Fisheries policy that is comprehensible and agreeable to fishers is a cornerstone of democratic and inclusive
governance of living marine resources. However, policy designers struggle to systematically include diverse
perspectives and they may not understand the breadth and depth of fishers’ knowledge about fisheries management
and conservation. Failing to anticipate how reforms to management plans are received can spur policy
rejection, distrust, and foster noncompliance. Knowing fishers’ knowledge of, inclination toward, and vulnerability
to proposed changes can help fishery managers design and implement inclusive and forward-thinking
fishery management plans. In a representative survey of Greenland’s inshore halibut fishers, we asked about
current and proposed changes to the management of fisheries. From a response pool of experienced fishers, we
found little to no knowledge about individual transferable quota programs, little to no inclination for or against
these proposed changes, and a wide range of levels of vulnerability in the face of potentially curtailed access to
fishery resources. Results suggest that fishers and fishery decision makers must increase the exchange of technical
knowledge in understandable terms for Greenland’s fisheries policy to achieve sustainability outcomes and
to secure small-scale fisheries livelihoods. We recommend that policy makers increase outreach efforts to show
fishers “under the hood”, provide clear and accessible information, and seek suggestions and comments from
fishers regarding proposed changes to the status quo. We further suggest that analysts conduct a transparent
management strategy evaluation to model potential outcomes arising from any revised fishery management plan,
fishing communities, and in turn, for Greenland’s entire small-scale fishing segment.
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Positive Social-Ecological Feedbacks in Community-Based Conservation
Marine area-based conservation measures including no-take zones (areas with no fishing allowed) are often designed through lengthy processes that aim to optimize for ecological and social objectives. Their (semi) permanence generates high stakes in what seems like a one-shot game. In this paper, we theoretically and empirically explore a model of short-term area-based conservation that prioritizes adaptive co-management: temporary areas closed to fishing, designed by the fishers they affect, approved by the government, and adapted every 5 years. In this model, no-take zones are adapted through learning and trust-building between fishers and government fisheries scientists. We use integrated social-ecological theory and a case study of a network of such fisheries closures (“fishing refugia”) in northwest Mexico to hypothesize a feedback loop between trust, design, and ecological outcomes. We argue that, with temporary and adaptive area-based management, social and ecological outcomes can be mutually reinforcing as long as initial designs are ecologically “good enough” and supported in the social-ecological context. This type of adaptive management also has the potential to adapt to climate change and other social-ecological changes. This feedback loop also predicts the dangerous possibility that low trust among stakeholders may lead to poor design, lack of ecological benefits, eroding confidence in the tool’s capacity, shrinking size, and even lower likelihood of social-ecological benefits. In our case, however, this did not occur, despite poor ecological design of some areas, likely due to buffering by social network effects and alternative benefits. We discuss both the potential and the danger of temporary area-based conservation measures as a learning tool for adaptive co-management and commoning.
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- PAR ID:
- 10293813
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Frontiers in Marine Science
- Volume:
- 8
- ISSN:
- 2296-7745
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract The role of spatial management, including marine protected areas, in achieving fisheries outcomes alongside conservation goals is debated. In fisheries that fail to meet fishing mortality targets, closed areas are sometimes implemented to reduce fishing mortality. However, fisheries with stronger management, including rights‐based approaches that can address overcapacity and overfishing problems, often employ spatial management as well. Here, we compare the objectives, design, and performance of spatial management in nine temperate demersal fisheries in North America, Oceania, Europe, and Africa that employ rights‐based systems. Common objectives of spatial management included protecting habitat, juveniles, and spawners and reducing discards. Recovering age structure and creating scientific reference sites were less common objectives, despite being widely cited benefits of spatial management. Some fisheries adopted single closures to achieve single objectives, whereas others adopted diverse networks to achieve multiple objectives. Importantly, many spatial protections are implemented primarily through industry initiatives. Environmental change compromised the efficacy of spatial management in some cases, suggesting the need to design spatial management systems that are robust to changing ocean conditions. Fisheries with diverse and extensive spatial management systems have generally healthier fish stocks. Whether this implies that spatial management contributed substantially to fishery performance is unclear due to an absence of large‐scale, long‐term studies aimed at discerning different drivers of success. Although these targeted monitoring studies of closed areas are limited, such studies are necessary to help resolve the ongoing debate and to enable more purposeful design of spatial management for fisheries and conservation.
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Uncertainties about the magnitude of bycatch in poorly assessed fisheries impede effective conservation management. In northern Peru, small-scale fisheries (SSF) bycatch negatively impacts marine megafauna populations and the livelihoods of fishers which is further elevated by the under-reporting of incidents. Within the last decade, accounts of entangled humpback whales (HBW) ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) off the northern coast of Peru have increased, while Eastern Pacific leatherback turtles (LBT) ( Dermochelys coriacea ) have seen over a 90% decline in nesting populations related in large part to bycatch mortality. By leveraging the experience and knowledge of local fishers, our research objectives were to use a low-cost public participation mapping approach to provide a spatio-temporal assessment of bycatch risk for HBW and LBT off two Peruvian fishing ports. We used an open-source, geographic information systems (GIS) model, the Bycatch Risk Assessment (ByRA), as our platform. Broadly, ByRA identifies high bycatch risk areas by estimating the intersection of fishing areas (i.e., stressors) with species habitat and evaluating the exposure and consequence of possible interaction between the two. ByRA outputs provided risk maps and gear risk percentages categorized as high, medium, and low for the study area and seven subzones for HBW in the austral winter and LBT in the austral summer. Overall, the highest bycatch risk for both species was identified within gillnet fisheries near the coast. Bycatch risk for most gear types decreased with distance from the coast. When we separated the ByRA model by port, our map outputs indicate that bycatch management should be port specific, following seasonal and spatial variations for HBW, and specific fishing gear impacts for HBW and LBT. Combined with direct bycatch mitigation techniques, ByRA can be a supportive and informative tool for addressing specific bycatch threats and marine megafauna conservation goals. ByRA supports a participatory framework offering rapid visual information via risk maps and replicable methods for areas with limited resources and data on fisheries and species habitat.more » « less
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Abstract Fishing behavior is an important link between management decisions and bioeconomic outcomes. The diversity in fishers’ behavior, motivations, and abilities should inform incentive structures if management aims to consider heterogeneous impacts on and by communities. Modeling human behavior in resource management is important for successful fisheries, especially for fisheries undergoing rapid transformation, such as the Alaskan snow crab fishery. This study modeled how snow crabbers choose where to fish in the eastern Bering Sea and examined the diversity of strategies among individuals by fitting a random utility model to data on fishing locations using a variety of potential drivers of behavior as covariates. The overall fishing strategy of the snow crab fleet prioritizes revenue and shared information, while avoiding risk, poor weather, and cost. Diversity of fishing strategies was driven by differences in spatial footprint, vessel size, and ports of landing. Larger vessels ventured farther north, where weather conditions are more extreme. Despite differences in vessel size, crabbers were spatially adaptive and switched fishing regions depending on the abundance and distribution of crab. These findings on the patterns of fishing strategies can inform better management of the Alaskan snow crab fishery as it undergoes rebuilding.
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The costs and benefits of customary top-down Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have been studied at length. But the costs and benefits of community-based MPAs –an increasingly common tool in conservation and fisheries management– remain understudied. Here, we quantify the operational costs of maintaining community-based MPA monitoring programs in nine small-scale fishing communities in Mexico. We then compare these costs to the potential extractive use value of invertebrate and fish biomass contained in the reserves. We find that the annual monitoring costs (median: 1,130 MXN/ha; range: 23-3,561 MXN/ha) represent between 0.3% and 55% of the extractive use value of the biomass contained in the reserves (median: 21.31 thousand MXN/ha; 5.22 - 49/12 thousand MXN/ha). These results suggest that the direct monetary benefits of community-based marine conservation can outweigh the costs of monitoring programs, providing further support for these types of management schemes. While further research should explore other mechanisms that would allow fishers to leverage the non-extractive use value of reserves (more » « less
e.g. , tourism) or the non-use value (i.e. existence value of biodiversity) to sustainably finance their conservation efforts, a stop-gap measure to ensuring long-term monitoring costs are covered might include limited extractive use of resources contained in the reserves.
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.652318
