AbstractBoth the ecological and social dimensions of fisheries are being affected by climate change. As a result, policymakers, managers, scientists and fishing communities are seeking guidance on how to holistically build resilience to climate change. Numerous studies have highlighted key attributes of resilience in fisheries, yet concrete examples that explicitly link these attributes to social‐ecological outcomes are lacking. To better understand climate resilience, we assembled 18 case studies spanning ecological, socio‐economic, governance and geographic contexts. Using a novel framework for evaluating 38 resilience attributes, the case studies were systematically assessed to understand how attributes enable or inhibit resilience to a given climate stressor. We found population abundance, learning capacity, and responsive governance were the most important attributes for conferring resilience, with ecosystem connectivity, place attachment, and accountable governance scoring the strongest across the climate‐resilient fisheries. We used these responses to develop an attribute typology that describes robust sources of resilience, actionable priority attributes and attributes that are case specific or require research. We identified five fishery archetypes to guide stakeholders as they set long‐term goals and prioritize actions to improve resilience. Lastly, we found evidence for two pathways to resilience: (1) building ecological assets and strengthening communities, which we observed in rural and small‐scale fisheries, and (2) building economic assets and improving effective governance, which was demonstrated in urban and wealthy fisheries. Our synthesis presents a novel framework that can be directly applied to identify approaches, pathways and actionable levers for improving climate resilience in fishery systems.

AbstractDistributional changes for fish populations may be difficult to interpret since temperature responses are often confounded with ontogenetic shifts. However, the relative importance of these two types of fish movement (temperature responses and ontogenetic shifts) to population distribution remains largely unstudied. This study presents the first attempt to compare the two types of movement in depth, latitude and longitude for 10 abundant groundfish species across size class and subregion. We utilized large, quality‐controlled datasets from random depth‐stratified, bottom trawl surveys consistently conducted during the summer along NE Pacific shelf from 1996 to 2015. We show that the size structure of each species varied across years and subregions with dramatically strong or poor recruitments for some species in 2015 during a marine heatwave. Principal component analysis (PCA) demonstrated that ontogenetic shifts in depth represented the primary movement pattern while temperature responses in latitude and longitude constituted a major, but a secondary pattern. Re‐run by size class, PCA results further showed that the influence of temperature and ontogeny on population distribution varied by size classes with greater ontogenetic shifts in smaller fish and elevated temperature responses in larger fish. We further show substantial ontogeny‐induced movements by depth, latitude and longitude with high variability among species and subregions. Our analyses suggest that failing to account for size structure can lead to serious misinterpretation of population distributional changes in all three dimensions: depth, latitude and longitude for populations with or without episodic recruitments.

AbstractThe management and conservation of tuna and other transboundary marine species have to date been limited by an incomplete understanding of the oceanographic, ecological and socioeconomic factors mediating fishery overlap and interactions, and how these factors vary across expansive, open ocean habitats. Despite advances in fisheries monitoring and biologging technology, few attempts have been made to conduct integrated ecological analyses at basin scales relevant to pelagic fisheries and the highly migratory species they target. Here, we use vessel tracking data, archival tags, observer records, and machine learning to examine inter‐ and intra‐annual variability in fisheries overlap (2013–2020) of five pelagic longline fishing fleets with North Pacific albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga, Scombridae). Although progressive declines in catch and biomass have been observed over the past several decades, the North Pacific albacore is one of the only Pacific tuna stocks primarily targeted by pelagic longlines not currently listed as overfished or experiencing overfishing. We find that fishery overlap varies significantly across time and space as mediated by (1) differences in habitat preferences between juvenile and adult albacore; (2) variation of oceanographic features known to aggregate pelagic biomass; and (3) the different spatial niches targeted by shallow‐set and deep‐set longline fishing gear. These findings may have significant implications for stock assessment in this and other transboundary fishery systems, particularly the reliance on fishery‐dependent data to index abundance. Indeed, we argue that additional consideration of how overlap, catchability, and size selectivity parameters vary over time and space may be required to ensure the development of robust, equitable, and climate‐resilient harvest control rules.

AbstractLarger and older fish contribute disproportionately to spawning and play an important role in the replenishment of exploited stocks. Fishing often removes specific size‐ and age‐classes, with direct impacts on stock productivity and population resilience. Despite this, fisheries advice is commonly based on estimates of spawning stock biomass (SSB) and fishing mortality (F) and makes little reference to the importance of size and/or age structure. Consequently, there is a need for indicators of size and/or age structure to better inform fisheries management and help assess global sustainability goals. Here, we introduce a new age‐based indicator ABIMSY that monitors age structure relative to the equilibrium age structure at FMSY. We apply this new indicator to 72 commercially important stocks in the Northeast Atlantic, covering 26 species, which collectively contributed 86% of all commercial catches in the region in 2019. We estimate that 62% (45 stocks) currently have proportionally fewer older fish relative to FMSY conditions, whereas 38% (27 stocks) have proportionally more older fish; we also note patterns with respect to geographic area and taxonomic family. Simulation testing demonstrated that ABIMSY is responsive to overfishing and generally tracks (with high sensitivity and specificity) a common measure of stock depletion, SSB relative to BMSY. Throughout, we show that ABIMSY provides information on the age structure of exploited stocks that is complementary to conventional reference points for SSB and F. Further, the framework used to estimate ABIMSY make it well placed for integration into current advisory frameworks on fisheries management.

AbstractThere is growing concern over the conservation status of sharks and relatives exposed to fishing mortality. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1999 adopted the International Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks (IPOA), which provides nations with advice on adopting and implementing national plans. An assessment of global national and regional plans of action on sharks (NPOAs) found: most are out of date; limited use of specific, measurable and timebound objectives and activities; no outcome objectives; and few performance assessments. This makes most NPOAs inadequate for planning and assessing efficacy. Over 33% of the annual retained catch of sharks and relatives was from countries without NPOAs and less than 12% was from countries with current NPOAs. NPOAs identified fisheries management framework deficits, ecology knowledge gaps, institutional capacity and coordination shortfalls, and budget constraints as the largest obstacles to implementation and are improvement priorities. We recommend how to amend the IPOA to better support the adoption and effective design and implementation of NPOAs for evidence‐informed conservation and management.

AbstractDetermining the extinction risk of poorly known species is difficult, as data on both their biological traits and the threats to which they are exposed are often not available. Neotropical freshwater stingrays (potamotrygonins) represent such a challenge, as limited ecological data prevent formal assessments. Geographic range size (GRS) was computed for the first time for potamotrygonins (as a longitudinal extent of occurrence measured in km of river length) and, together with two other traits correlated with intrinsic susceptibility to extinction—body size, biological productivity (rmax)—was used to rank potamotrygonins according to their intrinsic susceptibility to extinction. Potamotrygonin GRS was only 6%–7% of that of marine elasmobranchs and is likely to be a significant driver of potamotrygonin extinction risk. The relationship between potamotrygonin GRS and body size differed from the expected triangular theoretical pattern; probably a result of the fragmented nature of freshwater habitats. Using K‐medoids clustering, we identified seven groups of species; the most susceptible groups comprised the biggest species such as Potamotrygon brachyura and Paratrygon spp. Intrinsic susceptibility was also highest in the largest hydrographic basins, likely as a result of species with low rmax being more common there. Exposure to anthropogenic threats is highest for the species most intrinsically susceptible to extinction, which consequently have a high‐extinction risk. We recommend the use of longitudinal extents of occurrence as standardized measurements of freshwater taxa GRS. Our ranking method, combining observed and predicted traits, may be a useful tool to assess poorly known taxa to assist conservation prioritization.

AbstractDysbiosis in the gut microbiota has been intimately implicated in shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei, Penaeidae) diseases. However, considering the variety of shrimp diseases and the variability in experimental conditions, studies addressing common features of the gut microbiota−shrimp disease relationship are limited. Through an unbiased subject‐level meta‐analysis framework, 463 shrimp gut bacterial communities from 27 studies were re‐analysed, including six lifestages and eight diseases of shrimp, with the causal agents of viral, bacterial, eukaryotic, and unknown pathogens. Shrimp lifestages and diseases were the predominant factors governing the gut microbiota. After ruling out the top lifestage‐ and disease‐specific discriminatory amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) from the gut microbiota, the top 27 disease common‐discriminatory ASVs were identified, contributing to an overall accuracy of 95.9% in diagnosing shrimp health status. By using these optimisation procedures, the accuracy of our diagnosis model was unbiased by shrimp lifestage, specific disease, sampling size, hypervariable region and sequencing platform. The shrimp eight diseases consistently and significantly increased the relative importance of stochasticity, the relative abundance of pathogenic potentials and diversified core ASVs, whereas decreased the diversity and stability of gut microbiota. Collectively, these findings illustrate the effectiveness of meta‐analysis in determining the robust and common features of the shrimp gut microbiota in response to diverse diseases. In particular, disease common‐discriminatory ASVs could accurately diagnose shrimp health status, although the data are divergent in biotic and technical variances.

AbstractAquaculture (freshwater and marine) has largely supplemented fisheries, but in theory could help reduce fishing pressure on wild stocks. Although not the sole factors, some potential benefits depend on aquaculture pressures on fished species, including collection of wild ‘seed’ material—earlier to later life stages—for rearing in captivity and the capacity of aquaculture to increase. Here we first classify 203 marine (saltwater and brackish) animal species as being produced by either open‐cycle capture‐based aquaculture (CBA) or closed‐cycle domesticated aquaculture (DA)—based on their likely reliance on wild seed—and assess the extent to which these forms of aquaculture could support seafood production and greater wild biomass. Using a data‐limited modelling approach, we find evidence that current aquaculture practices are not necessarily helping reduce fishing to sustainable levels for their wild counterparts—consistent with emerging scientific research. However, if some wild capture species (87 equivalent spp.) were instead produced through CBA, almost a million extra tonnes could theoretically be left in the wild, without reducing seafood production. Alternatively, if reliance on wild seed inputs is further reduced by shifting to DA production, then a little less than doubling of aquaculture of the overexploited species in our study could help fill the ‘production gap’ to support fishing at maximum sustainable levels. While other ecological (e.g. escapes), social and economic considerations (e.g. market substitution) are important, we focused on a critical biological linkage between wild fisheries and aquaculture that provides another aspect on how to improve management alignment of the sectors.

AbstractDuring recent decades, the health of ocean ecosystems and fish populations has been threatened by overexploitation, pollution and anthropogenic‐driven climate change. Due to a lack of long‐term ecological data, we have a poor grasp of the true impact on the diet and habitat use of fishes. This information is vital if we are to recover depleted fish populations and predict their future dynamics. Here, we trace the long‐term diet and habitat use of Atlantic bluefin tuna (BFT), Thunnus thynnus, a species that has had one of the longest and most intense exploitation histories, owing to its tremendous cultural and economic importance. Using carbon, nitrogen and sulphur stable isotope analyses of modern and ancient BFT including 98 archaeological and archival bones from 11 Mediterranean locations ca. 1st century to 1941 CE, we infer a shift to increased pelagic foraging around the 16th century in Mediterranean BFT. This likely reflects the early anthropogenic exploitation of inshore coastal ecosystems, as attested by historical literature sources. Further, we reveal that BFT which migrated to the Black Sea–and that disappeared during a period of intense exploitation and ecosystem changes in the 1980s–represented a unique component, isotopically distinct from BFT of NE Atlantic and Mediterranean locations. These data suggest that anthropogenic activities had the ability to alter the diet and habitat use of fishes in conditions prior to those of recent decades. Consequently, long‐term data provide novel perspectives on when marine ecosystem modification began and the responses of marine populations, with which to guide conservation policy.