Landing the blame : the influence of EU Member States on quota setting

Fisheries in European Union (EU) waters have been managed under the Common Fisheries Policy since 1983. The main regulatory tool in EU fisheries management is the use of Total Allowable Catches (TACs). In principle, TACs are set according to biological scientific advice provided by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) which recommends catch limits with the objective of maximising catches in a sustainable manner. The objective of this paper is to compare TACs set by the EU and its Member States between 2001 and 2015 with those recommended by ICES in their annual scientific advice in order to (a) investigate the level of compliance with scientific advice by the European Council and, (b) consider whether particular Member States have received more TACs above advice than others. For the time-series analysed, the European Council set TACs above scientific advice by an average of 20% per year, with around 7 out of every 10 TACs exceeding advice. Of all Member States, Denmark and the United Kingdom received the highest TACs in volume above scientific advice. Relative to the size of their TAC however, Spain and Portugal exceeded advice by the greatest percentage. Greater transparency is required to determine what takes place during the closed door negotiations and to improve the fishery sustainability credentials of the EU and its Member States

A New Proposal of Sustainable Seafood Markets Index (Smi): the Case Study of the Port of Vigo (Spain)

There is a consensus in the scientific community that overexploitation of most fisheries worldwide has had significant negative effects on coastal marine ecosystems, and the majority of assessed fish stocks still require rebuilding programs. Almost all of the scientific studies conducted in recent decades have focused primarily on analysis related to the biological state of marine ecosystems (e.g., biomass, fishing effort, catches per unit of effort, trophic levels). However, despite the relevance of the economic effects of fish markets on the patterns of exploitation by fishermen, an analysis linking the state of stocks with fish markets has not been attempted. Herein we describe the first effort to construct a seafood market index to measure the sustainability of seafood products. It is essential to understand not only the behavior of the harvested species from marine ecosystems, but also how economic factors (e.g., prices, concentration of seafood demand, concentration of local markets) can shift the status of exploited species and the strategies used by fishing companies. By combining data on monthly prices, trophic levels, size, and longevity of ~130 fresh seafood species traded in the Port of Vigo (Spain) during 2001- 2009 we demonstrate the potential value of the use of our sustainability of seafood markets index (SSMI). Preliminary results presented herein indicate: (i) a decrease in the unit value of the majority of seafood products, which has increased competitiveness among fishing companies, (ii) a decline of trophic levels of catches in the majority of species, and (iii) an increase in the mean longevity of traded species. These results highlight the need to consider economic factors and link them not only to the evolution of market incentives and their effects (e.g., prices, tax incentives, subsidies), but also to the state of marine resources and the availability of food for human consumption.Keywords: Markets and Trade, Fisheries EconomicsKeywords: Markets and Trade, Fisheries Economic

Evidence of Fishing Down Marine Food Webs in Galician (Nw Spain) Small-Scale Fisheries

Ecosystems are one of the most productive fishing grounds in the world, with important commercial and valuable fish stocks. However, overfishing, IUU activities, discards, habitat destruction and alteration of the biogeochemical conditions of the ecosystem combined with an increase in fish demand continue to drive fisheries to an alarming situation. Hence, the main goal of this paper is to (i) study the ecosystem impact of fisheries via a test of the occurrence of the fishing down effect by examining trends of mean trophic level (TL) of catches and (ii) use the Fishing in Balance (FiB) index to test if Galician marine fisheries are sustainable or not. The temporal trend in the mean trophic level, fisheries-in-balance index and trophic categories catches of the exploited marine community (~160 species) in the Galician small-scale fisheries were examined from 1998 to 2007. The examination of catches, mean >3.25TL and FiB index trajectories suggest that traditional fishery resources are being over-fished. The mean trophic level of fish landed in almost all ecogeographic areas of the coast are declining by ~0.033-0.400, in some of them with higher values than global trends. These results present evidence of the fishing down marine food webs in Galicia with a general MTL decline per decade. Overall, this paper shows that present exploitation patterns are unsustainable, a general phenomenon also detected since the last decades

Game Theory and Fisheries: The Case Study of The Illex Argentinus Fishery in South America

The Patagonian marine ecosystem is one of the most productive ecosystems in the world, with important commercial shared/straddling stocks. One of the highest mobility resources is the Argentine shortfin squid (Illex argentinus). Its distribution is limited to the area of influence of the warm-cold waters of sub-Antarctic origin, particularly of the Falkland Current; and it plays an important ecological role in the region. This resource is exploited by different foreign fleets that operate both within the Argentine exclusive economic zone and within the adjacent area beyond the 200-mile limit, as well as in Falklands (Malvinas) waters. Hence, the countries face what is known as stock externality in which one nations catch impacts negatively on another ones. Nevertheless, little research has been done on both legal and economic aspects of this fishery. By pursuing this line of inquiry in this paper, we use the predictive power of game theory to explore the economic benefits of cooperative or non-cooperative fisheries management of Illex argentinus between Argentina and the United Kingdom. The model used is a discrete-time one of finite horizon with the fishery steady state static model of harvesting. The preliminary empirical results suggest that there is a correspondence between what the fishery has experimented over the last few years, with a non-cooperative scenario. This paper also demonstrates that in the cooperative scenario both players would obtain better economic benefits, because each would reduce the fishing effort and hence the abundance of the stock would remain below the reference points recommended by scientists

Social-ecological shifts, traps and collapses in small-scale fisheries: Envisioning a way forward to transformative changes

Small-scale fisheries (SSF) are critical to food systems and livelihoods. However, the relation between fisheries resilience, outcomes of proximate and distal drivers and the potential space for transformative changes have been largely unexplored. Such knowledge is key to understanding how fishery resources, institutions and actors respond to, and learn from, diverse drivers of change and social-ecological crises, as well as to design policies aimed at building resilience in SSF. This paper provides a new heuristic model to analyze the factors that combined lead SSF to trajectories towards shifts, traps and collapses, including the opportunity to navigate sustainable transformations. We illustrate the proposed Heuristic with three case studies with different biophysical and socio-cultural contexts and final outcomes: the Galician shellfisheries on foot (Spain), the Chilean king crab small-scale fishery (Chile), and the Galapagos sea cucumber small-scale fishery (Ecuador). The application of the Heuristic and a detailed description of model key elements for each case study provide practical examples and a valuable guide for fisheries scientists, practitioners and decision-makers to learn and/or respond in a flexible way to SSF social-ecological crises in the pursuit of fisheries sustainability and equity. Scholars are welcome to adopt our Heuristic to classify and bound SSF, order events, suggest hypotheses of linked drivers, pathways of change, potential trajectories, and outcomes, and envision potential space for transformative changes

A typology of fisheries management tools: using experience to catalyse greater success

Fisheries provide nutrition and livelihoods for coastal populations, but many fisheries are fully or over-exploited and we lack an approach for analysing which factors affect management tool performance. We conducted a literature review of 390 studies to assess how fisheries characteristics affected management tool performance across both small-scale and large-scale fisheries. We defined success as increased or maintained abundance or biomass, reductions in fishing mortality or improvements in population status. Because the literature only covered a narrow set of biological factors, we also conducted an expert elicitation to create a typology of broader fishery characteristics, enabling conditions and design considerations that affect performance. The literature suggested that the most commonly used management tool in a region was often the most successful, although the scale of success varied. Management tools were more often deemed successful when used in combination, particularly pairings of tools that controlled fishing mortality or effort with spatial management. Examples of successful combinations were the use of catch limits with quotas and limited entry, and marine protected areas with effort restrictions. The most common factors associated with inadequate biological performance were ‘structural’ issues, including poor design or implementation. The expert-derived typologies revealed strong local leadership, high community involvement and governance capacity as common factors of success across management tool categories (i.e. input, output and technical measures), but the degree of importance varied. Our results are designed to inform selection of appropriate management tools based on empirical data and experience to increase the likelihood of successful fisheries management.Department of HE and Training approved lis

Mapping and Evaluating Marine Protected Areas and Ecosystem Services: A Transdisciplinary Delphi Forecasting Process Framework

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are an important tool for management and conservation and play an increasingly recognised role in societal and human well-being. However, the assessment of MPAs often lacks a simultaneous consideration of ecological and socio-economic outcomes, and this can lead to misconceptions on the effectiveness of MPAs. In this perspective, we present a transdisciplinary approach based on the Delphi method for mapping and evaluating Marine Protected Areas for their ability to protect biodiversity while providing Ecosystem Services (ES) and related human well-being benefits - i.e., the ecosystem outputs from which people benefit. We highlight the need to include the human dimensions of marine protection in such assessments, given that the effectiveness of MPAs over time is conditional on the social, cultural and institutional contexts in which MPAs evolve. Our approach supports Ecosystem-Based Management and highlights the importance of MPAs in achieving restoration, conservation, and sustainable development objectives in relation to EU Directives such as the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive (MSPD), and the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP)