Abstract
While pressure on marine ecosystems leading to declines in global fish catches have been attributed to excessive fishing and to unregulated and unreported fishing, existing management practices have yet to fully address these declines. Estimation of spatial and temporal distribution of fisheries resources and the extent of fishing impacts on marine ecosystems using vessel trajectories has become central in recent studies. This study proposed the use of trajectories of 771 Korean coastal and offshore fishing vessels and one-year fish landing data to estimate variations in commercial fish species, vessel, and fishing gear activity distributions in the waters around Jeju island. A set of standards were applied to identify individual fishing tracks of major gears and uniformly distributed catch to fishing segments of trajectories to produce spatio-temporal distributions of catch, fishing activities, and vessel reliance on fishing grounds at a fine spatial scale. The method identified reference points that can inform management at local and regional scales. We discuss the opportunities of combining larger datasets collected over a longer period and applying predictive modeling techniques in making extensive assessments, including climate change impacts on fishing activities that can inform resource management and marine spatial planning.
Highlights
Ocean ecosystems have continued to support our ever-increasing global demand for fish resources, and have provided critical services that support economies and improve livelihoods [1]
The study area was divided into square grid cells, and the spatial resolution was set at 0.1◦ (5◦ by 5◦ pixel for each 0.5◦ grid cell) and 0.2◦ (2.5◦ by 2.5◦ pixel for each 0.5◦ grid cell) for fishing vessel trajectory and catch distribution (Figures 4–7)
We produced vessel trajectory and catch distributions mapped at fine spatial scales and show variations in fishing activities and reliance on fishing grounds and variations in locations fished by fishing gears
Summary
Ocean ecosystems have continued to support our ever-increasing global demand for fish resources, and have provided critical services that support economies and improve livelihoods [1]. Marine stocks are decreasing due to overfishing, pollution, and the effects of global climate change. Protecting the integrity of the maritime spaces to support multiple uses require a deeper understanding of ocean dynamics, the impacts of human activities, and the need to develop appropriate management structures that evolve with the changing environment. An improved understanding of the real spatial and temporal extents of fishing activities can help to enhance the effectiveness of management decisions implemented for the sustainable exploitation of resources [2]. Fishery production from Korean waters has been decreasing over the past two decades, due to overexploitation caused by overcapacity, climate change, destruction of marine ecosystems, illegal fishing by foreign vessels, and implementation of production-oriented fishery policies [3]. Ref. [4] investigated the changes in marine ecosystems in the waters of
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