Length-Based Assessment of an Artisanal Albulid Fishery in the South Pacific: a Data-Limited Approach for Management and Conservation

Data-limited fisheries assessment methods have great potential to help inform small island communi

Substantial impacts of subsistence fishing on the population status of an Endangered reef predator at a remote coral atoll

Napoleon wrasse Cheilinus undulatus has declined drastically throughout most of its range, owing, in large part, to overexploitation. In Anaa, French Polynesia, the species is harvested as part of the subsistence catch by fishers using rockpile traps, spearguns, handmade harpoons, and baited handlines. We sampled 70 Napoleon wrasse captured by artisanal fishers of Anaa between 2015 and 2018 to assess the status of this population, and we applied data-poor fisheries models to assess the stock status of this iconic reef predator. The species was determined to be overexploited at a rate of 0.82 based on values of natural (0.14; Hoenig method) and fishing (0.58; difference of total and natural mortality) mortality as components of total mortality (0.72; Beverton-Holt estimation). The left-skewed length distribution (mean = 36 ± 13 cm SL) suggested an under-representation of large adults in the population, which would predominantly be terminal males in this sequentially hermaphroditic protogynous fish. This was not considered to be reflective of poor sel

Balancing the benefits and risks of public–private partnerships to address the global double burden of malnutrition

Objective: Transnational food, beverage and restaurant companies, and their corporate foundations, may be potential collaborators to help address complex public health nutrition challenges. While UN system guidelines are available for private-sector engagement, non-governmental organizations (NGO) have limited guidelines to navigate diverse opportunities and challenges presented by partnering with these companies through public&ndash;private partnerships (PPP) to address the global double burden of malnutrition.Design: We conducted a search of electronic databases, UN system websites and grey literature to identify resources about partnerships used to address the global double burden of malnutrition. A narrative summary provides a synthesis of the interdisciplinary literature identified.Results: We describe partnership opportunities, benefits and challenges; and tools and approaches to help NGO engage with the private sector to address global public health nutrition challenges. PPP benefits include: raising the visibility of nutrition and health on policy agendas; mobilizing funds and advocating for research; strengthening food-system processes and delivery systems; facilitating technology transfer; and expanding access to medications, vaccines, healthy food and beverage products, and nutrition assistance during humanitarian crises. PPP challenges include: balancing private commercial interests with public health interests; managing conflicts of interest; ensuring that co-branded activities support healthy products and healthy eating environments; complying with ethical codes of conduct; assessing partnership compatibility; and evaluating partnership outcomes.Conclusions: NGO should adopt a systematic and transparent approach using available tools and processes to maximize benefits and minimize risks of partnering with transnational food, beverage and restaurant companies to effectively target the global double burden of malnutrition.<br /

Technoscience and the modernization of freshwater fisheries assessment and management

Inland fisheries assessment and management are challenging given the inherent com- plexity of working in diverse habitats (e.g., rivers, lakes, wetlands) that are dynamic on organisms that are often cryptic and where fishers are often highly mobile. Yet, technoscience is offering new tools that have the potential to reimagine how inland fisheries are assessed and managed. So-called ‘‘technoscience’’ refers to instances in which science and technology unfurl together, offering novel ways of spurring and achieving meaningful change. This paper considers the role of technoscience and its potential for modernizing the assessment and management of inland fisheries. It first explores technoscience and its potential benefits, followed by presentation of a series of synopses that explore the application (both successes and challenges) of new tech- nologies such as environmental DNA (eDNA), genomics, electronic tags, drones, phone apps, iEcology, and artificial intelligence to assessment and management. The paper also considers the challenges and barriers that exist in adopting new technologies. The paper concludes with a provocative assessment of the potential of technoscience to reform and modernize inland fisheries assessment and management. Although these tools are increasingly being embraced, there is a lack of platforms for aggregating these data streams and providing managers with actionable information in a timely manner. The ideas presented here should serve as a catalyst for beginning to work collectively and collaboratively towards fisheries assessment and management systems that harness the power of technology and serve to modernize inland fisheries management. Such transformation is urgently needed given the dynamic nature of environmental change, the evolving threat matrix facing inland waters, and the complex behavior of fishers. Quite simply, a dynamic world demands dynamic fisheries management; technoscience has made that within reach.publishedVersio

Passion in the Workplace: Empirical Insights from Team Sport Organisations

Although sport management scholars have focused on a fairly wide number of psychologically-related constructs in the workplace, passion has not been part of this research agenda. The present study is the first attempt to fill this gap by exploring employees’ passion in the workplace setting of sport organisations. It does so by applying for the first time the dualistic model of passion developed by Vallerand et al. (2003), which measures two distinct types of passion: harmonious and obsessive. Online survey data were gathered from administrative employees in the United Kingdom’s football industry, responsible for either business-related functions or the clubs’ social agenda (N=236) in order to measure the passion experienced by individuals guided by different institutional logics. The particular instrument has two components: harmonious and obsessive passion towards the job. Besides the passion scales, the survey contained measures related to demographic variables (e.g., age, gender and education), to employment position in the organisation and to previous job experience. Data were statistically analysed in Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and analysis of variance, using SPSS and Amos 18.0. To determine the effect of contextual variables on the passion for the job, t-test and ANOVA were also used. Both groups of employees are passionate about their job. They remain harmoniously passionate throughout their career and show low level of obsessive passion. The type of work activities influences both levels of harmonious and obsessive passion experienced by personnel within sport organisations with employees responsible for the social agenda being slightly more harmoniously and obsessively passionate compared to those responsible for the business agenda. Vallerand et al.’s (2003) dualistic model of passion has been adapted to measure passion at workplace within sport organisations. The particular working environment that forms these organisations attracts and/or facilitates employees to experience a positive work–life balance

Keepemwet Fishing—An emerging social brand for disseminating best practices for catch-and-release in recreational fisheries

There is a growing body of catch-and-release (C&R) science showing that adjusting the way fish are caught, handled, and released can reduce impacts on individuals and populations. However, a major caveat is that C&R will be a more effective conservation tool if best practice guidelines stemming from the science are understood, embraced, and adopted by recreational anglers. In recognition of this, Keepemwet Fishing (KWF) has emerged as a nonpartisan movement to provide simple, clear, and accurate C&R guidelines that transcend species and subcultures within the recreational angling community. The foundations of the KWF movement are science-based best practices, clear translations of the science, and a diverse and growing set of stakeholder groups that are sharing the Keepemwet sentiment via social media and other communication channels. We highlight the power of this grassroots movement, as well as potential hurdles that KWF and other social brands will need to overcome to broaden their effectiveness in making C&R guidelines more accessible and appealing to the public. Given the apparent increase in bottom-up attempts to disseminate best practices to anglers, the lessons learned from the KWF movement have the potential to be of great benefit to other groups engaged in angler outreach related to best practices and broade

Seasonal abundance, philopatry and demographic structure of Caribbean reef shark (Carcharhinus perezi) assemblages in the north-east Exuma Sound, The Bahamas

The Caribbean reef shark (Carcharhinus perezi), an abundant coral-reef-associated apex predator, is one of the most economically and ecologically important, yet least studied species of large shark in the greater Caribbean region. The relative abundance and population structure of C. perezi off Cape Eleuthera, The Bahamas, was surveyed by standardised longline surveys from May 2008 to October 2011, which resulted in the capture of 331 sharks. Abundance peaked in the summer and was lowest during the winter. Females were 1.6 times more abundant than males and the assemblage was dominated by immature female sharks (45.5 %). The abundance of mature male and female sharks peaked a month apart in June and August, respectively. All 331 sharks were tagged and released with 15.4 % being recaptured after periods at liberty between 5 and 1,159 days (Mean = 333.4 ± 42.7 SE). The mean distance between tagging and recapture was 1.77 km for recaptures in excess of 6 months, indicating seasonally stratified philopatry in this species. C. perezi inhabiting Bahamian waters have developed complex habitat use patterns that are both spatiotemporally and demographically segregated, most probably in response to the large and diverse habitat mosaic available on the Bahamas Banks compared to contemporary study sites. This study represents an important step in understanding the spatiotemporal population structure of C. perezi and illustrates the potential for studies examining behavioural plasticity in response to environmental variation and anthropogenic disturbance

Factors influencing postrelease predation for a catch-and-release tropical flats fishery with a high predator burden

Postrelease predation (PRP) of fishes released by anglers is a potentially significant contributo