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

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 reveal best practices for monitoring and management

10.7287/peerj.preprints.3076v1 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

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

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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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A framework to assess national level vulnerability from the perspective of food security: The case of coral reef fisheries

Environmental Science & Policy ◽

10.1016/j.envsci.2012.07.012 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 23 ◽

pp. 95-108 ◽

Cited By ~ 54

Author(s):

Sara Hughes ◽

Annie Yau ◽

Lisa Max ◽

Nada Petrovic ◽

Frank Davenport ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Coral Reef ◽

National Level ◽

Coral Reef Fisheries

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

Frontiers in Marine Science ◽

10.3389/fmars.2021.675274 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

Author(s):

Katie L. Cramer ◽

John N. Kittinger

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Coral Reef ◽

Market Access ◽

Direct Access ◽

Trade Restrictions ◽

Coral Reef Fisheries ◽

Fisheries Governance ◽

Awareness Campaigns ◽

Fisheries Sustainability ◽

Coral Reef Ecosystems

The overexploitation of coral reef fisheries threatens the persistence of reef ecosystems and the livelihoods and food security of millions of people. Market-based initiatives to increase fisheries sustainability have been widely implemented in industrialized commodity fisheries, but the suitability of these initiatives for coral reef fisheries has not been systematically investigated. Here, we present a typology of market-based interventions and coral reef fisheries sectors and identity promising approaches for each fishery archetype. For high value, export-oriented reef fisheries that are highly unsustainable (live reef food fish and dried sea cucumbers), traditional regulatory efforts including trade restrictions will be most effective. For high-value, export-oriented fisheries for highly fecund invertebrates (lobsters and mollusks), certification and ratings efforts, fishery improvement projects, and sustainable purchasing commitments can improve fishing practices and increase fisher market access and revenue. For lower-value fisheries targeting species for domestic or regional consumption, sustainable purchasing commitments among local buyers, consumer awareness campaigns, and local certification and ratings schemes hold promise for shifting attitudes toward sustainability and increasing food security for local communities. Finally, fisher empowerment efforts including direct access to local markets and market information, training on improved post-harvest methods, and formation of fisher associations hold promise for increasing fisher incomes, reducing wasteful catch, increasing food security, and de-incentivizing unsustainable practices. Despite the potential of market-based interventions, specific approaches must be carefully tailored to the ecological and social reality of these systems, including the inherent unsustainability of commercial coral reef fisheries, the limited capacity for fisheries governance, the limited financial support of market-based initiatives, and the threatened status of coral reef ecosystems globally.

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Variability of fishing effort for the German brown shrimp (Crangon crangon) fishing fleet: influencing factors, and seasonal and spatial patterns

ICES Journal of Marine Science ◽

10.1093/icesjms/fsu016 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 71 (7) ◽

pp. 1805-1817 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

G. Respondek ◽

J. Gröger ◽

J. Floeter ◽

A. Temming

Keyword(s):

Transfer Functions ◽

Fishing Effort ◽

External Factors ◽

Brown Shrimp ◽

Critical Threshold ◽

Strong Wind ◽

Catch Per Unit Effort ◽

Crangon Crangon ◽

Fuel Price ◽

Regional Patterns

Abstract We examined factors affecting the fishing effort in the German brown shrimp (Crangon crangon) fishery, including shrimp and fuel price, catch per unit effort (cpue), number of days with strong wind, fishing port, and season. Time-series analysis (TS) using rational transfer functions (ARIMAX, an extension of autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) modelling) were applied to model mean monthly boat effort (MBE, in hours), aggregated from the logbook data of five German ports for the years 2000–2008. We addressed two major areas: (i) whether cyclic effort patterns and the effect of external factors such as wind differ regionally, and (ii) whether external factors such as cpue, shrimp and fuel prices have a significant influence on the effort pattern. The estimated ARIMAX models accounted for 52–77% of the variance in MBE if analysed separately for each port, indicating a stable seasonal pattern of fishing effort without major interannual variations or significant trends. In spite of considerable variability in the external factors, none of cpue, shrimp or fuel price had a significant effect on the fishing effort. We interpreted this stability as a lack of alternative target species and discuss the theory that a response of a fishery to these external factors might only occur once certain critical threshold values have been exceeded, which was not the case during the investigated period. The models indicated differences in the seasonal patterns of the different harbours, with shorter trips and an earlier start for the main fishing season in the southwest (SW) regions, whereas in the northeast (NE) harbours, trips were longer, peak effort was shifted by 1–2 months and the spring season was of greater importance. The relationships of these regional patterns to the shrimp life cycle and coast topography, as well as implications for future management, are discussed.

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Impacts of the live reef fish trade on populations of coral reef fish off northern Borneo

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2006.0280 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 274 (1612) ◽

pp. 989-994 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Helen Scales ◽

Andrew Balmford ◽

Andrea Manica

Keyword(s):

Coral Reef ◽

Reef Fish ◽

Relative Abundance ◽

Coral Reef Fish ◽

Fishing Effort ◽

Catch Per Unit Effort ◽

Future Data ◽

Large Coral ◽

Species Specific ◽

Fish Trade

The live reef fish trade (LRFT) is one of the greatest but least-quantified sources of fishing pressure for several species of large coral reef fish across the Indo-Pacific. For the first time we quantify the localized impact of the LRFT. We collected data from three LRFT traders in northern Borneo, which yielded information on daily fishing effort and the species and mass of all fishes sold every day by individual fishers or vessels over 2, 3 and 8 years. Total monthly catch and relative abundance (catch-per-unit-effort) declined significantly in several species, including the most valuable species the Napoleon wrasse ( Cheilinus undulatus , estimated changes of −98 and −78% over 8 years in catch and relative abundance, respectively) and lower-value bluelined groupers ( Plectropomus oligocanthus : −99 and −81%) and Epinephelus groupers (−89 and −32%). These severe declines were rapid, species-specific and occurred in the first 2–4 years of the dataset and are, we believe, directly attributable to the LRFT. This has crucial implications for future data collection and monitoring if population collapses in other parts of the LRFT and similar wildlife trades are to be successfully detected.

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Faculty Opinions recommendation of Global effects of local human population density and distance to markets on the condition of coral reef fisheries.

Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ◽

10.3410/f.718056190.793481461 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

Joachim Claudet

Keyword(s):

Coral Reef ◽

Population Density ◽

Human Population ◽

Coral Reef Fisheries ◽

Human Population Density

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Social Vulnerability across the Great Lakes Basin: A County-Level Comparative and Spatial Analysis

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13137274 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (13) ◽

pp. 7274

Author(s):

Joshua T. Fergen ◽

Ryan D. Bergstrom

Keyword(s):

Great Lakes ◽

Spatial Patterns ◽

Social Vulnerability ◽

Vulnerability Index ◽

Social Vulnerability Index ◽

Great Lakes Basin ◽

Empirical Examination ◽

Regional Patterns ◽

Urban Rural ◽

Social Vulnerabilities

Social vulnerability refers to how social positions affect the ability to access resources during a disaster or disturbance, but there is limited empirical examination of its spatial patterns in the Great Lakes Basin (GLB) region of North America. In this study, we map four themes of social vulnerability for the GLB by using the Center for Disease Control’s Social Vulnerability Index (CDC SVI) for every county in the basin and compare mean scores for each sub-basin to assess inter-basin differences. Additionally, we map LISA results to identify clusters of high and low social vulnerability along with the outliers across the region. Results show the spatial patterns depend on the social vulnerability theme selected, with some overlapping clusters of high vulnerability existing in Northern and Central Michigan, and clusters of low vulnerability in Eastern Wisconsin along with outliers across the basins. Differences in these patterns also indicate the existence of an urban–rural dimension to the variance in social vulnerabilities measured in this study. Understanding regional patterns of social vulnerability help identify the most vulnerable people, and this paper presents a framework for policymakers and researchers to address the unique social vulnerabilities across heterogeneous regions.

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