Larval Dispersal has Little Effect on Benefits from Spatially Explicit Property Rights

Territorial Use Rights in Fisheries (TURFs) are increasingly used as a tool to promote sustainable and profitable fisheries. Their success depends on shifting incentives to longer time horizons by securing the future benefits of fisheries reforms for TURF owners. One challenge to this security is the spillover of fish across the border of the TURF. If the size of the TURF is small relative to the scale of fish movement, most benefits of actions go to neighboring fishing areas, and the motivation for reforms by TURF owners is reduced or eliminated. Past studies of TURFs support this conclusion. These theoretical and empirical analyses, however, have focused on the effects of adult fish movement. However, in many TURF systems, larval dispersal greatly exceeds TURF size, yet they can still be quite successful. We propose that including the effect of the market conditions (fishermen discount rates and price premiums for size) and the targeted species' life history into TURF models could greatly increase our understanding of why existent TURF systems seem unaffected by high levels of larval spillover. In this paper we explore this hypothesis by building age-structured models to assess how fishermen behavior is likely to change when including these drivers into current models. Our results show that maximum economic gains can be achieved in systems with high levels of larval spillover if 1) access rights over the adults are clearly defined where fishing activities are performed and 2) there's a price premium for larger fish

Transforming conservation science and practice for a postnormal world

In this essay we highlight issues to consider when reframing conservation objectives and outcomes in the context of global change. We discuss (1) new framings of the links between ecosystems and society; (2) new relationships and roles for conservation science; (3) new models of how conservation links to society and social change and (4) new approaches for implementing adaptation for conservation outcomes. We argue that reframing conservation objectives requires conservation scientists and practitioners to implement approaches that are no longer constrained by discipline and sectoral boundaries, geopolitical polarities, or technical problematisation. We consider that a stronger focus on learning and inclusive co-creation of knowledge, and its interaction with societal values and rules, is likely to result in conservation science and practice that will be able to meet the challenges of a post-normal world

Novel inhibitors of the calcineurin/NFATc hub - alternatives to CsA and FK506?

The drugs cyclosporine A (CsA) and tacrolimus (FK506) revolutionized organ transplantation. Both compounds are still widely used in the clinic as well as for basic research, even though they have dramatic side effects and modulate other pathways than calcineurin-NFATc, too. To answer the major open question - whether the adverse side effects are secondary to the actions of the drugs on the calcineurin-NFATc pathway - alternative inhibitors were developed. Ideal inhibitors should discriminate between the inhibition of (i) calcineurin and peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerases (PPIases; the matchmaker proteins of CsA and FK506), (ii) calcineurin and the other Ser/Thr protein phosphatases, and (iii) NFATc and other transcription factors. In this review we summarize the current knowledge about novel inhibitors, synthesized or identified in the last decades, and focus on their mode of action, specificity, and biological effects

Analysis of Sport and Recreational Fishing Activities in the Los Cabos Region, Baja California Sur, Mexico

Recreational fishing is a rapidly growing industry. In the ocean, recreational fisheries often occur in critical habitats for multiple life stages of many fishes, including estuaries, reefs, mangroves, and embayments. The environmental damage to these places can be significant due to bycatch, fisheries-induced selection, trophic changes, and habitat degradation. Los Cabos is one of the most important places for the development of recreational fishing in Mexico. This study reviews the current regulatory status of recreational fishing activities in Los Cabos, and evaluates the regulations to see if they are still useful for this growing fishery. This includes a literature review of the legal and economic situation in Los Cabos, and a calculation of the catch-per-unit-effort for one company. The results can provide guidance for future regulation of this activity in the state

Are Territorial Use Rights in Fisheries (TURFs) sufficiently large?

Territorial Use Rights in Fisheries (TURFs) are gaining renewed attention as a potential tool for sustainable fisheries management in small-scale fisheries. This growing popularity comes despite the fact that there are still unresolved questions about the most effective TURF designs. One of the key questions is the role of TURF size in their efficacy both from ecological and social standpoints. This study explores the expected effects of existing TURF sizes on yields for TURF systems in Chile, México and Japan. The expected effect of larval dispersal and adult movement on yields was simulated for TURFs in each system. The results show that the analyzed TURF systems fall into three main categories: (a) TURFs that are of adequate size to eliminate the expected negative effects of both adult and larval movement, (b) TURFs that are large enough to eliminate the expected negative effects of adult movement, but not the effects of larval dispersal, and c) TURFs that are too small to eliminate the expected impacts on yield of both adult and larval movement. These analyses suggest that either existing models of TURF performance are incomplete or that there is significant scope for improved performance with altered TURF designs. Considering these alternatives, empirical evidence from the TURFs deemed too small suggests that complementary management tools can enhance TURF performance when natural or social constraints prevent the construction of TURFs of optimal size