Strong fisheries management and governance positively impact ecosystem status

Fisheries have had major negative impacts on marine ecosystems, and effective fisheries management and governance are needed to achieve sustainable fisheries, biodiversity conservation goals and thus good ecosystem status. To date, the IndiSeas programme (Indicators for the Seas) has focussed on assessing the ecological impacts of fishing at the ecosystem scale using ecological indicators. Here, we explore fisheries Management Effectiveness' and Governance Quality' and relate this to ecosystem health and status. We developed a dedicated expert survey, focused at the ecosystem level, with a series of questions addressing aspects of management and governance, from an ecosystem-based perspective, using objective and evidence-based criteria. The survey was completed by ecosystem experts (managers and scientists) and results analysed using ranking and multivariate methods. Results were further examined for selected ecosystems, using expert knowledge, to explore the overall findings in greater depth. Higher scores for Management Effectiveness' and Governance Quality' were significantly and positively related to ecosystems with better ecological status. Key factors that point to success in delivering fisheries and conservation objectives were as follows: the use of reference points for management, frequent review of stock assessments, whether Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) catches were being accounted for and addressed, and the inclusion of stakeholders. Additionally, we found that the implementation of a long-term management plan, including economic and social dimensions of fisheries in exploited ecosystems, was a key factor in successful, sustainable fisheries management. Our results support the thesis that good ecosystem-based management and governance, sustainable fisheries and healthy ecosystems go together.IOC-UNESCO; EuroMarine; European FP7 MEECE research project; European Network of Excellence Eur-Oceans; FRB EMIBIOS project [212085]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A MSFD complementary approach for the assessment of pressures, knowledge and data gaps in Southern European Seas : the PERSEUS experience

PERSEUS project aims to identify the most relevant pressures exerted on the ecosystems of the Southern European Seas (SES), highlighting knowledge and data gaps that endanger the achievement of SES Good Environmental Status (GES) as mandated by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). A complementary approach has been adopted, by a meta-analysis of existing literature on pressure/impact/knowledge gaps summarized in tables related to the MSFD descriptors, discriminating open waters from coastal areas. A comparative assessment of the Initial Assessments (IAs) for five SES countries has been also independently performed. The comparison between meta-analysis results and IAs shows similarities for coastal areas only. Major knowledge gaps have been detected for the biodiversity, marine food web, marine litter and underwater noise descriptors. The meta-analysis also allowed the identification of additional research themes targeting research topics that are requested to the achievement of GES. 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license.peer-reviewe

Feeding Habits and Prey Composition of Six Mesopelagic Fish Species from an Isolated Central Mediterranean Basin

Mesopelagic fishes hold an important position in marine food webs, serving as a link between lower trophic levels and top predators and transferring energy from their deep mesopelagic habitat to shallower oceanic layers. Despite their ecological importance, research on mesopelagic fishes’ diet and feeding habits in the Mediterranean Sea is far from thorough. The present work attempts to assess the preying patterns and diet composition of four myctophid (Benthosema glaciale, Ceratoscopelus maderensis, Myctophum punctatum, Notoscopelus elongatus) and two sternoptychid (Argyropelecus hemigymnus, Maurolicus muelleri) species from the Corinthian Gulf (Ionian Sea, Greece), sampled during pelagic trawl surveys in 2018 and 2019. Stomach vacuity was high for myctophids caught during daytime, a pattern which sternoptychids did not follow. Estimated trophic indices revealed high dietary diversity (Shannon’s H’ index) for most investigated species, but a narrow trophic niche breadth (Levins’ normalized Bn index). Copepods and various marine crustaceans were dominant in all diets, classifying them under the zooplanktivorous trophic guild, while A. hemigymnus exhibited high concentrations of particulate organic matter in their stomachs and N. elongatus exhibited consumption of fish. Diet overlap was significant among most studied mesopelagic species, as indicated by Shoener’s S index and confirmed by both the multidimensional scaling ordination and a hierarchical cluster analysis. Information on mesopelagic fishes’ diet composition in this poorly studied part of the Mediterranean is useful in further assessing and parameterizing marine food webs and midwater trophic interactions, as well as in quantifying the ensued energy transfer to top predators of commercial interest or conservation concerns

Discarding in Mediterranean trawl fisheries: a review of potential measures and stakeholder insights

The multi-species/multi-gear nature of the Mediterranean fisheries, the high number and dispersion of landing points, and the varying motivations for discarding make regulation enforcement in the basin challenging. In this study, reasons for explaining discarding are initially explored and then the main focus is on identifying potential incentive mechanisms and other measures that could reduce unwanted catches in Mediterranean trawl fisheries, in the face of the recent landing obligation. Both literature review and stakeholder engagement are employed, while special emphasis is put on the role of socio-economic tools to influence fishers’ behavior. Results show that although discarding is mainly driven by market demand, a number of factors have a synergistic effect which is sometimes difficult to disentangle and capture. Regarding measures, evidence from involved stakeholders (marine scientists and fishers) shows that economic incentives but also Bsocial measures^ such as more involvement of the industry and raising awareness are offering common ground. However, specific concerns have been also expressed on measures applicability. Overall, reducing discards is a complex issue and solutions should involve a combination of management measures designed for specific fleets and regions. However, irrespective of the synthesis of the management options, it is important to create a framework of action that takes into account human behavior as a source of variability. In this context, actions that for example encourage, engage, and enable can incentivize behavioral change in order to achieve specific outcomes

Habitat suitability modelling for sardine Sardina pilchardus in a highly diverse ecosystem: the Mediterranean Sea

Integrated information from different parts of the Mediterranean Sea was used to model the spatial and temporal variability of the distribution grounds of the sardine population. Acoustic data from the North Aegean Sea (Eastern Mediterranean), the Adriatic Sea (Central Mediterranean), the Sicily Channel (Central Mediterranean) and Spanish Mediterranean waters (Western Mediterranean) were analysed along with satellite environmental and bathymetric data to model the potential habitat of sardine during summer, autumn and early winter. Generalized additive models were applied in a presence−absence approach. Models were validated in terms of their predictive ability and used to construct maps exhibiting the probability of sardine presence throughout the entire Mediterranean basin as a measure of habitat adequacy for sardine. Bottom depth and sea surface temperature were the environmental variables that explained most of the data variability. Several areas along the Mediterranean coastline were indicated as suitable habitat for sardine in different seasons. An expansion of these areas over the continental shelf, up to 100 m depth, was consistently noticed from summer to winter. This was attributed to the horizontal movements of sardine related to spawning (i.e. winter period) and the peculiarities of the Mediterranean Sea where areas favouring growth, feeding and spawning processes tend to be localised and prevent a long range, offshore migration as opposed to large upwelling ecosystems. Moreover, within the study period, a positive relationship between the extent of sardine preferred habitat and landings was revealed for both summer and winter seasons throughout the entire Mediterranean SeaPublicado

SEAwise Report on the key species and habitats impacted by fishing

The implementation of ecosystem-based fisheries management requires knowledge on the ecological impact of fishing activities on species and their habitats – those both targeted and not targeted by fisheries. To identify whichecological impacts are key and what is known about them, SEAwise consulted stakeholders through European Advisory Councils and conducted a systematic review of the scientific literature to map the available knowledge and evidence. Specific reference was given to the bycatch of Protected, Endangered and Threatened (PET) species, benthic habitats, food webs and biodiversity, and impact from fisheries-related litter and ghost nets. At the stakeholder consultations, sharks and/or elasmobranchs, turtles, species interactions, and seals or marine mammals were identified as top ranked in at least three out of the five regions. Other terms identified by at least two Case Study regions were: seabirds, sensitive species, benthic habitats, litter, PET species, invasive species and species interactions.Relevant data were extracted from 549 retained papers. The majority of studies were conducted in the Mediterranean Sea, whereas only few papers reported on fishing impacts in the Baltic Sea (see figure below). Bony fish (teleosts) and benthos were the most studied ecosystem components in all Case Study regions, whereas marine mammals and cartilaginous fish were often studied in relation to bycatch of PET species. Out of the 549 papers, most of them were related to fishing impacts on food webs and biodiversity and benthic habitats, followed bybycatch of PET species and other fishing impact studies (not related to any task). Fewest studies were related to the impact of fisheries-related litter and ghost nets. Demersal trawls were by far the most studied gear in studies on commercial fishing impacts. For recreational fisheries, hooks and lines, in particular angling, was the most studied fishing activity. Among the items identified by the stakeholders, marine mammals, seabirds and reptiles were all covered in at least 25 papers each, indicating that there is a considerable body of knowledge even though not all areas may have information for all species. Litter was the key item that was least frequently reported on in the literature, especially outside the Mediterranean, where scientific papers were rare. As a consequence, areas outside the Mediterranean may lack information for further analysis unless a dedicated effort is made in SEAwise to remedy this. The regional differences in topics identified by stakeholder scoping did not reflect the regional amount of papers available