Winners and Losers in Area-Based Management of a Small-Scale Fishery in the Colombian Pacific

Juliana López-Angarita,Juan M Díaz,Alexander Tilley,E Fernando Cagua,Julie P Hawkins,Callum M Roberts

doi:10.3389/fmars.2018.00023

Abstract

The Pacific coast of Colombia has some of the most extensive mangrove forests in South America. As an isolated region and one of the country’s poorest, coastal communities rely on fishing as a main source of animal protein and income. In an attempt to reverse declining trends of fisheries resources, in 2008, an Exclusive Zone of Artisanal Fishing closed to industrial fishing, was established by stakeholders in the Northern Choco region. Here we present a case study to investigate the effects of this area-based management on fisheries productivity and catch composition. Fishery landings data from 2010 to 2013 are compared to those of a neighbouring region with no fisheries management. Catch per unit effort, mean weight landed, and number of landed individuals were calculated for mangrove and non-mangrove associated species by boat type and fishing gear. A set of mixed effects models were used to unpack the effects of multiple factors and their interactions on response variables. Results show that across fishing gears and time, mean catch per unit effort increased by 50% in the Exclusive Zone of Artisanal Fishing within 3 years. Fisheries here focused on offshore resources with 61% more fishing trips associated with motorized boats than in the unmanaged region, where fishing was predominantly in mangroves and close to the coast. This suggests that fisheries management, may have played a role in reducing pressure on mangrove resources. However, area-based management may have also driven the displacement of fishing effort by excluding industrial trawlers, which then concentrated their activity in neighbouring areas.

Highlights

Fisheries are important to the national economies of many developing countries, through contributions to food security and supply, employment, livelihoods, and poverty alleviation (Béné, 2009; Finegold, 2009; Mills et al, 2011)
Fisheries landings data were recorded in seven fishing communities in the ZEPA and nine in Tribugá. 270 fishing grounds were used in total with 179 located in Tribugá, and 91 in the ZEPA
Data were recorded for 6,054 fishing trips within the ZEPA and 30,394 within Tribugá

Summary

Introduction

Fisheries are important to the national economies of many developing countries, through contributions to food security and supply, employment, livelihoods, and poverty alleviation (Béné, 2009; Finegold, 2009; Mills et al, 2011). Mangrove habitat offers critical refuge and food to associated fish and invertebrate species (Nagelkerken et al, 2001; Aburto-Oropeza et al, 2008) before they migrate elsewhere (Mumby et al, 2004). Mangrove protection may serve to safeguard or restore fisheries productivity (Aburto-Oropeza et al, 2008; Carrasquilla-Henao and Juanes, 2016). Mangroves in Colombia host a great diversity of important fishery species such as cockles, prawns, shrimp, crabs and fish such as catfish, snook, snapper, and tarpon (Villalba, 2005). On the Pacific coast, mangroves occur in a broad band in the south, becoming patchy in the north where there are fewer big rivers (Prahl, 1989)

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Results

Conclusion