Reef Conservation off the Hook: Can Market Interventions Make Coral Reef Fisheries More Sustainable?

Sustainable fisheries management is key to restoring and maintaining ecological function and benefits to people, but it requires accurate information about patterns in resource use, particularly fishing pressure. In most coral reef fisheries and other data-poor contexts, obtaining such information is challenging and remains an impediment to effective management. We developed the most comprehensive regional view of shore-based fishing effort and catch for the Hawaiian Islands to show detailed fishing patterns from across the main Hawaiian Islands (MHI). We reveal these regional patterns through fisher “creel” surveys conducted through collaborative efforts by local communities, state agencies, academics, and environmental organizations, at 18 sites and comprising >10,000 hr of monitoring across a range of habitats and human influences throughout the MHI. Here, we document spatial patterns in nearshore fisheries catch, effort, catch rates (i.e., catch-per-unit-effort [CPUE]), and catch disposition (i.e., use of fish after catch is landed). Line fishing was consistently the most commonly employed gear type (94%), followed by net fishing. The most efficient gear types (i.e., higher CPUE) were spear (0.64 kg hr-1), followed closely by net (0.61 kg hr-1), with CPUE for line (0.16 kg hr-1) 3.9 times lower than spear and 3.7 times lower than net. Creel surveys also reveal rampant illegal fishing activity across the studied locations. Surprisingly, overall, most of the catch was not sold, but rather retained for home consumption or given away to extended family, which indicates that cultural and food security may be stronger drivers of fishing effort than commercial exploitation for nearshore coral reef fisheries in Hawai‘i. Increased monitoring of spatial patterns in nearshore fisheries can inform targeted management, in order to maintain these fisheries for local communities’ food security, cultural, and ecological value.

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Patterns in artisanal coral reef fisheries revealed through local monitoring efforts

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.4089 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 5 ◽

pp. e4089 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

David G. Delaney ◽

Lida T. Teneva ◽

Kostantinos A. Stamoulis ◽

Jonatha L. Giddens ◽

Haruko Koike ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Coral Reef ◽

Spatial Patterns ◽

Cultural Practices ◽

Fishing Effort ◽

Accurate Information ◽

Catch Per Unit Effort ◽

Ecological Value ◽

Regional Patterns ◽

Coral Reef Fisheries

Sustainable fisheries management is key to restoring and maintaining ecological function and benefits to people, but it requires accurate information about patterns of resource use, particularly fishing pressure. In most coral reef fisheries and other data-poor contexts, obtaining such information is challenging and remains an impediment to effective management. We developed the most comprehensive regional view of shore-based fishing effort and catch published to date, to show detailed fishing patterns from across the main Hawaiian Islands (MHI). We reveal these regional patterns through fisher “creel” surveys conducted by local communities, state agencies, academics, and/or environmental organizations, at 18 sites, comprising >10,000 h of monitoring across a range of habitats and human influences throughout the MHI. All creel surveys included in this study except for one were previously published in some form (peer-reviewed articles or gray literature reports). Here, we synthesize these studies to document spatial patterns in nearshore fisheries catch, effort, catch rates (i.e., catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE)), and catch disposition (i.e., use of fish after catch is landed). This effort provides for a description of general regional patterns based on these location-specific studies. Line fishing was by far the dominant gear type employed. The most efficient gear (i.e., highest CPUE) was spear (0.64 kg h−1), followed closely by net (0.61 kg h−1), with CPUE for line (0.16 kg h−1) substantially lower than the other two methods. Creel surveys also documented illegal fishing activity across the studied locations, although these activities were not consistent across sites. Overall, most of the catch was not sold, but rather retained for home consumption or given away to extended family, which suggests that cultural practices and food security may be stronger drivers of fishing effort than commercial exploitation for coral reef fisheries in Hawai‘i. Increased monitoring of spatial patterns in nearshore fisheries can inform targeted management, and can help communities develop a more informed understanding of the drivers of marine resource harvest and the state of the resources, in order to maintain these fisheries for food security, cultural practices, and ecological value.

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Patterns in artisanal coral reef fisheries reveal best practices for monitoring and management

10.7287/peerj.preprints.3076 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

David G Delaney ◽

Lida T Teneva ◽

Kostantinos A Stamoulis ◽

Jonatha L Giddens ◽

Haruko Koike ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Coral Reef ◽

Spatial Patterns ◽

Hawaiian Islands ◽

Fishing Effort ◽

Local Communities ◽

Accurate Information ◽

Catch Per Unit Effort ◽

Regional Patterns ◽

Coral Reef Fisheries

Sustainable fisheries management is key to restoring and maintaining ecological function and benefits to people, but it requires accurate information about patterns in resource use, particularly fishing pressure. In most coral reef fisheries and other data-poor contexts, obtaining such information is challenging and remains an impediment to effective management. We developed the most comprehensive regional view of shore-based fishing effort and catch for the Hawaiian Islands to show detailed fishing patterns from across the main Hawaiian Islands (MHI). We reveal these regional patterns through fisher “creel” surveys conducted through collaborative efforts by local communities, state agencies, academics, and environmental organizations, at 18 sites and comprising >10,000 hr of monitoring across a range of habitats and human influences throughout the MHI. Here, we document spatial patterns in nearshore fisheries catch, effort, catch rates (i.e., catch-per-unit-effort [CPUE]), and catch disposition (i.e., use of fish after catch is landed). Line fishing was consistently the most commonly employed gear type (94%), followed by net fishing. The most efficient gear types (i.e., higher CPUE) were spear (0.64 kg hr-1), followed closely by net (0.61 kg hr-1), with CPUE for line (0.16 kg hr-1) 3.9 times lower than spear and 3.7 times lower than net. Creel surveys also reveal rampant illegal fishing activity across the studied locations. Surprisingly, overall, most of the catch was not sold, but rather retained for home consumption or given away to extended family, which indicates that cultural and food security may be stronger drivers of fishing effort than commercial exploitation for nearshore coral reef fisheries in Hawai‘i. Increased monitoring of spatial patterns in nearshore fisheries can inform targeted management, in order to maintain these fisheries for local communities’ food security, cultural, and ecological value.

Download Full-text