantly high as compared to skill (0.57) gain among PGDIF&AM trainees. The majority (61.33%) of the trainees showed a low to moderately favourable attitude towards PGDIF&AM course. The attitude of trainers (0.77) was found highly favourable towards the PGDIF&AM course as compared to their attitude (0.68) towards teaching methods (p=0.030). Trainees expressed their concerns about the course content and teaching methods which need to be addressed on priority basis for making learning more effective and compatible with their job profile. The eligibility criteria and structure of the PGDIF&AM course needs to be revised through strategic interventions for its wider reach and applicability.

Inland fisheries make substantial contributions to food security and livelihoods locally, regionally, and globally but their conservation and management have been largely overlooked by policy makers. In an effort to remedy this limited recognition, a cross-sectoral community of scientists, practitioners, and policy makers from around the world convened a high-level meeting in 2015 at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations headquarters in Rome, Italy to develop recommendations for sustainable inland fisheries management. This meeting resulted in the production of the Rome Declaration, outlining ten key steps needed to achieve responsible inland fisheries. When the Ten Steps were conceived, they were framed in a global context because inland fisheries around the world face similar challenges, and it was hoped that these large-scale and ambitious steps would draw the attention of regional or international bodies for greater investment in their proper management. Most inland fisheries, however, are managed at a local (often community, watershed, or waterbody) scale with the “on-the-ground” practitioners, managers, assessment biologists, and stewardship officers responsible for achieving the promise of the Ten Steps. Here, we reflect on the relevance of the Ten Steps to practitioners using six regional case studies from around the globe (North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa) to identify the extent to which existing efforts align with the Ten Steps and where there are opportunities to do more. Learning what is effective from local/regional actions should better inform a more global “action plan” and provide tangible guidance for implementation recognizing that global guidance needs to be informed by and acted upon by local practitioners. We conclude by considering the common challenges, synergies, and other emergent properties that arise from these case studies, and use these as a path forward to advancing responsible management of inland fisheries through the Rome Declaration. Of particular importance is the need to balance the high-level aspirational goals of the Ten Steps with the local cultural, socio-economic, and institutional realities that ultimately influence how humans interact with fisheries resources and aquatic ecosystems. This assessment provides valuable information on how to refine and implement the Ten Steps recognizing that success will require coordinated efforts among on-the-ground practitioners, scientists, stakeholders, rightsholders and international decision makers.