Abstract
Marine conservation areas are an important tool for the sustainable management of multispecies, small-scale fisheries. Effective spatial management requires a proper understanding of the spatial distribution of target species and the identification of its environmental drivers. Small-scale fisheries, however, often face scarcity and low-quality of data. In these situations, approaches for the prioritization of conservation areas need to deal with scattered, biased, and short-term information and ideally should quantify data- and model-specific uncertainties for a better understanding of the risks related to management interventions. We used a Bayesian hierarchical species distribution modeling approach on annual landing data of the heavily exploited, small-scale, and data-poor fishery of Chwaka Bay (Zanzibar) in the Western Indian Ocean to understand the distribution of the key target species and identify potential areas for conservation. Few commonalities were found in the set of important habitat and environmental drivers among species, but temperature, depth, and seagrass cover affected the spatial distribution of three of the six analyzed species. A comparison of our results with information from ecological studies suggests that our approach predicts the distribution of the analyzed species reasonably well. Furthermore, the two main common areas of high relative abundance identified in our study have been previously suggested by the local fisher as important areas for spatial conservation. By using short-term, catch per unit of effort data in a Bayesian hierarchical framework, we quantify the associated uncertainties while accounting for spatial dependencies. More importantly, the use of accessible and interpretable tools, such as the here created spatial maps, can frame a better understanding of spatio-temporal management for local fishers. Our approach, thus, supports the operability of spatial management in small-scale fisheries suffering from a general lack of long-term fisheries information and fisheries independent data.
Highlights
Small-scale fisheries employ over 90% of the world’s capture fishers (FAO., 2015, 2018) and are the major livelihood and protein suppliers in many coastal communities around the world (Chuenpagdee, 2011; Belhabib et al, 2015; Teh and Pauly, 2018; Loring et al, 2019; Salas et al, 2019)
While depth was an important predictor for the distribution of L. vaigiensis, L. lentjan, and Lutjanus fulviflamma, temperature was important for Scarus ghobban, L. vaigiensis, and Lethrinus mahsena (Figure 3)
Understanding species distribution is a key aspect in setting successful spatio-temporal management plans (Franklin, 2009; Lawler et al, 2011; Guisan et al, 2013)
Summary
Small-scale fisheries employ over 90% of the world’s capture fishers (FAO., 2015, 2018) and are the major livelihood and protein suppliers in many coastal communities around the world (Chuenpagdee, 2011; Belhabib et al, 2015; Teh and Pauly, 2018; Loring et al, 2019; Salas et al, 2019). Within the context of a global agenda to protect 10% of coastal and marine ecosystems through area management by 2020 (CBD, 2010), many tropical countries attempt to manage their coastal areas through different use-zones (Wells et al, 2007; De Santo, 2013). Such an example is found in Zanzibar (Tanzania), where most of the coastline has been designated a conservation area ranging from general use zones to locally managed partially protected and privately managed no-take areas (McLean et al, 2012; Rocliffe et al, 2014). In a participatory workshop in 2016, invited fishers advocated for implementing a no-take zone to combat the decrease in their catches and the reoccurring user conflicts (Rehren, 2017)
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