Advancing marine conservation
A major mid-1980s shift in ecological structure of significant portions of the Southern Ocean was partially due to the serial depletion of fish by intensive industrial fishing, rather than solely to climate factors as previously hypothesized. Over a brief period (1969–1973), several finfish stocks were on average reduced to <50%, and finally (mid-1980s) to <20%, …
Multiple layers of political and socioeconomic pressure bear down on the fish and fishers in coral reef ecosystems, where conservation and fisheries often come into great conflict. This paper draws on conversations with members of an alliance of small-scale fishers in the central Philippines, and on their experiences, in order to explore ideas for reconciling …
We applaud DR Griffith (Front Ecol Environ 2008; 6[4]: 191–98) for addressing important fisheries management issues, but question the applicability of his solution (individual fishing quotas, IFQs) to the majority of the world’s fishing effort. Griffith’s IFQ success stories poorly represent the artisanal (small-scale) fleets that take 28–58% of global catch and employ 99% of …
Community and resource user support has often been declared as essential to achieving globally agreed targets for marine protection. Given that Indigenous Peoples in Canada have resource use rights, we engaged two Indigenous communities in British Columbia for their views on marine planning and protected areas. We developed a three-phased approach for executing our research: …
Benthic status of 28 near-shore, artisanal, coral reef fishing grounds in the central Philippines was assessed (2000–2002) together with surveys of the seahorse, Hippocampus comes. Our measures of benthic quality and seahorse densities reveal some of the most degraded coral reefs in the world. Abiotic structure dominated the fishing grounds: 69% of the benthos comprised …
Small-scale artisanal fisheries that target sedentary stocks have been largely ignored by fisheries management agencies, despite their great importance for food security and livelihoods. We characterized the fishing effort and biological parameters of one such fishery for seahorses in the central Philippines from 1996 to 1999. We found that catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) was very low, particularly …
Tropical shrimp trawling results in large amounts of highly diverse, non-target bycatch. We assessed the incidental catch of seahorses from shrimp trawls in central Vietnam to investigate the effects of fishing on an example group of small fishes that are potentially vulnerable and economically important. We used logbooks and catch landings surveys to quantify seahorse …
Biology and exploitation of coral reef organisms remain very under-studied, particularly with respect to live food and non-food fisheries. Coral reefs are found in over 100 countries, supporting more than 4000 species of fish and 1000 species of reef-building corals (Paulay, 1997). The resources in these ecosystems are exploited by tens of millions of fishers …
Meeuwig, J., Samoilys, M., Erediano, J., & Koldewey, H. (2005). Fishers’ Perceptions on the Seahorse Fishery in Central Philippines: Interactive approaches and an evaluation of results. Fishers’ Knowledge in Fisheries Science and Management, 179-201.… Read more
Bycatch studies have largely ignored population level effects on fish species of little commercial interest. Here we analyze bycatch of the lined seahorse (Hippocampus erectus) in the bait-shrimp trawl fishery in Hernando Beach, Florida, providing the first fisheries data for this species. Based on catch per unit of effort (CPUE), size, sex, and reproductive status …