FisheriesManagement

Fisheries Management

General Info

1. What is a fishery?
2. What are the types?
3. Why are they important?
4. What are the current management techniques
   • MPAs
   • Marine Reserves

Tragedy Stories

Nassau Grouper

1. Almost extinct commercially
2. Reproduce in mass spawning aggregations
3. Endangered in 2003

Jamaica

Jamaica’s history of fishing spans back as far as Pre-European settlement. Ostionan and Meillican native peoples relied on Jamaican reef fish as a major source of food (Hardt 2009). During the 1800s, fishing was revolutionized by the development of large seine nets that could catch large quantities of fish at once, making it easy for newly freed slaves to become self-sustaining (Hardt 2009). The biggest blows to coral reef fish populations came with the arrival of the 20th century. Chicken wire replaced wicker in the seine nets, increasing the size and number of fish that could be caught in one haul (Hardt 2009). Sport fishing also arose between 1900-1950. The Caribbean was a hot spot for sport fishing, in particular “visitors praised Jamaica as having the best variety of deep sea and river sport fishing, targeting tarpon, jack, grouper, snook, crocodiles and sharks” (Hardt 2009). Fishing continued to expand despite the growing concern of scientist. In the 1950s up to the 1970s, government subsidies caused catch rates to skyrocket, the main catches being composed of reef grazers like parrotfish (Hardt 2009). Fish biomass was reduced by up to 80% by the 1960s despite reefs appearing healthy until the 1970s (Hughes 1994). By the time anyone realized how out of control fishing had become, the damage was already done. Grazing had to be taken over by a non-fished species. A famous seventeen-year study by Terence P. Hughes (1994) collected data from nine points along Jamaica’s coast (see Fig. 2) and monitored the phase-shift that took place during that time. Because overfishing lead to the disappearance of major grazing fish species by the 1970s, the function was taken over by Diadema antillarum, a sea urchin (Hughes 1994). A single species serving a function once served by many, however, is a far cry from a making resilient system. In 1983, a species-specific disease hit the urchins, resulting in a staggering 99% reduction by 1984 (Hughes 1994). The loss of grazing fish and urchins to serve as a control coupled with a sequence of hurricanes bringing nutrients into the system, a massive macroalgae bloom consumed reef systems all across Jamaica, smothering the dominant reef builders Acropora palmatta (elkhorn coral) and Acropora cervicornis (staghorn coral) (Hughes 1994). According to Hughes (1994), hundreds of kilometers of coral reef area were reduced from having an average 52% coral cover to 3% and increased in macroalgae cover from 4% to 92% in a matter of a few decades. This phase-shift has been devastating to local fishermen and to the Jamaican coral reef tourism industry.

Success Stories

      1. Florida: 
           a. History of Merritt Island Refuge
           b. Marine reserves effect on adjacent fisheries. 
      2. St Lucia
           a.  History of Soufrière Marine Management Area
           b. Marine reserves effect on adjacent fisheries. 

References

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/294/5548/1920.full

http://www.fishwatch.gov/wild_seafood/what_is_a_fishery.htm

http://aquaticcommons.org/12765/1/gcfi_45-1.pdf

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2884556?seq=1

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-2979.2008.00308.x/full

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982206017015

http://www.pcouncil.org/habitat-and-communities/marine-protected-areas/

http://vb3lk7eb4t.search.serialssolutions.com/?sid=Elsevier:Scopus&genre=article&issn=01718630&volume=384&issue=&spage=33&epage=46&pages=33-46&artnum=&date=2009&title=Marine+Ecology+Progress+Series&atitle=Biological+effects+within+no-take+marine+reserves%3a+A+global+synthesis&aufirst=S.E.&auinit=S.E.&auinit1=S&aulast=Lester&id=doi:10.3354%2fmeps08029

http://www.worldfishcenter.org/resource_centre/LessonsLearned1804%20-%20FINAL.pdf

http://eaton.math.rpi.edu/csums/papers/Ecostability/hughesparadigms.pdf

http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/611/chp%253A10.1007%252F978-94-007-0114-4_29.pdf?auth66=1393029040_28e14cc2eb944c074783151623da1d65&ext=.pdf

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/277/5325/509.full