Dataset Information

Comparing feedback and spatial approaches to advance ecosystem-based fisheries management in a changing Antarctic.

ABSTRACT: To implement ecosystem-based approaches to fisheries management, decision makers need insight on the potential costs and benefits of the policy options available to them. In the Southern Ocean, two such options for addressing trade-offs between krill-dependent predators and the krill fishery include "feedback management" (FBM) strategies and marine protected areas (MPAs); in theory, the first adjusts to change, while the latter is robust to change. We compared two possible FBM options to a proposed MPA in the Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Sea given a changing climate. One of our feedback options, based on the density of Antarctic krill (Euphasia superba), projected modest increases in the abundances of some populations of krill predators, whereas outcomes from our second FBM option, based on changes in the abundances of penguins, were more mixed, with some areas projecting predator population declines. The MPA resulted in greater increases in some, but not all, predator populations than either feedback strategy. We conclude that these differing outcomes relate to the ways the options separate fishing and predator foraging, either by continually shifting the spatial distribution of fishing away from potentially vulnerable populations (FBM) or by permanently closing areas to fishing (the MPA). For the krill fishery, we show that total catches could be maintained using an FBM approach or slightly increased with the MPA, but the fishery would be forced to adjust fishing locations and sometimes fish in areas of relatively low krill density-both potentially significant costs. Our work demonstrates the potential to shift, rather than avoid, ecological risks and the likely costs of fishing, indicating trade-offs for decision makers to consider.

SUBMITTER: Klein ES

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7478840 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Comparing feedback and spatial approaches to advance ecosystem-based fisheries management in a changing Antarctic.

Klein Emily S ES Watters George M GM

PloS one 20200908 9

To implement ecosystem-based approaches to fisheries management, decision makers need insight on the potential costs and benefits of the policy options available to them. In the Southern Ocean, two such options for addressing trade-offs between krill-dependent predators and the krill fishery include "feedback management" (FBM) strategies and marine protected areas (MPAs); in theory, the first adjusts to change, while the latter is robust to change. We compared two possible FBM options to a propo ...[more]

PMID: 32898163

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Project description:Natural resource management is evolving toward holistic, ecosystem-based approaches to decision making. The ecosystem science underpinning these approaches needs to account for the complexity of multiple interacting components within and across coupled natural-human systems. In this research, we investigate the potential economic and ecological gains from adopting ecosystem-based approaches for the sardine and anchovy fisheries off of the coast of California, USA. Research has shown that while predators in this system are likely substituting one forage species for another, the assemblage of sardine and anchovy can be a significant driver of predator populations. Currently, the harvest control rules for sardine and anchovy fisheries align more with traditional single species framework. We ask what are the economic and ecological gains when jointly determining the harvest control rules for both forage fish stocks and their predators relative to the status quo? What are the implications of synchronous and anti-synchronous environmental recruitment variation between the anchovy and sardine stocks on optimal food-web management? To investigate these questions, we develop an economic-ecological model for sardine, anchovy, a harvested predator (halibut), and an endangered predator (Brown Pelican) that includes recruitment variability over time driven by changing environmental conditions. Utilizing large-scale numerical optimal control methods, we investigate how the multiple variants of integrated management of sardine, anchovy, and halibut impact the overall economic condition of the fisheries and Brown Pelican populations over time. We find significant gains in moving to integrated catch control rules both in terms of the economic gains of the fished stocks, and in terms of the impacts on the Brown Pelican populations. We also compare the relative performance of current stylized catch control rules to optimal single species and optimal ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) across ecological and economic dimensions, where the former trade-off considerable economic value for ecological goals. More generally, we demonstrate how EBFM approaches introduce and integrate additional management levers for policymakers to achieve non-fishery objectives at lowest costs to the fishing sectors.

Dataset Information

Comparing feedback and spatial approaches to advance ecosystem-based fisheries management in a changing Antarctic.

Publications

Comparing feedback and spatial approaches to advance ecosystem-based fisheries management in a changing Antarctic.

Similar Datasets

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