Abstract
Industrial tuna fisheries operate in the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, but concerns over sustainability and environmental impacts of these fisheries have resulted in increased scrutiny of how they are managed. An important but often overlooked factor in the success or failure of tuna fisheries management is the behaviour of fishers and fishing fleets. Uncertainty in how a fishing fleet will respond to management or other influences can be reduced by anticipating fleet behaviour, although to date there has been little research directed at understanding and anticipating the human dimension of tuna fisheries. The aim of this study was to address gaps in knowledge of the behaviour of tuna fleets, using the Indian Ocean tropical tuna purse seine fishery as a case study. We use statistical modelling to examine the factors that influence the spatial behaviour of the purse seine fleet at broad spatiotemporal scales. This analysis reveals very high consistency between years in the use of seasonal fishing grounds by the fleet, as well as a forcing influence of biophysical ocean conditions on the distribution of fishing effort. These findings suggest strong inertia in the spatial behaviour of the fleet, which has important implications for predicting the response of the fleet to natural events or management measures (e.g., spatial closures).
Highlights
Fisheries for tropical and temperate tunas operate on an industrial scale in the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, landing more than 4.2 million tonnes in 2011
The variable past use had the largest effect on the probability of observing fishing effort in a location, indicating that fishing was increasingly more likely to be observed in locations that had been visited more frequently in the same month in previous years by vessels of the same flag nationality
On the premise that an improved understanding of effort allocation will facilitate better anticipation of fleet spatial behaviour, the aim of this study was to develop a better understanding of the factors that drive the spatial behaviour of the Indian Ocean tuna purse seine fleet
Summary
Fisheries for tropical and temperate tunas operate on an industrial scale in the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, landing more than 4.2 million tonnes in 2011. Overcapacity in tuna fleets, both in terms of the number of vessels and their ability to catch and store fish, is a serious concern in the conservation and management of tuna stocks, resulting in overfishing and significant economic waste [2]. Modelling Fleet Behaviour and impact have prompted a critical look at the way in which tuna fisheries exploit the resource, in particular the techniques used and the design of fishing gears employed to catch tunas [3, 4]. There has been increasing scrutiny of how fisheries are managed, with many tuna regional fisheries management organisation (tRFMOs) criticised for a notable absence of ‘modern’ philosophies such as the precautionary and ecosystem-based approaches to management [5, 6]
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