Ecosystem Viable Yields

The World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, 2002) encouraged the application of the ecosystem approach by 2010. However, at the same Summit, the signatory States undertook to restore and exploit their stocks at maximum sustainable yield (MSY), a concept and practice without ecosystemic dimension, since MSY is computed species by species, on the basis of a monospecific model. Acknowledging this gap, we propose a definition of "ecosystem viable yields" (EVY) as yields compatible i) with guaranteed biological safety levels for all time and ii) with an ecosystem dynamics. To the difference of MSY, this notion is not based on equilibrium, but on viability theory, which offers advantages for robustness. For a generic class of multispecies models with harvesting, we provide explicit expressions for the EVY. We apply our approach to the anchovy--hake couple in the Peruvian upwelling ecosystem

An egg production method for estimating spawning biomass of pelagic fish: Application to the northern anchovy, Engraulis mordax

Fishery scientists engaged in estimating the size of free-swimming populations have never had a technique available to them whereby all the parameters could be estimated from a resource survey and where no parameter values need to be assumed. Recognizing the need for a technique of this kind, the staff of the Coastal Fisheries Resources Division of the Southwest Fisheries Center (SWFC) devised an egg production method for anchovy biomass assessment. Previously, anchovy biomass was estimated by approximate methods derived from a long-time series and anchovy larval abundance, which required about 5 ma of shiptime each year to integrate the area under a seasonal spawning curve. One major assumption used in the larval abundance census method is that there is constant proportionality between larval numbers and spawning biomass. This has now proved to be erroneous. (PDF file contains 105 pages.

Catch Shares in Action: Peruvian Anchoveta Northern-Central Stock Individual Vessel Quota Program

The Peruvian Anchoveta Northern-Central Stock Individual Vessel Quota Program is a catch share program that manages the largest volume fishery in the world. The goals of the program were focused on the economic improvement of the fishery through reduction of fleet capacity and lengthening of the fishing season. Additional biological and social goals were identified and seen as vital to ensure program success. Key design elements include restrictions on transferability to help limit consolidation and an industrysponsored social fund to assist with crew retirement and labor transition. To reflect the short-lived nature of anchoveta, management is structured into two fishing seasons per year. Each year, a five million metric ton reserve of anchoveta biomass is set aside to promote long term stock health

The Peruvian upwelling ecosystem: dynamics and interactions

Upwelling, Ecosystems, Fishery biology, Fishery oceanography, Conferences, Peru,

A comparative analysis of the diet of the long-beaked common dolphin (<i>Delphinus capensis</i>) with three other small cetaceans from coastal Peru. Scientific Committee document SC/56/SM2, International Whaling Commission, July 2004, Sorrento, Italy

The diet of long-beaked common dolphin Delphinus capensis, dusky dolphin Lagenorhynchus obscurus, Burmeister’s porpoise Phocoena spinipinnis, and bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus, was determined based on 281 stomach contents collected along the Peruvian central coast and San Juan de Marcona in the period 1987-1993. Counts of otoliths, squid beaks and some other remains were used to estimate frequency of occurrence and prey percentage of composition (PC). Long-beaked common dolphins (n=117) fed mainly on fish (98.71% of preys), the remainder was composed of squids and crustaceans: Peruvian anchovies Engraulis ringens (PC= 71.14%), Vincigerria lucetia (7.89%), Lampanictus parvicauda (6.77%), Merluccius gayi (4.49%), Odontesthes regia (3.54%), Mictophum nitidulum (2.62%) and Trachurus picturatus (1.42%). Dusky dolphins (n=66) consumed E. ringens (49.8%, 16.9%), L. parvicauda (23.6%, 0.1%), T. picturatus (17.1%, 0%), Normachthys crockery (0%, 76.4%), V. lucetia (3.5%, 0.1%), and Sardinops sagax (2.8%, 0 %) off the central Peruvian coast and San Juan de Marcona, respectively. In the same areas, Burmeister’s porpoise (n=67) fed on anchovies (90.37%, 81.89%), O. regia (6.64%, 0%), Anchoa sp. (1.13%, 0%), N. crockery (0%, 8.53%) and M. gayi (0.65%, 8.4%). Bottlenose dolphins (n=22) consumed L. parvicauda (39.24%), Sphiraena sp. (13.48%), S. sagax (13.31%), Prionotus sp. (9.59%), M. gayi (7.43%), T. picturatus (4.41%) and E. ringens (4.06%). The use of the Shannon & Wiener, Levins and Czekanowski’s indexes in combination with the feeding patterns of the sampled species indicated an opportunistic feeding strategy with respect to their preys. The four cetacean species studied are predators of both pelagic and mesopelagic large schooling fish species, and demonstrate no selectivity towards prey species but towards social behaviour and habitat. An average linkage cluster analysis showed high levels of similarity in the diets of the studied cetaceans. This low diversification and a high degree of overlap in trophic niches is probably related to the high productivity of the Peruvian upwelling ecosystem

GLOBALISATION AND THE SUSTAINABILITY OF WORLD FISHERIES: A VIEW FROM LATIN AMERICA

This paper describes the integration of Latin American marine fisheries into the global production system in the post-1945 period and the role of foreign and domestic fleets in this process. Through reference to the state-denial theories found in the globalisation literature, it charts the impact that the globalisation process has had upon the exploitation and sustainability of fish stocks in Latin American waters. It argues that while globalisation may indeed boost environmental awareness and lead to a more sustainable level of production through the decreased influence of local political interests, this has yet to happen in the principal Latin American fishing nations.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

When product diversification influences life cycle impact assessment: A case study of canned anchovy

The anchovy canning industry is one of the most important economic resources of the Cantabria region in Spain. However, environmental, economic and social problems over the past years have forced companies to apply marketing strategies, develop product diversification, create new products and introduce them in new “green markets”. Launching Cantabrian canned anchovies into more sustainable markets requires measuring the environmental performance using Product Category Rules (PCRs) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). EPDs and PCRS include the environmental profile of a range of similar products, such as all of the available canned anchovy products. The great variety of anchovy canned products depends on three process variables: the origin of the anchovy (Cantabria, Argentina and Chile or Peru), the type of oil (refined olive oil, extra virgin olive oil and sunflower oil) and the packaging (aluminum, tinplate, glass and plastic). This work aims to assess the environmental impact from cradle to grave of canned anchovies in oil using the life cycle assessment methodology (LCA). Moreover, the paper evaluates the influence of the above-mentioned three product variables in the LCA results. The results show that out of all of the alternatives, Chilean and Peruvian anchovies have the highest environmental burdens due to the transportation by ship. The production of anchovies in sunflower oil is a less environmentally friendly oil process due to the low yield per hectare of sunflower cultivation. Finally, the use of aluminum as the packaging material has the largest environmental impact out of almost all of the impact categories. Moreover, because the LCA results can be significantly affected by the allocation procedure, a sensitivity analysis comparing system expansion, mass and economic allocation is performed. In this case, the system expansion approach presents the highest environmental impacts followed by the mass allocation.The authors thank the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Spanish Government for the financial support through the project called GeSAC-Conserva: Sustainable Management of the Cantabrian Anchovies (CTM2013-43539-R) and Julia Celaya for technical support. Jara Laso also thanks the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Spanish Government for the financial support through the research fellowship BES-2014-069368

Development of a fast screening method for the direct determination of chlorinated persistent organic pollutants in fish oil by high-resolution continuum source graphite furnace molecular absorption spectrometry

The authors are grateful to the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico and Tecnológico (CNPq); the present research was mostly financed through Project no. CNPq 406877/2013-0. The authors are also grateful to the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) for financial support and scholarships, and to Analytik Jena for financial support and donation of the contrAA 600 high-resolution continuum source atomic absorption spectrometer.Peer reviewedPostprin