Fisheries Management Performance Research Articles

Social harvest control rules for sustainable fisheries

AbstractFisheries are supposed to be for the benefit of society, producing food, providing livelihoods and enabling cultural continuity. Biological productivity goals for fish stocks operationalised through Harvest Control Rules (HCRs) are central to contemporary fisheries management. While fisheries policies often state socio‐economic objectives, such as enhancing the livelihoods of coastal communities, those are rarely, if ever, incorporated into operationalised management procedures. The lack of articulation of social objectives and lack of monitoring of social outcomes around HCRs amounts to poor public policy. In this article, we explore the potential for social HCRs (sHCRs) with reference points and agreed predefined actions to make the social dimensions of fisheries explicit. sHCRs cannot cover all social dimensions, so should be considered as one tool within a broader framework of fisheries governance. Moreover, successful sHCRs would require sound deliberative and participatory processes to generate legitimate social objectives, and monitoring and evaluation of fisheries management performance against those objectives. We introduce two potential types of sHCRs, one based on allocation of catch within biological limit reference points, and one for when fishing exceeds biological limit reference points. The application of sHCRs, we argue, can foster accountability and help avoid non‐transparent negotiations on size and distribution of the catch. Our proposal is a call to action for policy makers and fisheries managers to properly integrate social criteria into fisheries governance, and for both biophysical fisheries scientists and social scientists to do better in practical collaboration for methods and knowledge development to support this integration.

Barriers to implementation of dynamic reference points in fisheries management

Fish populations are dynamic; their productivity depends on the environment, predator and prey interactions, and fisheries harvest rates. Failure to account for these factors in fisheries science and management can lead to a misestimation of stock dynamics and productivity, resulting in overexploitation or forgone fisheries yield. Using an online survey, we asked fisheries scientists, industry stakeholders, Indigenous partners, and non-governmental organizations whether changing ecosystem productivity was a problem in their experience, how often dynamic approaches to fisheries reference points have been adopted, what methods had been used, and what fisheries they had been applied to. Changing fisheries or ecosystem productivity was reported as an issue by 96% of respondents; however, 74% of respondents said they had never seen dynamic reference points implemented, 16% said in very few instances, while 10% said frequently. The most common barriers to implementation of dynamic approaches in fisheries management were institutional inertia and uncertainty about whether a change in productivity was lasting. We discuss trade-offs between fisheries management performance and stability.

A simulation framework to assess management trade-offs associated with recreational harvest slots, discard mortality reduction, and bycatch accountability in a multi-sector fishery

We developed a simulation framework to explore the combined effects of harvest slot regulations, reductions in recreational discard mortality rate, and alternate bycatch accountability approaches on fishery management performance measures representing a broad range of stakeholder interests in a multi-sector marine fishery. Simulation results indicated reductions in recreational discard mortality rate, alone or combined with harvest slot regulations, may result in longer recreational fishing seasons, increased recreational catch rates, reduced dead discarded biomass, and an increase in the population of reproductively valuable older fish. Based on application to Gulf of Mexico red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus), we demonstrate the trade-offs among competing management objectives and illustrate how reduced recreational discard mortality rates and allocation of catch quotas between recreational and commercial sectors based on total dead biomass versus landed catch alone can influence the efficacy of regulatory actions. We suggest increased use of simulation analyses is warranted to aid fisheries management decision making and can spur development of performance measures that better communicate trade-offs among the diverse objectives of stakeholders in multi-sector marine fisheries.

Measuring fisheries management performance

Abstract How do we assess the performance of national and international fisheries management organizations? Many organizations produce measures of the extent of overfishing, typically classifying individual stocks as overfished if they are below some biomass threshold. Most agencies then report their overall status (i.e. percentage overfished, fully exploited, etc.) by giving equal weight to all stocks, regardless of stock size or potential yield. We review the range of indices used to assess overfishing levels and apply them to the data from US fisheries to show how they depict very different performance of fisheries. Given that overfishing is a concept imbedded in the maximization of long-term harvest, we evaluate how well these indices reflect the extent to which fisheries have maximized sustainable yield. Indices that are weighted by the potential yield of the stock much better reflect the regional performance of fisheries but are still limited by the arbitrary use of a threshold abundance. For the United States, weighting by maximum sustainable yield or value suggests that the losses from overfishing are less than existing methods using equal weighting and that underfishing is much more common than overfishing.

Fishery Socioeconomic Outcomes Tool: A rapid assessment tool for evaluating socioeconomic performance of fisheries management

As linked social-ecological systems, evaluating the socioeconomic outcomes of fisheries management is essential to understanding fishery performance. While a number of tools have been developed in recent years to evaluate social and economic outcomes of fisheries, many require extensive data collection, making them difficult to implement on a large scale, while others rely on existing data, limiting their applicability to data-limited fisheries. Additionally, socioeconomic objectives of fisheries are likely to differ substantially between fisheries of different scales operating in different geographic and socio-cultural contexts, making the development of universal indicators and comparing results between fisheries challenging. This paper describes a novel tool for evaluating and tracking fishery management socioeconomic outcomes by linking outcomes directly to management objectives. Indicators of these outcomes are scored by key informants and weighted according to the importance of particular fishery management objectives, resulting in standardized scores of fishery management outcomes. The resulting scores can be compared between fisheries and tracked over time. This tool was tested in two disparate fisheries on the U.S. West Coast and in Sinaloa, Mexico. Results of testing demonstrate that the outcomes generated similar scores, although the primary objectives of each were very different, permitting comparison of the performance of the two fisheries. The results for the West Coast groundfish fishery were groundtruthed using existing data to assess reliability of survey scores. This tool furthers the landscape of fishery evaluation by enabling comparison of performance among dissimilar fisheries and by facilitating the rapid assessment of social outcomes of fisheries management.

Can spawning origin information of catch or a recruitment penalty improve assessment and fishery management performance for a spatially structured stock assessment model?

We used simulations based on lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) populations to explore the benefits of using spawning origin information for parsing catch to spawning populations in stock assessments for intermixed fisheries exhibiting an overlapping movement strategy. We compared this origin-informed assessment model with a standard assessment model that did not parse catch. We additionally evaluated the influence of including annual recruitment penalties. For standard assessment models, spawning stock biomass estimates could be unstable and biased (sometimes by more than 50%), depending upon population mixing and productivity, and in some cases estimated near average zero recruitment in the terminal year. Incorporating information on population-specific harvest age composition improved spawning stock biomass estimation (e.g., by sometimes essentially removing 50% biases and improving accuracy). Assessments with recruitment penalties produced less biased terminal recruitment estimates (sometimes a 100% bias was removed). Under status quo target mortality rates, improvements in assessments did not necessarily translate to improved fishery management performance (e.g., avoiding depletion of spawning biomass), but such improvements, and overall better performance, were seen at lower target mortality rates.

Reference Points for Optimal Yield: A Framework for Assessing Economic, Conservation, and Sociocultural Tradeoffs in Ecosystem-Based Fishery Management

ABSTRACTWe propose a conceptual framework for evaluating fishery management performance using conservation, economic, and sociocultural metrics. We develop a value function that weights outcomes for each measure based on their relative importance to decision makers and show how it can be derived from fundamental economic principles (the latter initially in collaboration with Mark Plummer). This approach allows one to explore how Optimal Yield, as mandated by the Magnuson-Stevens Act, varies with biological, economic, and sociocultural weightings.

Modificações estruturais nas redes de arrasto de camarão: percepção dos pescadores e implicações para a gestão em uma área marinha protegida

O artigo compreende uma análise das percepções dos pescadores sobre adotar modificações estruturais para a redução do bycatch (BRD) numa Área Marinha Protegida (AMP) do sul do Brasil. A coleta de dados incluiu arrastos demonstrativos com pescadores de média escala (acima de 45HP), oficinas devolutivas e entrevistas sobre a diní­¢mica da pesca e eficiência dos BRDs. As oficinas devolutivas compreenderam uma análise participativa do desempenho do BRD e possibilidades e obstáculos para a sua adoção. Pescadores concordaram com os resultados do BRD, bem como a continuidade de pesquisa para melhorar a redução de juvenis na fauna acompanhante. Percepções negativas da redução do bycatch comercializável afetaram a aceitação e são desafios í­Â gestão pesqueira. Contudo, a abordagem participativa estimulou iniciativas colaborativas para melhorar a gestão, a aprendizagem institucional e o engajamento dos pescadores para pesca artesanal responsável. A experiência analisada pode servir de piloto para pesquisas futuras e gestão em outras AMPs.

A comparative review of fisheries management experiences in the European Union and in other countries worldwide: Iceland, Australia, and New Zealand

AbstractThis study compares the details and performance of fisheries management between the EU and a selection of other countries worldwide: Iceland, New Zealand, and Australia, which are considered in many respects to be among the most advanced in the world in fisheries management. Fisheries management in the EU, Iceland, Australia, and New Zealand has developed following different paths, despite being based on similar instruments and principles. Iceland, Australia, and New Zealand have been at the forefront of developing management practices such as stakeholder involvement, legally binding management targets (Australia, New Zealand), individual transferable quotas, and discard bans (Iceland, New Zealand). The EU has since the beginning of the 21st century taken significant steps to better involve stakeholders and establish quantitative targets through management plans, and a landing obligation is gradually being implemented from 2015 onward. The management of domestic fisheries resources in Australia, New Zealand, and Iceland has, overall, performed better than in the EU, in terms of conservation and economic efficiency. It should, however, be stressed that, compared to Australia, New Zealand, and Iceland, (i) initial over‐capacity was more of an issue in the EU when management measures became legally binding and also that (ii) EU has been progressive in developing common enforcement standards, on stocks shared by sovereign nations. The situation of EU fisheries has substantially improved over the period 2004–2013 in the northeast Atlantic, with fishery status getting close to that in the other jurisdictions, but the lack of recovery for Mediterranean fish stocks remains a concern.

A tale of two seas: a meta‐analysis of crustacean stocks in the NE Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea

AbstractMeta‐analysis of marine biological resources can elucidate general trends and patterns to inform scientists and improve management. Crustacean stocks are indispensable for European and global fisheries; however, studies of their aggregate development have been rare and confined to smaller spatial and temporal scales compared to fish stocks. Here, we study the aggregate development of 63 NE Atlantic and Mediterranean crustacean stocks of six species (Nephrops norvegicus, Pandalus borealis, Parapenaeus longirostris, Aristeus antennatus, Aristaeomorpha foliacea and Squilla mantis) in 1990–2013 using biomass index data from official stock assessments. We implemented a dynamic factor analysis (DFA) to identify common underlying trends in biomass indices and investigate the correlation with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index. The analysis revealed increasing and decreasing trends in the northern and southern NE Atlantic, respectively, and stable or slowly increasing trends in the Mediterranean, which were not related to NAO. A separate meta‐analysis of the fishing mortality (F) and biomass (B) of 39 analytically assessed crustacean stocks was also carried out to explore their development relative to MSY. NE Atlantic crustacean stocks have been exploited on average close to FMSY and remained well above BMSY in 1995–2013, while Mediterranean stocks have been exploited 2–4 times above FMSY in 2002–2012. Aggregate trends of European crustacean stocks are somewhat opposite to trends of fish stocks, suggesting possible cascading effects. This study highlights the two‐speed fisheries management performance in the northern and southern European seas, despite most stocks being managed in the context of the European Union's Common Fisheries Policy.

Why have global shark and ray landings declined: improved management or overfishing?

AbstractGlobal chondrichthyan (shark, ray, skate and chimaera) landings, reported to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), peaked in 2003 and in the decade since have declined by almost 20%. In the FAO's 2012 ‘State of the World's Fisheries and Aquaculture’ report, the authors ‘hoped’ the reductions in landings were partially due to management implementation rather than population decline. Here, we tested their hypothesis. Post‐peak chondrichthyan landings trajectories from 126 countries were modelled against seven indirect and direct fishing pressure measures and eleven measures of fisheries management performance, while accounting for ecosystem attributes. We found the recent improvement in international or national fisheries management was not yet strong enough to account for the recent decline in chondrichthyan landings. Instead, the landings declines were more closely related to fishing pressure and ecosystem attribute measures. Countries with the greatest declines had high human coastal population sizes or high shark and ray meat exports such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand. While important progress had been made, country‐level fisheries management measures did not yet have the strength or coverage to halt overfishing and avert population declines of chondrichthyans. Increased implementation of legally binding operational fisheries management and species‐specific reporting is urgently required to avoid declines and ensure fisheries sustainability and food security.

A simulation-based approach to assess sensitivity and robustness of fisheries management indicators for the pelagic fishery in the Bay of Biscay

Indicators are widely promoted as means to monitor ecosystem status or to evaluate fisheries management performance. “Which indicators are most relevant as decision-support tools in fisheries management?” still remains a topical question. Indicators should be metrics related to fish populations and fleets and should be sensitive to management strategies. However, given the complexity of the processes involved, it is often difficult to unequivocally interpret variations in metrics. A simulation approach was used to study metric properties and to identify robust and relevant fishery indicators. By applying sensitivity analysis methods, simulation designs were built that cross a variety of management scenarios and uncertainty hypotheses. Bio-economic outputs were simulated using a mechanistic model (ISIS-Fish), and their properties were statistically analyzed. This approach was applied to the pelagic fishery of the Bay of Biscay. The analysis of metric properties highlighted the major factors driving variations in each metric and identified the important sources of uncertainty that need to be reduced to allow the use of metrics as indicators. Although very few metrics gave robust indications of management performance, sensitivity indices evidenced how management performances could be improved, and spatially disaggregated metrics provided insights into the mechanisms underlying management performance.

Developing a sustainable indicator system based on the pressure–state–response framework for local fisheries: A case study of Gungliau, Taiwan

To sustain fishery development and ensure the supply of fish, the role that a sustainable development indicator system plays in the evaluation of fishery management performance is becoming increasingly important. A sustainable indicator system based on the Pressure–State–Response (PSR) framework was developed for local fisheries in Gungliau, Taiwan, between 1995 and 2003. Factor analysis and canonical correlation analysis were also applied to aggregate indicators and analyse the linkage of indicators. The most serious problem facing fishery system in Gungliau is conflicting local and higher levels of enforcement that result in the problems of effort, harvest and fleet age composition related to the pressure component. Fishery resources and the state of ecosystem were also affected by marine environmental change, especially by El Ñino. Consequently, fishermen adjusted their effort and investment to the variation of Fishery resources, leading Gungliau fisheries to unsustainability.

Fisheries co-management—an institutional innovation? Lessons from South East Asia and Southern Africa

During the last decade the co-management concept has gained increasing acceptance as a potential way forward to improve fisheries management performance. It has, however, at the same time become increasingly evident that the co-management concept is not clearly defined and means very different things to different people. In this article, we attempt to document experience available from a recent study on fisheries co-management that has researched case studies of various implementations of co-management arrangements in coastal and freshwater fisheries in South East Asia and Southern Africa, and to present a more comprehensive understanding of co-management and to summarise the experiences with both the positive outcomes and the problems in actual implementation.

User participation and fishery management performance within the pacific fishery management council

Fish populations have the potential to contribute to the long-term economic and social benefit of humans, but to do so they must be managed in ways which maintain ecological health. There are many ways that management performance can be assessed, but four measures are particularly pertinent to sustainability: equity, stewardship, regulatory resilience, and efficiency. A key factor in management performance is the process by which management tools are developed and implemented. One approach that has been recommended to improve performance is to structure the management process around user participation. The paper analyzes three case studies of user participation in ad hoc processes of Pacific groundfish management: the development of a license limitation program; an inter-gear sablefish allocation; and the development of a sablefish individual quota (IQ) program. The case studies illustrate the role played by participation in contributing to the equity, stewardship, resilience, and efficiency of the management process. The effect of user participation was mixed in the three cases, depending on the history of participation, the structure and process of participation, on resource conditions and on the characteristics of the program under consideration. Participation can contribute positively to fishery management performance when there is a history of collective decision-making, the time line is slow enough to allow a full consideration of the issues, educational possibilities are pursued and the condition of the resource allows equitable compromises.