Protection Of Marine Resources Research Articles

SUSTAINABLE AND RESPONSIBLE LEISURE: RECREATIONAL MARITIME FISHING IN SPAIN

Recreational sea fishing is an important activity, both from a socio-economic and environmental point of view, as it is a source of wealth but also a threat to natural resources. For this reason, each autonomous community has developed a specific regulatory framework for its regulation, focusing on sustainability and the protection of marine resources. These regulations include restrictions on the volume of catches, the species permitted, and the prohibition of the commercialization of catches. The aim of this article is to provide an extensive comparison of some of them, showing their similarities and also their regulatory differences, as well as possible gaps and inconsistencies.

Sonar Fish School Detection and Counting Method Based on Improved YOLOv8 and BoT-SORT

Fish object detection and counting in pelagic fisheries face many challenges in complex environments. Sonar imaging technology offers a solution because it generates high-resolution images underwater. In this paper, we propose a sonar-based fish object detection and counting method using an improved YOLOv8 combined with BoT-SORT to address issues such as missed detection, false detection, and low accuracy caused by complex factors such as equipment motion, light changes, and background noise in pelagic environments. The algorithm utilizes the techniques of lightweight upsampling operator CARAFE, generalized feature pyramid network GFPN, and partial convolution. It integrates with the BoT-SORT tracking algorithm to propose a new region detection method that detects and tracks the schools of fish, providing stable real-time fish counts in the designated area. The experimental results indicate that while focusing on maintaining a lightweight design, the improved algorithm achieved a 3.8% increase in recall and a 2.4% increase in mAP0.5 compared to the original algorithm. This significantly impacts scientific and rational fishery planning, marine resource protection, and improved productivity. At the same time, it provides important data support for marine ecological monitoring, environmental protection, and fishery management, contributing to sustainable fishery development and marine ecology preservation.

A Lightweight Model of Underwater Object Detection Based on YOLOv8n for an Edge Computing Platform

The visual signal object detection technology of deep learning, as a high-precision perception technology, can be adopted in various image analysis applications, and it has important application prospects in the utilization and protection of marine biological resources. While the marine environment is generally far from cities where the rich computing power in cities cannot be utilized, deploying models on mobile edge devices is an efficient solution. However, because of computing resource limitations on edge devices, the workload of performing deep learning-based computationally intensive object detection on mobile edge devices is often insufficient in meeting high-precision and low-latency requirements. To address the problem of insufficient computing resources, this paper proposes a lightweight process based on a neural structure search and knowledge distillation using deep learning YOLOv8 as the baseline model. Firstly, the neural structure search algorithm was used to compress the YOLOv8 model and reduce its computational complexity. Secondly, a new knowledge distillation architecture was designed, which distills the detection head output layer and NECK feature layer to compensate for the accuracy loss caused by model reduction. When compared to YOLOv8n, the computational complexity of the lightweight model optimized in this study (in terms of floating point operations (FLOPs)) was 7.4 Gflops, which indicated a reduction of 1.3 Gflops. The multiply–accumulate operations (MACs) stood at 2.72 G, thereby illustrating a decrease of 32%; this saw an increase in the AP50, AP75, and mAP by 2.0%, 3.0%, and 1.9%, respectively. Finally, this paper designed an edge computing service architecture, and it deployed the model on the Jetson Xavier NX platform through TensorRT.

Expansion of Toxic Algal Blooms in Coastal and Marine Areas in the Philippines and Malaysia: Is It Climate Change Related?

This paper provides a review of toxic algal blooms in the Philippine and Malaysian coastal and marine systems, considering relevant available knowledge, including climate change dimension/s in the assessment of their recorded recent expansion. The first record of human toxicity in the Philippines associated with HABs/toxic algal blooms specifically was during the bloom of Pyrodinium bahamense in the Sorsogon, Samar, and Leyte waters in 1983. Since then, the species has been identified to occur and cause blooms in about 44 sites/areas in the country. Recent government reports, i.e., 2021, 2022, and 2023, have also identified other paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) causative organisms (Gymnodinium catenatum, Alexandrium spp.) in the country. New records indicate that the presence of PSP causative species has been reported almost year-round in the Philippines. In Malaysia, PSP caused by P. bahamense was initially confined in 1981 to the state of Sabah, Malaysia Borneo, but since then, blooms of this species have been reported almost annually at different scales across the coastal waters of Sabah. P. bahamense and other cyst-forming dinoflagellates could be transported naturally or through human activities. Other eco-physiological and environment factors from the field and the laboratory have been used to study the bloom dynamics and transport of PSP causative species in several areas in the Philippines and Malaysia. More recently, plastics and other marine litter have been considered potential vectors of invasion/transport or expansion of dinoflagellates with other microorganisms. ENSO events have been observed to be stronger since 1950 compared with those recorded from 1850 to 1950. The extreme phases of the ENSO phenomenon have a strong modulating effect based on seasonal rainfall in the Philippines, with extreme ENSO warm events (El Niño) often associated with drought and stresses on water resources and agriculture/aquaculture. In contrast, cold events (La Niña) often result in excessive rainfall. The La Nina Advisories from 2021 to 2023 (18 advisories) showed the persistence of this part of ENSO, particularly in regions with recurrent and new records of HABs/toxic algal blooms. More studies and monitoring of another type of toxic algal bloom, Ciguatera Fish Poisoning (CFP), are recommended in tropical countries such as the Philippines and Malaysia, which have extensive reef areas that harvest and culture marine fish for local and export purposes, as accelerating reports of this type of poisoning have apparently increased and causative organisms have been identified in several areas. There is an urgent need to enhance HAB/toxic algal bloom research and monitoring, particularly those related to climate change, which has apparently impacted these blooms/occurrences directly or indirectly. Local researchers and managers should be made aware of the knowledge and tools already available for their utilization and enhancement to meet local conditions and challenges for potential recurrence and expansion of HABs/toxic algal blooms. Regional and international HAB research and collaboration should be further advanced for the protection of public health and marine resources.

Research on the Development Path of Green Marine Economy in the Era of Ecological Civilization

This article explores the development path of the green marine economy in the era of ecological civilization. It highlights the importance of developing a green marine economy and how it has become a global consensus. The article suggests that China should take proactive measures to optimize its marine industrial structure, promote marine scientific and technological innovation, strengthen marine resource protection and environmental governance, and enhance the competitiveness of the marine economy. The ultimate objective is to achieve sustainable development of the ocean, expand the blue economic space, and accomplish the goal of green marine economic development.

TCNet: A Transformer–CNN Hybrid Network for Marine Aquaculture Mapping from VHSR Images

Precise delineation of marine aquaculture areas is vital for the monitoring and protection of marine resources. However, due to the coexistence of diverse marine aquaculture areas and complex marine environments, it is still difficult to accurately delineate mariculture areas from very high spatial resolution (VHSR) images. To solve such a problem, we built a novel Transformer–CNN hybrid Network, named TCNet, which combined the advantages of CNN for modeling local features and Transformer for capturing long-range dependencies. Specifically, the proposed TCNet first employed a CNN-based encoder to extract high-dimensional feature maps from input images. Then, a hierarchical lightweight Transformer module was proposed to extract the global semantic information. Finally, it employed a coarser-to-finer strategy to progressively recover and refine the classification results. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of TCNet in accurately delineating different types of mariculture areas, with an IoU value of 90.9%. Compared with other state-of-the-art CNN or Transformer-based methods, TCNet showed significant improvement both visually and quantitatively. Our methods make a significant contribution to the development of precision agricultural in coastal regions.

The Role of Integrated Coastal Management Approach in the Protection of Coastal and Marine Resources in the Eastern Coast of Tanzania

Abstract This scientific paper examines the role of Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) approach in the protection of coastal and marine resources in Tanzania. It engages coastal resource users and practitioners in focus group discussions and interviews, and complements the data obtained with documented sources. A modified version of the Benefit Analysis Framework is adopted from Wenger et al. (2011) to analyze the extent to which ICM yields a wide range of benefits that may potentially promote the protection of coastal ecosystem and enhance the commitment of communities that live adjacent to the coastal strip to manage mangroves, fisheries, coral reefs, and coastal land in a sustainable manner.

Influence of FDI on China's Green Marine Economy

China attaches great importance to the protection of Marine resources, the development of Marine economy and the construction of a maritime power. FDI is highly concentrated in China's coastal areas and accompanied by space spillover, which affects the development speed and quality of Marine economy. Does FDI improve the efficiency of China's Marine green economy? Based on the panel data of 11 coastal provinces and cities in China from 2004 to 2020, the "efficiency evaluation system of Marine green economy" is constructed from the dual perspective of environmental constraints and resource conservation, considering the unexpected output and measuring the efficiency of Marine green economy with the ultra-efficiency SBM model. Then, under the geographical weight and economic geographical weight, the FDI spatial index is constructed to study its influence on the efficiency of Marine green economy. The results show that FDI space can improve the efficiency of Marine green economy in China. FDI has a negative effect on the efficiency of Marine green economy, but after considering the spatial factors, the FDI spatial index has a positive promotion effect on the improvement of the efficiency value, and the promotion effect is more significant under the weight of economic geography and space.

UNCLOS and its contributions to the development of international law: An editorial note

This is an editorial note for the special issue: UNCLOS and Its Contributions to the Development of International Law. This special issue contains 11 papers focusing on both UNCLOS and more general developments of the international law of the sea. The papers can be roughly categorized into four topics: the development of UNCLOS by stakeholder contributions, the application of UNCLOS and its relations with general international law; marine environmental protection and sustainable development of marine resources; and emerging legal issues confronting the human community.

Protecting the Arctic Indigenous Peoples’ Livelihoods in the Face of Climate Change: The Potential of Regional Human Rights Law and the Law of the Sea

Abstract Climate change presents existential challenges for the livelihoods of indigenous peoples, which depend on vulnerable ecosystems prone to extreme weather phenomena. Of all indigenous communities, those living in the Arctic have been worst affected. This raises the question to what extent international law can be mobilized to address the endangered livelihoods of Arctic indigenous peoples in light of rapid changes in the Arctic environment. This article examines two dimensions of the protection of livelihoods: an internal one—i.e. legal entitlements over assets, land and income—and an external one—i.e. the living environment in the Arctic. In so doing, the article analyses the right to property under regional human rights law and rules on the protection of marine resources under the law of the sea. Reflecting on relevant jurisprudence, it shows that both legal areas could provide important elements of litigation strategies to address the human rights costs of climate change.

Community Structure and Health Conditions of Mangrove in Sabu Raijua

Mangrove ecosystem has an important role for the coastal ecosystem in Sabu Raijua which is included in the TNP Laut Sawu conservation area. Its designation as a water conservation area indicates that the area is an important for the protection of fishery diversity and other marine resources. Mangroves play an important role for the diversity of marine biota because of their role as a breeding ground, foraging, and nursery ground for various types of marine biota. For this reason, the role of mangrove ecosystems as supporting conservation areas is very important. The functioning of the mangrove ecosystem can be seen based on the community structure and ecosystem quality conditions. This study aims to determine the condition of the community structure and health conditions of mangroves on Sabu Raijua Island. The survey location was obtained at 5 observation stations spread across Sabu Island. The results showed that 8 species of mangrove were identified with the dominance of Mangrove Lumnitzera racemosa with an IVI value of 191%. The percentage of canopy cover found ranged from 33 – 58% with an average value of 46%. Density ranges from 23 – 45 ind/plot, with an average of 31 ind/plot. The Mangrove Health Index (MHI) value in was 36.51 ± 14.05% which is included in the Moderate category. The high value of the standard deviation (14.05) indicates that there are still mangrove locations in Sabu Raijua that have poor conditions (Poor).

MAD-YOLO: A quantitative detection algorithm for dense small-scale marine benthos

Marine biological resources are abundant, and the reasonable development, research and protection of marine biological resources are of great significance to marine ecological health and economic development. At present, underwater object quantitative detection plays a very important role in marine biological science research, marine species richness survey, and rare species conservation. However, the problems of a large amount of noise in the underwater environment, small object scale, dense biological distribution, and occlusion all increase the detection difficulty. In this paper, a detection algorithm MAD-YOLO (Multiscale Feature Extraction and Attention Feature Fusion Reinforced YOLO for Marine Benthos Detection) is proposed, which is based on improved YOLOv5 is proposed to solve the above problems. To improve the adaptability of the network to the underwater environment, VOVDarkNet is designed as the feature extraction backbone. It uses the intermediate features with different receptive fields to reinforce the ability to extract feature. AFC-PAN is proposed as the feature fusion network so that the network can learn correct feature information and location information of objects at various scales, improving the network's ability to perceive small objects. Label assignment strategy SimOTA and decoupled head are introduced to help the model better handles occlusion and dense distribution problems. Experiments show the MAD-YOLO algorithm increases mAP0.5:0.95 on the URPC2020 dataset from 49.8% to 53.4% compared to the original YOLOv5. Moreover, the advantages of the model are visualized and analyzed by the method of controlling variables in the experimental part. The experiments show that MAD-YOLO is suitable for detecting blurred, dense, and small-scale objects. The model performs well in marine benthos detection tasks and can effectively promote marine life science research and marine engineering implementation. The source code is publicly available at https://github.com/JoeNan1/MAD-YOLO.

THE EXISTENCE OF CUSTOMARY LAND LAW IN THE CUSTOMARY LAW COMMUNITY (MHA) KADIE LIYA IN WAKATOBI DISTRICT

The existence of customary land in the KadieLiya customary law community is still recognized legally formal existence as stipulated in Article 18 B paragraph (2) of the 1945 Constitution, 1945 Constitution Article 28I paragraph 3, Law No. 5 of 1960 concerning Basic Regulations on Agrarian Principles (UUPA), Law No. 41 of 1999 concerning Forestry, Law No. 39 of 2014 concerning Plantations, Law No. 26 of 2007 concerning Spatial Planning, Law No. 32 of 2009 concerning Environmental Protection and Management, Law No. 23 of 2014 concerning Regional Government, and Law No. 6 of 2014 concerning Villages and this is also strengthened by the issuance of Wakatobi Regent Regulation 40 of 2017 concerning Protection and Management of Coastal and Marine Resources Based on KadieLiya Customary Law Community. 23 of 2014 concerning Local Government, and Law No. 6 of 2014 concerning Villages and this is also strengthened by the issuance of the Wakatobi Regent Regulation 40 of 2017 concerning Protection and Management of Coastal and Marine Resources Based on the KadieLiya Customary Law Community, South Wangi-Wangi District, Wakatobi Regency, but empirically fading and weakening the existence of indigenous peoples institutions in managing KadieLiya customary land. The KadieLiya Customary Law Community feels limited in scope, especially in the management of their Customary Land, in addition to the difficulty of issuing a Certificate of Ownership of the land because the government claims that the land of the KadieLiya Customary Law Community is state-owned land.

Public Participation in Regulation on the Protection of Marine Resources

This article discusses the significance of participation of the community as an el-ement of control/supervision regarding the conservation of marine resources. This is particularly crucial, considering that Pohuwato Regency, which is located in the Tomini Bay area, is a strategic region with high potential for fishery re-sources. In addition, the region also boasts beautiful coastal area as well as other marine-related assets such as coral reefs and mangroves. As an imminent threat to the region’s potentials, the technique of destruction fishing not only impacts to the fishery resources, but also damages the marine ecosys-tem. Therefore, public participation is of significance to maintain the sustainability of marine and coastal resources. The research was conducted using an empirical juridical approach. The data collection technique was carried out through a process of interviews and fo-cus group discussions with various relevant stakeholders as determined purpos-ively. Moreover, a descriptive method was employed to analyze the data. The re-sults show that the existing laws and regulations have provided opportunities for the public to participate in monitoring and reporting of any indications of unlaw-ful acts. Several factors are of importance to be highlighted to optimize the public participation.

Assessment and Perceived Impact of Coastal Resource Management (CRM) Programs in the Southern Part of Masbate Island, Philippines

Coastal Resource Management (CRM) are activities that achieve sustainable use and management of valuable resources in coastal areas. This study presents the perceived impact of the coastal resource management (CRM) interventions implemented by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) under the FishCORAL Project in the Municipality of Milagros, Masbate. The respondents are members of fisherfolk organizations, Bantay Dagat (BD), and community members. The CRM projects include mangrove planting, the establishment of marine protected area (MPA) markers, the construction of a watchtower, and the establishment of Bantay Dagat (BD). Respondents were convinced that the interventions affected their daily living, especially mangrove planting projects. Members of fisherfolk organizations carried out the project in Barangays Jamorawon, Magsalangi, and Tagbon. In terms of knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP), these could be attributed to the respondent’s appreciation of the intervention, which contributed to the protection of the area from flood, storm surge, and tsunami, support for livelihood, the presence of marine animals (i.e., shrimp and crabs), and apprehension of illegal fishing activities. Destructive fishing, domestic waste, and natural calamities are some identified causes of aquatic ecosystem destruction. In terms of socioeconomic, respondents are provided additional income ranging from Php 1,500.00 - 2,000.00 per month, and fish stocks have also increased. The distribution of fishnets and Banca, livelihood, protection of marine resources, and commitment of legal authorities to enforce related fishery policies are among the CRM activities with a sound impact on the community.

Advances in Line-of-Sight Guidance for Path Following of Autonomous Marine Vehicles: An Overview

Autonomous marine vehicles (AMVs), including autonomous surface and underwater vehicles, are versatile means to explore, exploit, monitor, and protect marine resources and environments. Motion control is a fundamental enabling technique for state-of-the-art AMV development. Especially, guidance is a critical component in AMV motion control. In recent years, line-of-sight (LOS) guidance, as an efficient guidance method, has attracted tremendous interest from both theoretical and practical perspectives. In this paper, an overview of recent advances in LOS guidance for AMV path following is provided. First, a control objective for the path following of an AMV with a kinematic model is specified. Next, major LOS guidance laws for path following are reviewed in detail. Then, LOS guidance laws applicable to coordinated path following of multiple AMVs are elaborated. Finally, six challenging issues for future research are addressed.

Game theory-based stakeholder analysis of marine nature reserves and its case studies in Guangdong Province, China

Marine nature reserves (MNRs) play an important role in biodiversity conservation and ecosystem restoration, which are valuable for marine resource protection in China. Many stakeholders are involved in MNRs. The interactions between MNR managers and other stakeholders affect the effectiveness of MNR management. This work divided MNR stakeholders into three categories and applied the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to identify the key stakeholders. The game model was set up to analyze the strategies of MNR staff and stakeholders. The situation of key stakeholders and management was studied in two MNRs in Guangdong Province through field research and questionnaires. The results showed that fishermen were the main stakeholders in the two cases. The strategies adopted by MNR staff to improve the efficiency of law enforcement and decrease the probability of illegal activities of fishermen are to increase penalties, improve the arrest rate of illegal activities, and reduce the cost of law enforcement per patrol. We suggested that the fishermen’s negative impacts could be minimized by establishing a market management system to reduce illegal earnings, a record-keeping system to share additional benefits only with the fishermen who comply with the law, and an association mechanism in the coastal province to control illegal fishing across provincial boundaries. Identifying key stakeholders and analyzing their relationships could be helpful to find out the best strategy for different MNRs. Building a community of shared interests among various stakeholders could be a promising way to resolve conflicts and improve management effectiveness in MNRs.

Patterns of fish community structure in protected and non-protected marine areas of mainland Tanzania

Information on the benefits of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) for the condition of fish stocks is not well documented in Tanzania. Fish landing sites located in Tanga and Mtwara regions were surveyed to assess patterns of fish community structure; particularly fish abundance, species diversity, growth patterns, and maturity stages, based on catches landed at sites with different protection status. Fish abundance in the catch from protected areas was significantly lower than in non-protected areas (p=0.002). Species diversity was relatively higher in catches from non-protected (H=2.742) compared to protected areas (H=2.232). A high percentage of species (63.24 %) exhibiting negative allometric growth was observed in catches from non-protected areas. Further, a large number of mature fish was observed in catches from protected areas compared to non-protected areas (p<0.01). These indices are useful indicators of the performance of MPAs. The observed negative allometric growth and reduced number of mature fishes in the non-protected areas suggest that extractive pressure and disturbances from fishing gears have negative impacts on the fish stock. Continued high extraction may induce a decline in general fish size due to the constant selection for large-trait fish specimens, potentially causing evolutionally change in morphological traits. In contrast, the lower abundance and species diversity from the protected areas reflected low catch effort as a result of regulated fishing pressure in MPAs, rather than indicating the actual diversity in the fish stocks in these protected waters. Based on these findings it is recommended that more regulatory strategies are implemented in non-protected waters to allow more time for fish to attain appropriate harvest sizes and to ensure the effective protection of marine resources.

Recognition of behavior state of Penaeus vannamei based on passive acoustic technology

Underwater signal processing based on passive acoustic technology has carried out a lot of research on the behavioral sound of underwater creatures and the protection of marine resources, which proves the feasibility of passive acoustic technology for long-term and non-destructive monitoring of underwater biological sound production. However, at present, most relevant research focuses on fish but little research on shrimp. At the same time, as the main economic breeding industry, Penaeus vannamei has a backward industrial structure, in which the level of intelligence needs to be improved. In this paper, the acoustic signals generated by different physiological behaviors of P. vannamei are collected based on passive acoustic technology. Their different behaviors are finally classified and identified through feature extraction and analysis. Meanwhile, the characteristic non-parametric ANOVA is carried out to explore the relationship between the acoustic signals and the behavior state of P. vannamei to achieve the purpose of real-time monitoring of the behavior state of P. vannamei. The experimental results show that linear prediction cepstrum coefficient (LPCC) and Mel-frequency cepstrum coefficient (MFCC) characteristic coefficients are effective in the classification and recognition of different behavioral acoustic signals with interspecific acoustic signals of P. vannamei. Meanwhile, the SVM classifier based on OvR classification strategy can model the acoustic signal characteristics of different underwater biological behaviors more efficiently and has classification accuracy as high as 93%.

Using Social Network Analysis to Study Marine Protected Areas on Penghu Islands

A major challenge for fisheries management lies in how to strike a balance between the livelihoods of fishermen and sustainable operation of the fishing industry under the impact of climate change. In the long term, important marine habitats need to be designated as marine protected areas and prevent destructive man-made activities through appropriate legislation and law enforcement to promote marine resource conservation and ecological protection. Furthermore, marine protected areas have been recognized as the simplest, cheapest and most effective way in which to restore fishery resources and protect marine biodiversity in the future. However, the competent authorities have been unable to achieve co-management of the environment and partnerships for many years, and continue to rely on extensive integration and collaboration between governments and non-governmental organizations or individuals due to implementation-related factors such as the island society, the multiple social relationships of fishermen or residents in fishing villages, the closely related place attachment, and general xenophobia. The National Penghu University of Science and Technology established marine protected area community patrols in 2018. The patrols not only protect marine resources but also allow community residents and fishermen to build consensus among communities and reduce class discrimination against fishermen, which is in line with the sustainable planning and management strategy in fisheries of the blue economy and with the spirit of sato-umi. Sato-umi is a coastal area where biological productivity and biodiversity has increased through human interaction. In this study, social network analysis was used to systematically analyze the process of stakeholder engagement in the co-management of conservation areas, link cross-domain recreational resources amongst fishing villages, and cultivate regional revitalization in fishing communities through the visualization of participants’ locations, interactions, and relative influence.