scholarly journals Evaluating benthic impact of the Gulf of Maine lobster fishery using the swept area seabed impact (SASI) model

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew G Goode ◽  
Jonathan H Grabowski ◽  
Damian C. Brady
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Maine ◽  
Fish Habitat ◽  
Fishing Effort ◽  
American Lobster ◽  
Fishing Gear ◽  
Marine Habitats ◽  
Small Footprint ◽  
Lobster Fishery ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Swept Area

The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act mandates U.S. fisheries minimize adverse effects of fishing on essential fish habitat (EFH). The Gulf of Maine (GoM) American lobster fishery is the most valuable U.S. fishery, and can deploy more than three million traps annually. To date, the impact of this fishery on benthic EFH has not been addressed quantitatively. To evaluate the impact of the GoM lobster fishery on EFH, lobster fishing effort was incorporated into a model linking habitat susceptibility and recovery to area impacted by fishing gear; the Swept Area Seabed Impact model. Impact to EFH was localized along the coast and highest along mid-coast Maine. Upwards of 13% of the benthos is in the process of recovery, but between 99.92 – 99.96% of initially affected habitat fully recovers. These estimates suggest that lobster fishing negligibly contributes to accumulation of EFH damage in the GoM due to the expansive area fished and the small footprint of each trap. Identifying areas of persistent impact is crucial in developing effective fisheries management for critical marine habitats.

Spatial and Temporal Overlap of the American Lobster (Homarus americanus) and Sea Scallop (Placopecten magellanicus) as Related to the impact of Inshore Scallop Dragging

1992 ◽  
Vol 49 (7) ◽  
pp. 1486-1492 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. L. Roddick ◽  
R. J. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Homarus Americanus ◽  
Fishing Effort ◽  
The Other ◽  
American Lobster ◽  
Placopecten Magellanicus ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Sea Scallop ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Temporal Overlap

Assessment of the damage of one fishery by another requires knowledge of the overlap, in time and space, of the damaging fishing effort and the abundance of the damaged species, as well as a measure of the rate of damage. This approach was used to measure the impact of inshore scallop dragging on lobsters in Nova Scotia. Areas of reported co-occurrence of lobster and scallop grounds were surveyed by divers to determine the extent of overlap. Only 2 of 52 sites surveyed had lobsters on scallop grounds that could be dragged. Divers surveyed one site six times during 1987 and 1988 and found lobsters most abundant during August and September. Only 2% of the lobsters in the path of scallop drags were either captured or injured. The estimated value of lobsters destroyed by dragging for scallops during periods of peak lobster abundance was minor: $757 at one site and $176 at the other. Restricting dragging to periods of low lobster abundance significantly reduces this cost.

Managing the Impacts of Human Activities on Fish Habitat: The Governance, Practices, and Science

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Benthic Invertebrates ◽  
Marine Mammals ◽  
Fish Habitat ◽  
Fishing Gear ◽  
Governance Practices ◽  
Coexisting Species ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Poor Infrastructure ◽  
Technical Measures

<em>Abstract.</em>—Mexico is an important producer of fish resources, contributing 1.5% to the total world production. However, most of the fisheries are overexploited or fished to the maximum sustainable level as a result of problems such as overexploitation, poor infrastructure, poaching, limited knowledge of fishing laws, high discard rates, weak fisheries institutions, and little ability to research and manage these difficulties. To solve these problems, the National Program of Fisheries and Aquaculture was established in order to achieve sustainability in Mexican fisheries with the participation of the government, the fishing industry and research institutions. The program has been implemented for the 22 main fisheries of the country, notably the tuna, shrimp and shark fisheries, for which technical measures have been implemented for controlling the catch, the effort and the impact on coexisting species. Specifically, these measures have been aimed at reducing the bycatch of marine mammals and turtles, demersal and benthopelagic fishes and benthic invertebrates. Also, measures have been implemented to mitigate impacts of fishing gear on the benthos and coral reefs. However, many issues still need to be resolved both for these and other lower revenue fisheries, which are important in terms of their effect on ecosystems.

Potential population and economic consequences of sublethal injuries in the spiny lobster fishery of the Florida Keys

2007 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 166 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. M. Parsons ◽  
D. B. Eggleston
Keyword(s):  
Spiny Lobster ◽  
Florida Keys ◽  
Fishing Effort ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Growth Time ◽  
Potential Population ◽  
Lobster Fishery ◽  
Fishery Interactions ◽  
The Impact

Animals that interact with but are not retained by fishing gears may later die. The population and economic consequences of these sublethal fishery interactions are seldom known but may be significant. In the present study, a population model was used to quantify potential population and economic consequences of injuries that Caribbean spiny lobsters (Panulirus argus) sustain from fishing activities in the Florida Keys, USA. Injuries generated by the fishery are known to reduce growth and elevate mortality. Simulation modelling results indicated that injuries may reduce adult lobster abundance and associated landings by ≥50% in areas with high recreational fishing effort. When simulated injuries were ~20 times lower (representing areas with lower fishing effort), these injuries were only responsible for a 5 and 8% reduction in the adult lobster population and commercial landings respectively. Important parameters within the model (growth, time in stage and mortality of injured lobsters) were altered by ±10% to assess model sensitivity. Final results changed <10% (with the exception of one 15% change), suggesting that model output was relatively insensitive to variation in key parameters. When the impact of sublethal injuries was applied to the entire spiny lobster fishery in the Florida Keys, adult stock biomass and annual commercial landings were reduced by 900 and 160 t (US$1.6 million) respectively. These results suggest that sublethal fishery interactions can lead to high population and economic losses, and highlight the need to incorporate sublethal injuries into stock assessments and economic models.

scholarly journals Implications of ocean bottom temperatures on the catch ability of American lobster

2019 ◽  
Vol 79 ◽  
pp. 03007
Author(s):  
Xiaoxu Zhao ◽  
Pengwen Ding ◽  
Jilei Pang
Keyword(s):  
New England ◽  
Gulf Of Maine ◽  
Recent Decade ◽  
Temporal Variations ◽  
Effect Of Temperature ◽  
American Lobster ◽  
Ocean Bottom ◽  
Bottom Temperature ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact

Since the beginning of the satellite era, the general trend of global and regional sea-surface temperature (SST) have continued to rise and, in the recent decade, the rate of warming has increased dramatically in the Gulf of Maine. However, due to variations in thermal stratification in the water column, SST is not the best measure to determine the impact on benthic organisms. So understanding the spatial and temporal variations of the ocean bottom temperature is critical to fisheries management. Since 2001, the Environmental Monitors on Lobster Traps (eMOLT) project has been implemented. The lobster fishermen have volunteered to collect bottom temperature and American lobster catch data from dozens of locations off the New England coast. Now we can use these data to analyze the relationship between ocean bottom temperature and lobster catch. Using data collected over the past decade, we examine the effect of temperature, temperature change, soak time and other factors on the catchability of lobsters. Our results suggest that there is a increase in catchability at the same time there is a) a temperature rise over many years and b) day-to-day temperature changes.

A simulation study to evaluate impacts of uncertainty on the assessment of American lobster fishery in the Gulf of Maine

2002 ◽  
Vol 59 (8) ◽  
pp. 1394-1403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Chen ◽  
Carl Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Confidence Level ◽  
Gulf Of Maine ◽  
Homarus Americanus ◽  
American Lobster ◽  
Large Uncertainty ◽  
Decision Confidence ◽  
The Status ◽  
Status Assessment ◽  
Lobster Fishery ◽  
Risk Managers

The status of the American lobster (Homarus americanus) in the Gulf of Maine (GOM) has been assessed for the last two decades by comparing an estimated current fishing mortality rate for females (Fcur) with a deterministically estimated biological reference point, F10%. The most recent assessment determined that GOM had exceeded the F10% for every year calculated, although in this time landings and abundance have doubled. The current policy does not consider uncertainty in the assessment. This study evaluates the impacts of uncertainty in F10% and Fcur on the status assessment of lobster fishery. Using a Monte Carlo simulation approach, we found that the status assessment would be influenced by uncertainties in estimating F10% and Fcur, and by the choice of decision confidence level reflecting the level of risk managers would like to take. A large uncertainty in Fcur and F10% and a high decision confidence level reduce the likelihood of defining the stock as overfished, and vice versa. Our results suggest that the probability of lobster overfishing may be less than previously thought, and that uncertainty in Fcur and F10% should be quantified and considered in determining the status of the GOM lobster stock.

The impact of entanglements on two substocks of the western North Atlantic humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae

1995 ◽  
Vol 73 (9) ◽  
pp. 1689-1698 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Volgenau ◽  
Scott D. Kraus ◽  
Jon Lien
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Newfoundland And Labrador ◽  
Birth Rate ◽  
Gulf Of Maine ◽  
Humpback Whale ◽  
Megaptera Novaeangliae ◽  
Fishing Gear ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Annual Mortality ◽  
Mortality Estimates

Increased use of fishing gear in the marine environment can be detrimental to animals such as cetaceans, particularly through entanglement. Examination of the impact of such mortality on two substocks of the western North Atlantic humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae, indicates that when entanglement losses are added to natural mortality estimates and subtracted from birth rate estimates, annual mortality may be as high as 5.4% in the Newfoundland and Labrador population and 4.8% in the Gulf of Maine population. More effective entanglement reporting and assisting systems are needed in the Gulf of Maine and increased efforts are needed to decrease entanglements, entanglement mortalities, and damages to fishing gear. We conclude that monitoring of the size of humpback populations needs to continue, given their particular vulnerability to coastal fishing and the potential impacts of entanglement mortality.

scholarly journals Climate vulnerability and resilience in the most valuable North American fishery

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (8) ◽  
pp. 1831-1836 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnault Le Bris ◽  
Katherine E. Mills ◽  
Richard A. Wahle ◽  
Yong Chen ◽  
Michael A. Alexander ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Gulf Of Maine ◽  
Synergistic Effects ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Population Projections ◽  
Predatory Fish ◽  
American Lobster ◽  
Fishery Resource ◽  
Recruitment Failure ◽  
Lobster Fishery

Managing natural resources in an era of increasing climate impacts requires accounting for the synergistic effects of climate, ecosystem changes, and harvesting on resource productivity. Coincident with recent exceptional warming of the northwest Atlantic Ocean and removal of large predatory fish, the American lobster has become the most valuable fishery resource in North America. Using a model that links ocean temperature, predator density, and fishing to population productivity, we show that harvester-driven conservation efforts to protect large lobsters prepared the Gulf of Maine lobster fishery to capitalize on favorable ecosystem conditions, resulting in the record-breaking landings recently observed in the region. In contrast, in the warmer southern New England region, the absence of similar conservation efforts precipitated warming-induced recruitment failure that led to the collapse of the fishery. Population projections under expected warming suggest that the American lobster fishery is vulnerable to future temperature increases, but continued efforts to preserve the stock's reproductive potential can dampen the negative impacts of warming. This study demonstrates that, even though global climate change is severely impacting marine ecosystems, widely adopted, proactive conservation measures can increase the resilience of commercial fisheries to climate change.

Fish Habitat: Essential Fish Habitat and Rehabilitation

1999 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Rhode Island ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Fish Habitat ◽  
Quantitative Model ◽  
Narragansett Bay ◽  
Fishing Gear ◽  
Essential Fish Habitat ◽  
Side Scan Sonar ◽  
Biological Communities ◽  
The Impact

<em>Abstract.</em> —Seabed disturbance by mobile bottom-fishing gear has emerged as a major concern related to the conservation of essential fish habitat. Unquestionably, dredges and trawls disturb the seabed. However, the seabed is also disturbed by natural physical and biological processes. The biological communities that utilize a particular habitat have adapted to that environment through natural selection, and, therefore, the impact of mobile fishing gear on the habitat structure and biological community must be scaled against the magnitude and frequency of seabed disturbance due to natural causes. Fishers operating in the mouth of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island use trawls to harvest lobsters, squid, and finfish and dredges to harvest mussels. These mobile fishing gears impact rock, sand, and mud substrates. Side-scan sonar data from 1995 with 200% coverage were available from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the mouth of Narragansett Bay. Analysis of these data indicates that evidence of bottom scarring by the fishing gear is restricted to deeper waters with a seabed composition of soft cohesive sediments, despite the observation that fishing activity is ubiquitous throughout the bay mouth. A quantitative model has been developed to compare the magnitude and frequency of natural seabed disturbance to mobile fishing gear disturbance. Wave and tidal currents at the seabed are coupled with sediment characteristics to estimate the degree of seabed disturbance. Field experiments designed to compare the longevity of bottom scars indicate that scars in shoal waters and sand sediments are short-lived, as compared to scars in deep water and mud sediments, which are long-lasting. Finally, the model results are compared to the recovery time of sediments disturbed by the interaction of the fishing gear with the seabed. The impact of mobile fishing gear on the seabed must be evaluated in light of the degree of seabed disturbance due to natural phenomena. The application of this model on a larger scale to continental shelf waters and seabed sediment environments will allow for the identification of problematic areas relative to the degradation of essential fish habitat by mobile fishing gear.

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