ICES Guidelines on Methods for Estimating Discard Survival

On the 1st of January 2014, the European Union introduced a phased discard ban or “Landing Obligation” for regulated species, as part of Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) Basic Regulation (Article 15). Today, in the post-Landing Obligation world, it may appear that a report on discard survival has little relevance. However, the Landing Obligation policy includes a high survival exemption (HSE) for “species for which scientific evidence demonstrates high survival rates, taking into account the characteristics of the gear, of the fishing practices and of the ecosystem” (Article 14, paragraph 4b). The HSE generated considerable interest from stakeholders, who wished to demonstrate that their particular fisheries did in fact have a suitably high survival rate for discarded unwanted catch.publishedVersio

Fishery Discards: Factors Affecting Their Variability within a Demersal Trawl Fishery

Discards represent one of the most important issues within current commercial fishing. It occurs for a range of reasons and is influenced by an even more complex array of factors. We address this issue by examining the data collected within the Danish discard observer program and describe the factors that influence discarding within the Danish Kattegat demersal fleet over the period 1997 to 2008. Generalised additive models were used to assess how discards of the 3 main target species, Norway lobster, cod and plaice, and their subcomponents (under and over minimum landings size) are influenced by important factors and their potential relevance to management. Our results show that discards are influenced by a range of different factors that are different for each species and portion of discards. We argue that knowledge about the factors influential to discarding and their use in relation to potential mitigation measures are essential for future fisheries management strategies

Strategies for conducting situated studies of technology use in hospitals

Ethnographic methods are widely used for understanding situated practices with technology. When authors present their data gathering methods, they almost invariably focus on the bare essentials. These enable the reader to comprehend what was done, but leave the impression that setting up and conducting the study was straightforward. Text books present generic advice, but rarely focus on specific study contexts. In this paper, we focus on lessons learnt by non-clinical researchers studying technology use in hospitals: gaining access; developing good relations with clinicians and patients; being outsiders in healthcare settings; and managing the cultural divide between technology human factors and clinical practice. Drawing on case studies across various hospital settings, we present a repertoire of ways of working with people and technologies in these settings. These include engaging clinicians and patients effectively, taking an iterative approach to data gathering and being responsive to the demands and opportunities provided by the situation. The main contribution of this paper is to make visible many of the lessons we have learnt in conducting technology studies in healthcare, using these lessons to present strategies that other researchers can take up

Dissecting the illegal ivory trade: an analysis of ivory seizures data

Reliable evidence of trends in the illegal ivory trade is important for informing decision making for elephants but it is difficult to obtain due to the covert nature of the trade. The Elephant Trade Information System, a global database of reported seizures of illegal ivory, holds the only extensive information on illicit trade available. However inherent biases in seizure data make it difficult to infer trends; countries differ in their ability to make and report seizures and these differences cannot be directly measured. We developed a new modelling framework to provide quantitative evidence on trends in the illegal ivory trade from seizures data. The framework used Bayesian hierarchical latent variable models to reduce bias in seizures data by identifying proxy variables that describe the variability in seizure and reporting rates between countries and over time. Models produced bias-adjusted smoothed estimates of relative trends in illegal ivory activity for raw and worked ivory in three weight classes. Activity is represented by two indicators describing the number of illegal ivory transactions--Transactions Index--and the total weight of illegal ivory transactions--Weights Index--at global, regional or national levels. Globally, activity was found to be rapidly increasing and at its highest level for 16 years, more than doubling from 2007 to 2011 and tripling from 1998 to 2011. Over 70% of the Transactions Index is from shipments of worked ivory weighing less than 10 kg and the rapid increase since 2007 is mainly due to increased consumption in China. Over 70% of the Weights Index is from shipments of raw ivory weighing at least 100 kg mainly moving from Central and East Africa to Southeast and East Asia. The results tie together recent findings on trends in poaching rates, declining populations and consumption and provide detailed evidence to inform international decision making on elephants

Developmental and Molecular Characterization of Emerging β- and γδ-Selected Pre-T Cells in the Adult Mouse Thymus

The first checkpoint in T cell development, β selection, has remained incompletely characterized for lack of specific surface markers. We show that CD27 is upregulated in DN3 thymocytes initiating β selection, concomitant with intracellular TCR-β expression. Clonal analysis determined that CD27^(high) DN3 cells generate CD4^+CD8^+ progeny with more than 90% efficiency, faster and more efficiently than the CD27^(low) majority. CD27 upregulation also occurs in γδ-selected DN3 thymocytes in TCR-β−/− mice and in IL2-GFP transgenic reporter mice where GFP marks the earliest emerging TCR-γδ cells from DN3 thymocytes. With CD27 to distinguish pre- and postselection DN3 cells, a detailed gene expression analysis defined regulatory changes associated with checkpoint arrest, with β selection, and with γδ selection. γδ selection induces higher CD5, Egr, and Runx3 expression as compared to β selection, but it triggers less proliferation. Our results also reveal differences in Notch/Delta dependence at the earliest stages of divergence between developing αβ and γδ T-lineage cells

Relative mobility determines the efficacy of MPAs in a two species mixed fishery with conflicting management objectives

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have been used to protect species in need of conservation and as a fisheries management tool. It has been suggested MPAs can benefit mobile stocks by protecting spawning grounds whilst also allowing yields to be maintained as mature fish move out of the protected areas. However, the robustness of this claim in mixed species fisheries has yet to be established. We use a simulation model to explore the efficacy of spatial closures and effort regulation when other forms of fishery control (e.g., Total Allowable Catches) are absent or non-enforced as ways of addressing management objectives that are difficult to reconcile due to the contrasting life-histories of a target and a bycatch, conservation species in a two-species fishery. The mobility of each stock in such a fishery affects the benefits conferred by an MPA. The differing management objectives of the two species can be partially met by effort regulations or closures when the species exhibit similar mobility. However, a more mobile conservation species prevents both sets of aims being met by either management tool. We use simulations to explore how spatial closures and effort regulation can be used to seek compromise between stakeholders when the mobility of one stock prevents conflicting management objectives to be fully met. Our results demonstrate that stock mobility is a key factor in considering whether an MPA can meet conflicting aims in a multispecies fishery compromised of stocks with differing life histories and mobilities