Fishery management: Why have we failed and how can we succeed?

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1 Fishery management: Why have we failed and how can we succeed? Elliott Norse PhD, Founder & Chief Scientist Marine Conservation Institute, Seattle USA

2 I ve fished since age 5 and often eat commercially caught fish

3 I m a marine and forest conservation biologist

4 People have long considered fishes invulnerable In 1883, Thomas Huxley said: I believe that all the great sea-fisheries are inexhaustible; that is to say, nothing we can do seriously affects the number of fish

5 bluefin tuna green sea turtles blue marlin Many marine animals were much more abundant just decades ago queen conch

6 Your fisheries are in trouble when there is Decline in catch per unit of fishing effort Decline in size of fish Shift of effort from shallow to deep, larger to smaller, higher to lower trophic level Declines of long-lived non-target species (fishes, sea turtles, seabirds, marine mammals) Loss of benthic habitats Population explosions of previously uncommon species (e.g. jellyfishes, noxious algae) Increase in average age of fishermen

7 Well-managed fisheries Set total allowable catches low enough to keep target populations at high abundance even when conditions in the sea vary Have abundant information on demography Have negligible bycatch Have negligible impact on marine food webs Have negligible impact on marine habitats Don t have ghost-fishing Are well-enforced Use closed areas

8 Very few fisheries are well-managed Many have no real management Many that are managed are unsustainable

9 Fish abundance is declining R. Myers & B. Worm (2003). Nature 423:

10 Change in North Atlantic fish biomass D Pauly and J McLean (2002) In a Perfect Ocean

11 UN Food and Agriculture Organization (2012) State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture: 30% of marine fish stocks are overfished 57% are fully exploited 13% are NOT fully exploited or overexploited We ve maxed out our ocean credit card!

12 Two crucial papers >30 years apart explain why fishermen serially overexploit, then move on F. Berkes et al. (2006) Globalization, roving bandits and marine resources Science 311: C.W. Clark (1973) The economics of overexploitation Science 181:

13 One of the biggest problems in fisheries: Managers treat fish populations as spatially homogeneous, but fishermen don t

14 Fisheries tend to Overlook genetic structure of fish populations Neglect spatial patterns of habitats needed by spawners, recruits, juveniles and adults Underestimate importance of fish behaviors and metapopulation connectivity Allow fishermen to go anywhere and serially deplete fish populations Fail to create refuges from fishing pressure Ignore non-fishing activities that affect fish Have decision-making units with no meaningful relationship to fish geographic patterns

15 Many fish associate with structure-forming species

16 L Watling & EA Norse (1998) Disturbance of the seabed by mobile fishing gear: A comparison with forest clearcutting Conservation Biology 12(6):

17 L Morgan & R Chuenpagdee (2003) Shifting Gears: Addressing the Collateral Impacts of Fishing Methods in US Waters

18 Bottom trawling is the most destructive (most habitat damage and bycatch) fishing method

19 Trawling rakes the seafloor, crushing and burying bottom-dwelling animals Massachusetts Norway New Zealand Scotland Greece

20 Untrawled & trawled coral-sponge forests, NW Australia Keith Sainsbury, CSIRO Keith Sainsbury, CSIRO

21 Untrawled & Trawled Oculina Reefs, Florida G. Gilmore, Harbor Branch Oceanogr. Inst. L. Horn, U. North Carolina-Wilmington

22 Untrawled & trawled Lophelia coral reefs, Norway Jan Helge Fosså, IMR Norway Jan Helge Fosså, IMR Norway

23 Trawl bycatch rates can be 80%, 90%, even 95%

24 In 2004, 1,136 scientists from 69 Countries called for protection from bottom trawling As marine scientists and conservation biologists, we are profoundly concerned that human activities, particularly bottom trawling, are causing unprecedented damage to the deep-sea coral and sponge communities on continental plateaus and slopes, and on seamounts and mid-ocean ridges. Signed by: EO Wilson, Daniel Pauly, Jane Lubchenco, Lisa Levin, Ransom Myers, Boris Worm and scientists in Israel including Gidon Winters, Amatzia Genin, Dalit Ucitel, Yaniv Levy, Ofer Mokady, Mati Halperin, Daphna Feingold and Frank Veit

25 Protected areas are a key fisheries tool Some crucial things occur only in certain places Protecting places is far less knowledgeintensive and costly than managing species one-by-one

26 A robust lesson for fisheries When you let living things feed, grow and reproduce, there will be more of them

27 Fishermen show, by their behavior, that MPAs export fish Rec fishing boats line the corner of a marine reserve in Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary

28 EA Norse (2010) Ecosystem-based spatial planning and management of marine fisheries: why and how? Bulletin of Marine Science 86(2):

29 Major improvements Sustainably manage all fisheries in territorial sea and EEZ End or dramatically reduce destructive fishing practices, especially bottom trawling Minimize bycatch of vulnerable species, such as sharks, batoids and dolphins Establish no-take areas including 20% of all ecosystem types in territorial sea and EEZ Effectively enforce fishery and conservation laws

30 Fisheries in Israel have real problems, but it is not too late to make major improvements

31 If we don t speak for the Earth, who will? If we are not committed to our own survival, who will be? Carl Sagan