Status and trends of the fish community in the Flemish Cap (NAFO Div. 3M) bioregion

This report summarizes fish community trends for the Flemish Cap (NAFO Div. 3M) based on European Union summer trawl research vessel surveys between 1988 and 2018. Species were classified into eight functional groups and trends were described using biomass indices, biomass and abundance anomalies, and fish size (Biomass/Abundance Ratio) anomalies. In 2003, a replacement of the research vessel allowed extending the depth coverage of the survey from 700m to 1400m. The vessel change had an impact on survey catchability, so to account for it conversion factors were applied. Considering the change in depth coverage, trends were examined for 1988-2018 with data up to 700m, and for 2004-2018 with data up to 1400m. Fish community trends were similar between the two datasets, but the analyses including deeper waters showed a comparatively higher levels of benthivores, reflecting the changes in community structure with depth. Generally speaking, trends in average fish size as tracked by the Biomass/Abundance Ratio appeared driven by recruitment, where general declines in abundance and absences of good recruitments got reflected in increases of this ratio. Biomass of plankpiscivores (mostly Sebastes sp.) experienced a sharp increase in the early 2000s but then returned to levels comparable to the 1990s. Piscivores biomass showed a strong decline in the early 1990s due to the collapse of cod but has since shown signs of recovery. Shellfish, driven by northern shrimp, saw a sustained increase in biomass from the early 1990s until 2002, when started a decline that has persisted until 2018. The biomass of large benthivores decline in the late 1990s and remains low to this date

Mapping benthic ecological diversity and interactions with bottom-contact fishing on the Flemish Cap (northwest Atlantic)

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Role of Astrophorina sponges (Demospongiae) in food-web interactions at the Flemish Cap (NW Atlantic)

Deep-sea sponges are important contributors to carbon and nitrogen cycling due to their large filtration capacity. Species of the suborder Astrophorina form dense sponge grounds in the North Atlantic, where they serve as prey for spongivores, but also have non-trophic interactions with commensal epi- and endobionts. At the Flemish Cap (NW Atlantic), Astrophorina sponges are present in 4 previously described deep-sea epifaunal assemblages: the deep-sea coral assemblage, lower slope assemblages 1 and 2, and the deep-sea sponge assemblage. To investigate their role in trophic and non-trophic interactions at the Flemish Cap, we developed trophic and non-trophic interaction web models for each of the 4 faunal assemblages using the published literature. By excluding the sponges from the models, we estimated how many trophic, and facultative and obligatory non-trophic, interactions would be lost, and how this removal affected food-web properties (number of compartments, links, link density, and connectance). Astrophorina sponges were mostly linked via facultative non-trophic interactions to 59, 58, 84, and 90 compartments in the deep-sea coral, the lower slope 1 and 2, and the deep-sea sponge assemblages, respectively. Direct trophic interactions only existed with Syllidae, Echinasteridae, and Pterasteridae. Astrophorina sponges were considered highest impact taxa in all faunal assemblages and, together with sea pens, they were identified as structural species/habitat formers and foundation species in the deep-sea coral and deep-sea sponge habitat. Hence, even less abundant, or non-representative (indicator), species can be important for food-web integrity via trophic and non-trophic interactions

Advances in the Assessment of Habitat Fragmentation and Protection in the NAFO Regulatory Area

NAFO has used kernel density analyses to identify VMEs dominated by large-sized sponges, sea pens, small and large gorgonian corals, erect bryozoans, sea squirts (Boltenia ovifera), and black corals. That analysis generates polygons of significant concentrations of biomass for each VME indicator which are spread across the spatial domain of the NAFO fishing footprint. There is potential for bottom contact fishing to induce changes in both the amount and configuration of habitat (e.g., decreased polygon size, increased polygon isolation, and increased edge area) through direct and indirect impacts, and it is unknown to what degree such changes may already have taken place given the long fishing history of the area. In the Report of the 13th Meeting of the NAFO Scientific Council Working Group on Ecosystem Science and Assessment (WGE-ESA), preliminary work on assessing and monitoring habitat fragmentation was presented. Here we continue that work by recalculating the indices after removing connections that are not identified through particle tracking models. We have reanalyzed the nearest neighbour distances and PX, a proximity index, for the VME polygons noted above, and for the new closed areas that will come into effect 1 January 2022. We show that PX when applied to the new closures appears sensitive to their spatial configuration which bodes will for the ability of this index to identify habitat fragmentation in the future, brought about through fishing activities and/or natural disturbances.Versión del edito

Morphometry and growth of sea pen species from dense habitats in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, eastern Canada

We examined four species of sea pen (Anthoptilum grandiflorum, Halipteris finmarchica, Pennatula aculeata and Pennatula grandis) collected from the Gulf of St. Lawrence and mouth of the Laurentian Channel, eastern Canada. An exponential length–weight relationship was found for all four species, where growth in weight was progressively greater than growth in length with increasing colony size. Halipteris finmarchica, P. grandis and P. aculeata presented the better allometric fits, explaining over 80% of the variance. In addition, a count of growth increments visible in transverse sections in 86 A. grandiflorum and 80 P. aculeata samples was made. Presumed ages ranged between 5 and 28 years for A. grandiflorum and 2 and 21 years for P. aculeata. Radiocarbon assays were inconclusive and could not be used to confirm these ages; further age validation is required. Radial growth of the rod is slow during the first years, increasing at intermediate sizes of the colony and slowing down again for large colonies. Similar results were obtained from the relationship between colony length and number of growth increments where a logistic model was the best fit to the data. On average Spearman’s rank correlations showed 11% of shared variance between sea pen length or weight and environmental variables. Bottom temperature and salinity, depth and summer primary production were significantly correlated to sea pen size for most species.En prensa1,48

Report of the Scientific Council Meeting 01 -15 June 2017

Council met at the Sobey Building, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, NS, Canada, during 01 – 15 June 2017, to consider the various matters in its Agenda. Representatives attended from Canada, Denmark (in respect of Faroe Islands and Greenland), the European Union (France, Germany (via WebEx), Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and the European Commission), Japan, the Russian Federation and the United States of America. Observers from the Ecology Action Centre and Dalhousie University were also present. The Executive Secretary, Scientific Council Coordinator and other members of the Secretariat were in attendance. The Executive Committee met prior to the opening session of the Council to discuss the provisional agenda and plan of work. The Council was called to order at 1000 hours on 01 June 2017. The provisional agenda was adopted with modification. The Scientific Council Coordinator was appointed the rapporteur. The Council was informed that the meeting was quorate and authorization had been received by the Executive Secretary for proxy votes from the European Union, Denmark (in respect of Faroe Islands and Greenland), Iceland, Japan, Republic of Korea, and Norway. The opening session was adjourned at 1200 hours on 01 June 2017. Several sessions were held throughout the course of the meeting to deal with specific items on the agenda. The Council considered adopted the STACFEN report on 8 June 2017, and the STACPUB, STACFIS and STACREC reports on 15 June 2017. The concluding session was called to order at 0830 hours on 15 June 2017. The Council considered and adopted the report the Scientific Council Report of this meeting of 01 -15 June 2017. The Chair received approval to leave the report in draft form for about two weeks to allow for minor editing and proof-reading on the usual strict understanding there would be no substantive changes. The meeting was adjourned at 1430 hours on 15 June 2017. The Reports of the Standing Committees as adopted by the Council are appended as follows: Appendix I - Report of the Standing Committee on Fisheries Environment (STACFEN), Appendix II - Report of Standing Committee on Publications (STACPUB), Appendix III - Report of Standing Committee on Research Coordination (STACREC), and Appendix IV - Report of Standing Committee on Fisheries Science (STACFIS). The Agenda, List of Research (SCR) and Summary (SCS) Documents, and List of Representatives, Advisers and Experts, are given in Appendix V-VII. The Council’s considerations on the Standing Committee Reports, and other matters addressed by the Council follow in Sections II-XV

Kernel Density Surface Modelling as a Means to Identify Significant Concentrations of Vulnerable Marine Ecosystem Indicators

The United Nations General Assembly Resolution 61/105, concerning sustainable fisheries in the marine ecosystem, calls for the protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems (VME) from destructive fishing practices. Subsequently, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) produced guidelines for identification of VME indicator species/taxa to assist in the implementation of the resolution, but recommended the development of case-specific operational definitions for their application. We applied kernel density estimation (KDE) to research vessel trawl survey data from inside the fishing footprint of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) Regulatory Area in the high seas of the northwest Atlantic to create biomass density surfaces for four VME indicator taxa: large-sized sponges, sea pens, small and large gorgonian corals. These VME indicator taxa were identified previously by NAFO using the fragility, life history characteristics and structural complexity criteria presented by FAO, along with an evaluation of their recovery trajectories. KDE, a non-parametric neighbour-based smoothing function, has been used previously in ecology to identify hotspots, that is, areas of relatively high biomass/abundance. We present a novel approach of examining relative changes in area under polygons created from encircling successive biomass categories on the KDE surface to identify ‘‘significant concentrations’’ of biomass, which we equate to VMEs. This allows identification of the VMEs from the broader distribution of the species in the study area. We provide independent assessments of the VMEs so identified using underwater images, benthic sampling with other gear types (dredges, cores), and/or published species distribution models of probability of occurrence, as available. For each VME indicator taxon we provide a brief review of their ecological function which will be important in future assessments of significant adverse impact on these habitats here and elsewhere.Versión del editor4,411

Preliminary study of the variations on the spatio-temporal distribution of a potentially exploitable species (Patagonotothen spp.) in the southwest Atlantic, using GIS techniques

The genus Patagonotothen is the most common Nototheniid on the Patagonian Shelf and slope and is part of the by-catch species in the bottom trawl fisheries. This paper presents preliminary results from the EC CRAFT project “Promoting higher added value to a finfish species rejected to sea”, aiming to develop the research and the technology necessary to promote higher added value to fishing activity by taking profit from a finfish species (Rockcod, Patagonotothen spp.) not known to consumers and currently discarded by the EU fishing fleet operating in the South West Atlantic in order to supply the EU seafood industry with a good quality raw material for human food manufacturing. Historical fishery data series (26 168 commercial hauls of which 12 745 were positive), including effort, catches and discards, as well as biological and environmental information, from 1988 onwards was used to describe and quantify patterns and spatio-temporal changes in the rockcod fishery. These data was collected by scientific observers on board commercial vessels.GIS analysis was carried out in order to study the seasonal geographical changes in the distribution of abundance, SST and densities calculated from CPUE. Fishery and environmental data as well as SST data derived from the NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), were analysed in order to find monthly variations in spatial and depth distribution of Patagonotothen spp. Preliminary results demonstrated that, within areas of occurrence, there are significant correlations between fish abundance (CPUE), the oceanographic conditions of the area (SST gradients) and depth in certain months

A Case Study of available methodology for the identification of Vulnerable Ecosystems/Habitats in bottom deep-sea fisheries: Possibilities to apply this method in the NAFO Regulatory Area in order to select Marine Protected Areas

Information is critical to Ecosystem Approach and to research about Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems/Habitats (VME/Hs), fishing impacts on habitats and ad-hoc management measures are high-priority. Therefore, this paper presents the ECOVUL/ARPA Interdisciplinary Approach, a case study of methodology for the identification of VME/Hs in order to advise on conservation measures such as marine protected areas (MPAs). By means of an interactive process involving Conventional Fisheries Science, Geomorphology, Sedimentology and Benthic Ecology, the methodology developed under the ECOVUL/ARPA project, has been useful in order to contribute to define practical criteria to the identification of VME/Hs, to improve the knowledge about VME/Hs distribution and the adverse impacts of bottom trawl fisheries and to produce high quality advice on habitat protection. Applying an interdisciplinary approach, the project identified the deep-water bottom trawl fishery footprint on the Hatton Bank Western slope (NEAFC Regulatory Area), mapped the main fishing grounds and related seabed habitats and studied the interactions between fishing and cold-water corals. This approach was used to suggest, with high level of precision, the spatial limits of an area closed to bottom fishing, as an essential conservation measure to protect the cold-water corals in the framework of the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries management. We present here the methods used, the main results obtained and discuss on the utility of this approach and the possibilities to apply it in the NAFO Regulatory Area, with the aim to advise on measures for reducing the interactions of bottom fishing with sensitive high-seas habitats and to contribute to implement the UNGA recommendations about habitat conservation

Prison sentences: last resort or the default sanction?

This paper discusses the sentencing purposes for penal penalties, judges’ perceptions of sentencing purposes and prison sentences, and the effects of penal sanctions. We examine judges’ positions towards different penalties, with a focus on imprisonment, since their views on the different penalties are related to their sentencing decision-making. Understanding these views is then critical for several practical and political purposes, including bridging the gap between academic discourse and legal practice. We accessed judges’ views on penal sanctions through a questionnaire and an interview. Our sample is compounded by the judges of the criminal courts from the three major cities in Portugal. Despite the most recent criminological empirical knowledge, judges valued imprisonment as the most adequate sentence, both for different crimes and for different judicial purposes. This result is not consistent with viewing imprisonment as a ‘last resort’ solution. Indeed, we did not find this ‘last resort’ position in our data, and it is not apparent in the judicial statistics on imprisonment rates. Our data highlight the importance of increasing judges’ training on criminological and sociological issues as well as the importance of changing the influence of their personal beliefs regarding penal sanctions into research-based positions.This study was conducted at Psychology Research Centre (UID/PSI/01662/2013), University of Minho, and supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education through national funds and co-financed by FEDER through COMPETE2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653). The study was also supported by Grant SFRH/BPD/108602/2015 from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology awarded to the first author