scholarly journals Global Fisheries Responses to Culture, Policy and COVID-19 from 2017 to 2020

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 4507
Author(s):  
Bin He ◽  
Fengqin Yan ◽  
Hao Yu ◽  
Fenzhen Su ◽  
Vincent Lyne ◽  
...  

Global Fishing Watch (GFW) provides global open-source data collected via automated monitoring of vessels to help with sustainable management of fisheries. Limited previous global fishing effort analyses, based on Automatic Identification System (AIS) data (2017–2020), suggest economic and environmental factors have less influence on fisheries than cultural and political events, such as holidays and closures, respectively. As such, restrictions from COVID-19 during 2020 provided an unprecedented opportunity to explore added impacts from COVID-19 restrictions on fishing effort. We analyzed global fishing effort and fishing gear changes (2017–2019) for policy and cultural impacts, and then compared impacts of COVID-19 lockdowns across several countries (i.e., China, Spain, the US, and Japan) in 2020. Our findings showed global fishing effort increased from 2017 to 2019 but decreased by 5.2% in 2020. We found policy had a greater impact on monthly global fishing effort than culture, with Chinese longlines decreasing annually. During the lockdown in 2020, trawling activities dropped sharply, particularly in the coastal areas of China and Spain. Although Japan did not implement an official lockdown, its fishing effort in the coastal areas also decreased sharply. In contrast, fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, not subject to lockdown, reduced its scope of fishing activities, but fishing effort was higher. Our study demonstrates, by including the dimensions of policy and culture in fisheries, that large data may materially assist decision-makers to understand factors influencing fisheries’ efforts, and encourage further marine interdisciplinary research. We recommend the lack of data for small-scale Southeast Asian fisheries be addressed to enable future studies of fishing drivers and impacts in this region.

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabetta Russo ◽  
Marco Anelli Monti ◽  
Giacomo Toninato ◽  
Claudio Silvestri ◽  
Alessandra Raffaetà ◽  
...  

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has brought a global socio-economic crisis to almost all sectors including the fishery. To limit the infection, governments adopted several containment measures. In Italy, Croatia, and Slovenia, a lockdown period was imposed from March to May 2020, during which many activities, including restaurants had to close or limit their business. All of this caused a strong reduction in seafood requests and consequently, a decrease in fishing activities. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of the COVID-19 in the Northern and Central Adriatic fleet, by comparing the fishing activities in three periods (before, during, and after the lockdown) of 2019 and 2020. The use of the Automatic Identification System (AIS) data allowed us to highlight the redistribution of the fishing grounds of the trawlers, mainly located near the coasts during the 2020 lockdown period, as well as a reduction of about 50% of fishing effort. This reduction resulted higher for the Chioggia trawlers (−80%) and, in terms of fishing effort decrease, the large bottom otter trawl was the fishing segment mainly affected by the COVID-19 event. Moreover, by analysing the landings of the Chioggia fleet and the Venice lagoon fleets, it was possible to point out a strong reduction both in landings and profits ranging from −30%, for the small-scale fishery operating at sea, to −85%, for the small bottom otter trawl.


Author(s):  
A. Galdelli ◽  
A. Mancini ◽  
A. N. Tassetti ◽  
C. Ferrà Vega ◽  
E. Armelloni ◽  
...  

Abstract Descriptive and spatially-explicit information on fisheries plays a key role for an efficient integrated management of the maritime activities and the sustainable use of marine resources. However, this information is today still hard to obtain and, consequently, is a major issue for implementing Marine Spatial Planning (MSP). Since 2002, the Automatic Identification System (AIS) has been undergoing a major development allowing now for a real time geo-tracking and identification of equipped vessels of more than 15m in length overall (LOA) and, if properly processed, for the production of adequate information for MSP. Such monitoring systems or other low-cost and low-burden solutions are still missing for small vessels (LOA < 12m), whose catches and fishing effort remain spatially unassessed and, hence, unregulated. In this context, we propose an architecture to process vessel tracking data, understand the behaviour of trawling fleets and map related fishing activities. It could be used to process not only AIS data but also positioning data from other low cost systems as IoT sensors that share their position over LoRa and 2G/3G/4G links. Analysis gives back important and verified data (overall accuracy of 92% for trawlers) and opens up development perspectives for monitoring small scale fisheries, helping hence to fill fishery data gaps and obtain a clearer picture of the fishing grounds as a whole.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. eabe3470
Author(s):  
Jorge P. Rodríguez ◽  
Juan Fernández-Gracia ◽  
Carlos M. Duarte ◽  
Xabier Irigoien ◽  
Víctor M. Eguíluz

Fisheries in waters beyond national jurisdiction (“high seas”) are difficult to monitor and manage. Their regulation for sustainability requires critical information on how fishing effort is distributed across fishing and landing areas, including possible border effects at the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) limits. We infer the global network linking harbors supporting fishing vessels to fishing areas in high seas from automatic identification system tracking data in 2014, observing a modular structure, with vessels departing from a given harbor fishing mostly in a single province. The top 16% of these harbors support 84% of fishing effort in high seas, with harbors in low- and middle-income countries ranked among the top supporters. Fishing effort concentrates along narrow strips attached to the boundaries of EEZs with productive fisheries, identifying a free-riding behavior that jeopardizes efforts by nations to sustainably manage their fisheries, perpetuating the tragedy of the commons affecting global fishery resources.


2014 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 791-809 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Last ◽  
Christian Bahlke ◽  
Martin Hering-Bertram ◽  
Lars Linsen

AIS was primarily developed to exchange vessel-related data among vessels or AIS stations by using very-high frequency (VHF) technology to increase safety at sea. This study evaluates the formal integrity, availability, and the reporting intervals of AIS data with a focus on vessel movement prediction. In contrast to former studies, this study is based on a large data collection of over 85 million AIS messages, which were continuously received within a time period of two months. Thus, the evaluated data represent a comprehensive and up-to-date view of the current usage of AIS systems installed on vessels. Results of previous studies concerning the availability of AIS data are confirmed and extended. New aspects such as reporting intervals are additionally evaluated. Received messages are stored in a database, which allows for performing database queries to evaluate the obtained data in an automatic way. This study shows that almost ten years after becoming mandatory for professional operating vessels, AIS still lacks availability for both static and dynamic data and that the reporting intervals are not as reliable as specified within the technical AIS standard.


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damien Le Guyader ◽  
Cyril Ray ◽  
Françoise Gourmelon ◽  
David Brosset

High resolution estimates of bottom towed fishing gears are needed to provide relevant information for natural resource management, impact assessment and maritime spatial planning. The use of satellite-based vessel monitoring system (VMS) data is constrained by data access restrictions as well as rather coarse data resolution. This study focuses on mapping dredge gear fishing grounds using fishing effort estimates at the métier level based on automatic identification system (AIS) data. The performance of the approach was evaluated in terms of correct discrimination between fishing and non-fishing activities for known fishing positions as well as appropriate error propagation. The test was conducted in the Bay of Brest (France) in partnership with a committee of local fishers. The results identified dredge fishing grounds for great scallop (Pecten maximus) in the western part of the Bay of Brest and provided high-resolution information for scientists and local decision makers on the spatial and temporal seasonal variability of fishing effort. The proposed method is semi-automatic and generic making it suitable for other applications.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 32
Author(s):  
Javier Ruiz ◽  
Isabel Caballero ◽  
Gabriel Navarro

Global Fishing Watch and VIIRS-DNB (visible infrared imaging radiometer suite day/night band) signals are compared for the jigger fleet in FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) Major Fishing Area 41 during the maximum feasible time span (2012–2018). Both signals have shown a high degree of consistency at all temporal and spatial scales analyzed, including seasonal cycles, lack of signal for some years and interannual tendencies. This indicates that both signals are a fair representation of the fishing effort exerted by the jigger fleet in this zone. The high degree of consistency does not support views questioning satellite AIS (automatic identification system) as a reliable tool to survey fishing activities. Instead, our results add evidence supporting the value of remote sensing, in particular, when independent sources of information (such as VIIRS-DNB and AIS) are combined, as a relevant tool to add transparency and support compliance of fishing activities in vast and distant regions of the ocean.


2003 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay A. Creech ◽  
Joseph F. Ryan

The International Maritime Organization has mandated carriage requirements for VHF Automatic Identification System (AIS) on vessels over 300 tons by 2007 (IMO SOLAS: 1974 and IMO Resolution MSC.99(73)). The AIS will transmit a vessel's position and voyage data to other AIS-equipped vessels and shore-based authorities. It was envisioned that AIS data could enhance the safety of navigation by allowing vessels to quickly identify each other and use Digital Select Calling (DSC) to arrange maneuvers. We will discuss the history and the development of AIS, the technical issues surrounding its use by the mariner as a navigation tool and the pros and cons of the proposal by the US Coast Guard (USCG) to use AIS as a means of surveillance for Maritime Domain Awareness.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3769
Author(s):  
Pascal Thoya ◽  
Joseph Maina ◽  
Christian Möllmann ◽  
Kerstin S. Schiele

Spatially explicit records of fishing activities’ distribution are fundamental for effective marine spatial planning (MSP) because they can help to identify principal fishing areas. However, in numerous case studies, MSP has ignored fishing activities due to data scarcity. The vessel monitoring system (VMS) and the automatic identification system (AIS) are two commonly known technologies used to observe fishing activities. However, both technologies generate data that have several limitations, making them ineffective when used in isolation. Here, we evaluate both datasets’ limitations and strengths, measure the drawbacks of using any single dataset and propose a method for combining both technologies for a more precise estimation of the distribution of fishing activities. Using the Baltic Sea and the North Sea–Celtic Sea regions as case studies, we compare the spatial distribution of fishing effort from International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) VMS data and global fishing watch AIS data. We show that using either dataset in isolation can lead to a significant underestimation of fishing effort. We also demonstrate that integrating both datasets in an ensemble approach can provide more accurate fisheries information for MSP. Given the rapid expansion of MSP activities globally, our approach can be utilised in data-limited regions to improve cross border spatial planning.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia DiJoseph ◽  
Brian Tetreault ◽  
Marin Kress

This Coastal and Hydraulics Engineering Technical Note (CHETN) describes a method for evaluating the received coverage from Automatic Identification System (AIS) shore sites and the availability of historic vessel position reports along the Ohio River. The network of AIS shoreside sites installed and operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the US Coast Guard (USCG) receive information transmitted from vessels; however, reception of these transmissions is generally line-of-sight between the vessel and the AIS site antenna. Reception may also be affected by factors such as the quality of the transceiver installation aboard the vessel as well as the state of the equipment at the receiving site. Understanding how to define and quantify coverage gaps along the inland river system can inform research utilizing AIS data, provide information on the performance of the AIS network, and provide guidance for efforts to address identified coverage gaps


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Galdelli ◽  
A. Mancini ◽  
E. Frontoni ◽  
A. N. Tassetti

Abstract Monitoring fish stocks and fleets’ activities is key for Marine Spatial Planning. In recent years Vessel Monitoring System and Automatic Identification System have been developed for vessels longer than 12 and 15m in length, respectively, while small scale vessels (< 12m in length) remain untracked and largely unregulated, even though they account for 83% of all fishing activity in the Mediterranean Sea. In this paper we present an architecture that makes use of a low-cost LoRa/cellular network to acquire and process positioning data from small scale vessels, and a feature encoding approach that can be easily extended to process and map small scale fisheries. The feature encoding method uses a Markov chain to model transitions between successive behavioural states (e.g., fishing, steaming) of each vessel and classify its activity. The approach is evaluated using k-fold and Leave One Boat Out cross-validations and, in both cases, it results in significant improvements in the classification of fishing activities. The use of a such low-cost and open source technology coupled to artificial intelligence could open up potential for more integrated and transparent platforms to inform coastal resource and fisheries management, and cross-border marine spatial planning. It enables a new monitoring strategy that could effectively include small-scale fleets and support the design of new policies oriented to the optimal use of marine resources.


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