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Abstract Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are designed to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services. Some MPAs are also established to benefit fisheries through increased egg and larval production, or the spillover of mobile juveniles and adults. Whether spillover influences fishery landings depend on the population status and movement patterns of target species both inside and outside of MPAs, as well as the status of the fishery and behavior of the fleet. We tested whether an increase in the lobster population inside two newly established MPAs influenced local catch, fishing effort, and catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) within the sustainable California spiny lobster fishery. We found greater build-up of lobsters within MPAs relative to unprotected areas, and greater increases in fishing effort and total lobster catch, but not CPUE, in fishing zones containing MPAs vs. those without MPAs. Our results show that a 35% reduction in fishing area resulting from MPA designation was compensated for by a 225% increase in total catch after 6-years, thus indicating at a local scale that the trade-off of fishing ground for no-fishing zones benefitted the fishery.
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Fleet-wide stability masks change in the Maine lobster fishery (2008–2022)
Abstract For most of the past few decades, landings in the American lobster (Homarus americanus) fishery in Maine have been increasing, but a recent downturn in catch suggests the fishery may be at an inflection point. Drawing on multiple datasets associated with the fishery, we use this period of transition to review fleet dynamics in the fishery by analyzing how fishing effort has changed through time (2008–2022). When possible, age, gender, geography, and scale of fishing operation are considered to delimit intra-fleet differences. The results of this review reveal large-scale changes in intra-fleet dynamics that help to explain how there has been the appearance of fleet-wide stability for most of the 15-year study period despite mounting socioeconomic and environmental stressors. Changes in intra-fleet dynamics are most evident across geography and scale of fishing operation. In addition, this study finds that prior research has overestimated a key metric of fishing effort in the Maine lobster fishery by an order of magnitude. This latter insight bears significance because the lobster industry is under mounting pressure to reduce risk of gear interactions with large marine mammals, and future management decisions will likely hinge on estimates about fishing effort and the probability of marine mammal interactions. Continued efforts to understand fishing fleet dynamics and how they differ among segments of the fishery are vital to making well-informed policy decisions in the face of change, including the iconic Maine lobster fishery.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2244117
- PAR ID:
- 10610073
- Publisher / Repository:
- Oxford University Press
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ICES Journal of Marine Science
- Volume:
- 82
- Issue:
- 6
- ISSN:
- 1054-3139
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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