scholarly journals Risks and benefits of catching pretty good yield in multispecies mixed fisheries

2017 ◽  
Vol 74 (8) ◽  
pp. 2097-2106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert B. Thorpe ◽  
Simon Jennings ◽  
Paul J. Dolder

Abstract Multispecies mixed fisheries catch ecologically interacting species with the same gears at the same time. We used an ensemble of size-based multispecies models to investigate the effects of different rates of fishing mortality (F) and fleet configurations on yield, biomass, risk of collapse and community structure. Maximum sustainable yield (MSY) and FMSY for 21 modelled species’ populations in the North Sea were defined at the Nash equilibrium, where any independent change in F for any species would not increase that species’ MSY. Fishing mortality ranges leading to “Pretty Good Yield” (F-PGY), by species, were defined as ranges yielding ≥0.95 × MSY. Weight and value of yield from the entire fishery increased marginally when all species were fished at the upper end of F-PGY ranges rather than at FMSY, but risk of species’ collapse and missing community targets also increased substantially. All risks fell markedly when fishing at the lower end of F-PGY ranges, but with small impacts on total fishery yield or value. While fishing anywhere within F-PGY ranges gives managers flexibility to manage trade-offs in multispecies mixed fisheries, our results suggest high long-term yields and disproportionately lower risks of stock collapse are achieved when F ≤ FMSY for all component stocks.

2016 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 525-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Rindorf ◽  
Massimiliano Cardinale ◽  
Samuel Shephard ◽  
José A. A. De Oliveira ◽  
Einar Hjorleifsson ◽  
...  

Pretty good yield (PGY) is a sustainable fish yield corresponding to obtaining no less than a specified large percentage of the maximum sustainable yield (MSY). We investigated 19 European fish stocks to test the hypothesis that the 95% PGY yield range is inherently precautionary with respect to impairing recruitment. An FMSY range was calculated for each stock as the range of fishing mortalities (F) that lead to an average catch of at least 95% of MSY in long-term simulations. Further, a precautionary reference point for each stock (FP.05) was defined as the F resulting in a 5% probability of the spawning-stock biomass falling below an agreed biomass limit below which recruitment is impaired (Blim) in long-term simulations. For the majority of the stocks analysed, the upper bound of the FMSY range exceeded the estimated FP.05. However, larger fish species had higher precautionary limits to fishing mortality, and species with larger asymptotic length were less likely to have FMSY ranges impairing recruitment. Our study shows that fishing at FMSY generally is precautionary with respect to impairing recruitment for highly exploited teleost species in northern European waters, whereas the upper part of the range providing 95% of MSY is not necessarily precautionary for small- and medium-sized teleosts.


2016 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 566-575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clara Ulrich ◽  
Youen Vermard ◽  
Paul J. Dolder ◽  
Thomas Brunel ◽  
Ernesto Jardim ◽  
...  

Achieving single species maximum sustainable yield (MSY) in complex and dynamic fisheries targeting multiple species (mixed fisheries) is challenging because achieving the objective for one species may mean missing the objective for another. The North Sea mixed fisheries are a representative example of an issue that is generic across most demersal fisheries worldwide, with the diversity of species and fisheries inducing numerous biological and technical interactions. Building on a rich knowledge base for the understanding and quantification of these interactions, new approaches have emerged. Recent paths towards operationalizing MSY at the regional scale have suggested the expansion of the concept into a desirable area of “pretty good yield”, implemented through a range around FMSY that would allow for more flexibility in management targets. This article investigates the potential of FMSY ranges to combine long-term single-stock targets with flexible, short-term, mixed-fisheries management requirements applied to the main North Sea demersal stocks. It is shown that sustained fishing at the upper bound of the range may lead to unacceptable risks when technical interactions occur. An objective method is suggested that provides an optimal set of fishing mortality within the range, minimizing the risk of total allowable catch mismatches among stocks captured within mixed fisheries, and addressing explicitly the trade-offs between the most and least productive stocks.


2009 ◽  
Vol 66 (7) ◽  
pp. 1107-1129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Mackinson ◽  
Barrie Deas ◽  
Doug Beveridge ◽  
John Casey

Signatories of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development declaration committed to maintain or restore fish stocks to levels that can produce the maximum sustainable yield (MSY), a goal that has been challenged on a number of grounds. The European Commission has stated an objective to manage fisheries (independently) to achieve MSY by 2015, which has catalysed the Regional Advisory Councils’ (RACs) thinking on MSY and how it relates to their goal of developing long-term management plans. This study uses an ecosystem model of the North Sea to investigate questions relating to MSY in the context of mixed demersal fisheries for cod, haddock, and whiting. Results suggest that it is not possible to simultaneously achieve yields corresponding to MSYs predicted from single-species assessments and that the contradictory response of whiting is central to the trade-offs in yield and value for mixed demersal fisheries. Incompatibility between mixed-fishery and ecosystem-scale considerations exemplifies the difficult conceptual and practical challenges faced when moving toward an ecosystem approach.


1998 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Woehrling ◽  
Geneviève Le Fèvre-Lehoërff
Keyword(s):  

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 743-754
Author(s):  
Matthias van Rossum

Since direct shipping routes between Europe and Asia opened up at the end of the 15th century, the growing intercontinental and regional shipping connections resulted in increasing entanglements between European and Asian maritime labour markets. This article analyses the long term development of the connections between European and Asian maritime labour markets and its impact on socio-cultural (and labour) relations through three elements: first, the changing connections between European and Asian maritime labour markets; second, the changing nature of European and Asian maritime labour markets and its influence on the positions of sailors; and third, the changing relations between European and Asian sailors and its effects on the reactions and interactions in a globalising maritime labour market. It explores how these changing global connections shaped encounters between European and Asian sailors on (intercontinental) shipping in and from the North Sea region, and how it affected the positions and reactions of its workers.


Author(s):  
P. E. P. Norton

SynopsisThis is a brief review intended to supply bases for prediction of future changes in the North Sea Benthos. It surveys long-term changes which are affecting the benthos. Any prediction must take into account change in temperature, depth, bottom type, tidal patterns, current patterns and zoogeography of the sea and the history of these is briefly touched on from late Tertiary times up to the present. From a prediction of changes in the benthos, certain information concerning the pelagic and planktonic biota could also be derived.


2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 773-776 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Lindley ◽  
G. Beaugrand ◽  
C. Luczak ◽  
J.-M. Dewarumez ◽  
R. R. Kirby

A long-term time series of plankton and benthic records in the North Sea indicates an increase in decapods and a decline in their prey species that include bivalves and flatfish recruits. Here, we show that in the southern North Sea the proportion of decapods to bivalves doubled following a temperature-driven, abrupt ecosystem shift during the 1980s. Analysis of decapod larvae in the plankton reveals a greater presence and spatial extent of warm-water species where the increase in decapods is greatest. These changes paralleled the arrival of new species such as the warm-water swimming crab Polybius henslowii now found in the southern North Sea. We suggest that climate-induced changes among North Sea decapods have played an important role in the trophic amplification of a climate signal and in the development of the new North Sea dynamic regime.


Author(s):  
J. P. Hartley ◽  
J. D. D. Bishop

SynopsisThe benthic ecology of the Beatrice Oilfield area is described from preproduction surveys carried out in 1977, 1980 and 1981. and from earlier published information. Variations in the water depth (from 33m to > 60 m) over the area were mirrored by sedimentary and faunal gradients. The sediments ranged from very fine, through fine to medium sands and were inhabited by faunal communities characterised by Thyasira flexuosa, Tellina fabula and Tellina pygmaea, respectively. Two fades of the fine sand community were noted, typified by the abundance of Thyasira flexuosa in muddier sediments and Crenella decussala in coarser deposits. Localised patches of shell gravel in which the fauna was characterised by reduced densities of Tellina fabula with elevated numbers of Scoloplos armiger and Lumbrineris gracilis occurred in medium depths. Examination of the faunal composition indicates that the Beatrice Oilfield lies at the interface between Glemarec's infralittoral and coastal étages.Comparison with earlier reports of the benthic communities of the area suggests a degree of long term persistence of the fauna in qualitative and quantitative terms. A list of all taxa found during the recent surveys is given; this includes a number of new records from the North Sea.


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