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Modeling Atlantic herring fisheries as multiscalar human-natural systems
Abstract
https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1cKk4biU1p3jk --
Fisheries contribute to food and nutrition security, livelihoods, and poverty alleviation for billions of people globally. However, human-environmental interactions in fisheries are rarely assessed locally, regionally, and globally at the same time, limiting social-ecological resilience in fisheries management. We evaluated worldwide catches of a keystone forage fish (Atlantic herring, Clupea harengus) over 65 years (1950–2014); modeled local, regional, and global interactions among industrial, artisanal, subsistence, and recreational fishing sectors; and predicted future catches using a multifaceted and multilayered human-nature coupling framework for assessing social-ecological interactions within and across adjacent and distant fisheries (termed “metacouplings”). Across 17 exclusive economic zones (EEZs), catches by nations in their own EEZs (7.1 × 10⁷ metric tons [MT]) outweighed those in adjacent EEZs (5.3 × 10⁷ MT). However, adjacent-EEZ fishing was the largest-tonnage fishing type in more EEZs (53 %), reflecting the proximity of Northern/Western European fishing nations and regulations conducive to fishing in neighboring waters. Catches in distant (non-adjacent) EEZs were relatively small (1.2 × 10⁷ MT). Fishing-sector interactions were generally positive but notably negative for artisanal fishing, which declined with increasing industrial and recreational catches in five EEZs (29 %). Combined with projected declines in artisanal and subsistence catches in parts of Germany, Norway, and Sweden, metacoupling interactions could elicit harmful financial, food-supply, and food/nutrition security outcomes for small-scale fishers if metacouplings remain absent from management programs. However, quantitative and conceptual tools developed herein enable fisheries managers to identify where, when, and how to maximize positive and minimize negative metacoupling interactions and thereby ensure continued ecological, economic, nutritional, and sociocultural benefits for fisheries stakeholders, locally to globally.
... As a result, flounder will be directly exposed to contaminants deposited in sediments and can be considered an important indicator of the quality of the Thames Estuary. The Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) is one of the world's most commercially valuable marine fisheries targets, with great ecological significance since it connects several trophic levels in the marine food web (Carlson et al., 2021;Mollmann et al., 2004). Multiple abiotic and biotic characteristics and human-induced stressors such as pollution and eutrophication can influence their reproductive success (Moll et al., 2019). ...
... The Sea Around Us has an open data and open documentation policy and freely shares data and data products as well as underlying documentation of data processes. Such open data and documentation policies empower achievements and progress that go beyond what a single team can achieve and empower others to use these data and products (e.g., in Carlson et al. 2021). ...
Fishing provides the world with an important component of its food supply, but it also negatively impacts the biodiversity of marine and freshwater ecosystems, especially when industrial fishing is involved. To mitigate these impacts, civil society needs access to fisheries data (i.e., catches and catch-derived indicators of these impacts). Such data, however, must be more comprehensive than the official fisheries statistics supplied to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) by its member countries, which shape public policy in spite of their deficiencies, notably underestimating small-scale fisheries. This article documents the creation, based on the geographically coarse FAO data, of a database and website ( https://www.seaaroundus.org ) that provides free reconstructed (i.e., corrected) catch data by ecosystem, country, species, gear type, commercial value, etc., to any interested person, along with catch-derived indicators from 1950 to the near present for the entire world.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Marine Science, Volume 15 is January 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
This systematic review seeks to answer the question: how have previous studies
conceptualized and measured food security in relation to industrial fishing?
Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-
Analyses (PRISMA) methodology, initial searches yielded 983 publications, which
were distilled to 55 relevant articles for in-depth analysis after the screening
process. These studies span from 1997 to 2024, covering a diverse range of
geographical contexts, and cover a variety of scales from local community
impacts to national and global trends. Overall, four principal themes related to
the perceived positive and negative and direct and indirect impacts of industrial
fishing on food security were identified: (1) Industrial fishing activities provide
jobs to local populations of which earnings are used to purchase other food
items; (2) Industrial fishing activities provide fisheries products to local markets
which are used as a common food source; (3) Industrial fishing activities damage
the environment, leading to a decrease in the availability of catch for food or
livelihood; (4) Industrial fishing activities outcompete local users and export catch
to distant markets, thereby decreasing available food to local communities. The
methodologies used in these studies mainly took a singular methods approach
rather than a mixed-methods approach. Specific methodologies were rooted
in diverse fields such as econometrics, policy, geography, fisheries science, and
public health. The most frequently used data types were fisheries production,
consumption, trade, economic, and fisher behavior data. A notable gap in the
research is the lack of integration of complex data on industrial fishing, such
as detailed catch records and fishing efforts, with the multifaceted aspects of
food security, including detailed household consumption trends. This separation
has often led to studies focusing on either fishing activities or food security
outcomes in isolation, which can oversimplify the relationship between fisheries
production and food security. The findings highlight the need for a more
integrated research approach that combines fisheries or ecosystem data with
a thorough examination of household consumption behaviors and broader
food systems. Such an approach is essential for creating effective policies and
interventions to support and improve the livelihoods of communities reliant
on fisheries.
The world has become increasingly metacoupled through flows of materials, energy, people, capital, and information within and across systems. Transboundary flows, connecting adjacent and distant systems, are deemed the most critical indicators for measuring the intensity of interactions among coupled human-natural systems. To advance metacoupling flow research and governance, we make the first attempt to develop a typology of transboundary flows using six flow attributes (i.e., type, magnitude, direction, distance, time, and mode). Furthermore, we synthesize a portfolio of quantitative and practical methods for characterizing transboundary flows. To effectively govern transboundary flows for global sustainability and resilience, we highlight the need to recognize the shared risks and goals embedded in the interlinkages, use system thinking, and enhance multilateral cooperation.
Although social-ecological fisheries research is growing, comparatively little attention is paid to fisheries in urban environments. We aim to address this imbalance, because as cities expand worldwide, we expect urban fisheries to become more widespread and important in providing food/nutrition security, recreation, community well-being, and other benefits to fisheries stakeholders and urban dwellers across spatiotemporal scales. This paper contains a first analysis of the economic and sociocultural provisions, trade-offs, and dilemmas associated with urban fisheries to yield insights for sustainable management and planning of urban blue space. To address these objectives, we use the metacoupling framework, a method for assessing human-nature interactions within and across adjacent and distant fisheries systems. We use examples from multiple countries and data from the United States to illustrate how urban fisheries encompass flows of people, money, and information across multiple spatiotemporal scales and provide nutritional, recreational, social, and cultural benefits to fisheries stakeholders. Throughout the world, urban fisheries are influenced by wide-ranging human needs (e.g. food provisioning, recreation, aquatic resource education) that generate social-ecological effects within and beyond cities. Our analysis yields insights for developing holistic, metacoupling-informed management approaches that address the diverse social-ecological objectives and trade-offs involved in sustainable development of urban fisheries.
Marine fisheries are social-ecological systems important for human health and livelihoods. However, research approaches that consider human–nature interactions within as well as between adjacent and distant fisheries are scarce. As such, we measured and modeled marine fisheries catches at local and regional scales over 65 years (1950–2014), assessed cross-scalar interactions among fishing types (artisanal, subsistence, industrial, recreational), and predicted future catches using the metacoupling framework, a new approach for evaluating human-nature interactions within and across adjacent and distant fisheries (metacouplings). Across taxa examined (mahi-mahi [Coryphaena hippurus], Atlantic bluefin tuna [Thunnus thynnus], cods [Gadidae]), 75% of catches (8.5 million metric tons [MMT]) were made by nations in their own exclusive economic zones (EEZs; Type 1 fishing). However, catches in adjacent EEZs (Type 2 fishing, 1.0 MMT) and distant EEZs and the high seas (Type 3 fishing, 1.9 MMT) increased substantially for all taxa at certain times, becoming consistently important for tuna and cods after 1980. Moreover, Types 1–3 fishing interacted in ways that affect humans differentially across fisheries. For instance, tuna artisanal and subsistence catches (Type 1) decreased with increasing Type 2 and Type 3 industrial fishing, respectively. Cod subsistence catches declined with increasing Type 2/3 industrial fishing and Type 1 artisanal fishing, whereas fishing-type interactions were largely positive for mahi-mahi, causing catches to increase across sectors. Overall, metacouplings affect humans in positive and negative ways that vary across scales and fisheries systems, galvanizing the need for metacoupling-informed fisheries research, policy, and management programs.
Human health and livelihoods are threatened by declining marine fisheries catches, causing substantial interest in the sources and dynamics of fishing. Catch analyses in individual exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and the high seas are abundant, and research across multiple EEZs is growing. However, no previous studies have systematically compared catches, intranational versus international fish flows, and fishing nations within all of the world’s EEZs and across adjacent and distant EEZs and the high seas to inform “metacoupled” fisheries management. We use the metacoupling framework—a new approach for evaluating human–nature interactions within and across adjacent and distant systems (metacouplings)—to illustrate how fisheries catches were locally, regionally, and globally interconnected in 1950–2014, totaling 5.8 billion metric tons and increasing by 298% (tonnage) and 431% (monetary value) over this time period. Catches by nations in their own EEZs (largest in Peru) and adjacent EEZs (largest in Indonesia) constituted 86% of worldwide catches, growing in 1950–1996 but declining in 1997–2014. In contrast, catches in distant EEZs and the high seas—largest in Morocco, Mauritania, and Canada—peaked in 1973 and have since represented 9–21% of annual catches. Our 65-year, local–regional–global analysis illustrates how metacoupled fisheries governance—holistic management of multiscalar catches, flows, and tradeoffs within and among fisheries—can improve food and nutrition security, livelihood resilience, and biodiversity conservation across the world.
Stream salmonid fisheries are ecologically and socioeconomically important at local to global scales throughout the world. Although these fisheries are interacting systems of biota, habitats, and humans, systematic social-ecological integration across space and time is scarce. However, theoretical and methodological advancements in the study of coupled human and natural systems (CHANS) offer new insights for stream salmonid research, management, and policymaking. The metacoupling framework is a novel tool for studying and managing social-ecological linkages that occur within stream salmonid fisheries as well as between adjacent and distant fisheries (i.e., metacouplings). For instance, coldwater streams containing brook charr (Salvelinus fontinalis) and brown trout (Salmo trutta) in Michigan, United States, encompass metacoupled movements of water, information, fish, people, and money throughout CHANS that provide drinking water, recreational fisheries, and employment. However, groundwater withdrawal is altering stream hydrology and causing public controversy over how hydrological changes affect salmonid populations and thermal habitats. Using this complex social-ecological scenario as a case study, we describe the utility of the metacoupling framework for fisheries systems analysis and demonstrate how this approach promotes metacoupled governance– management of relationships among metacoupled systems rather than specific physical places alone– to better sustain stream salmonid fisheries locally, regionally, and globally. Overall, stream salmonid science and management can be enhanced by using the metacoupling framework to synthesize social and ecological information, characterize cross-scalar tradeoffs and feedbacks, understand stakeholder diversity, and ultimately develop metacoupling-informed policies that promote socially and ecologically desirable outcomes.
Technology, transportation and global appetites have transformed trade relationships between near and distant countries. The impact of distant food demand on local agricultural production and trade has attracted considerable scientific scrutiny, yet little is known about how distant trade affects trade relationships and production between adjacent countries. In this paper, we explore this important issue by examining international food trade and agriculture production, which represent how distant places are connected through trade networks. By analyzing patterns of soybean, corn and wheat trading between 1991–2016 under the framework of metacoupling (human-nature interactions within, as well as between adjacent and distant systems), this study provides new insights into the spatio-temporal dynamics of trade flows. Results reveal that telecoupled (between distant countries) trade interacts with the geo-political landscape to enhance or offset intracoupled (within country) production and pericoupled (between neighboring countries) trade. Evidence from the literature and the results of autoregressive integrated moving average models indicate that when restrictions are placed on distant export routes, pericoupled trade increased. The extent to which the telecoupled food trade affected the pericoupled trade and intracoupled processes holds implications for the true extent of production driven by distant demands.
Small-scale fisheries (SSF) have long been overshadowed by the concerns and perceived importance of the industrial sector in fisheries science and policy. Yet in recent decades, attention to SSF is on the rise, marked by a proliferation of scientific publications, the emergence of new global policy tools devoted to the small-scale sector, and concerted efforts to tally the size and impacts of SSF on a global scale. Given the rising tide of interest buoying SSF, it's pertinent to consider how the underlying definition shapes efforts to enumerate and scale up knowledge on the sector—indicating what dimensions of SSF count and consequently what gets counted. Existing studies assess how national fisheries policies define SSF, but to date, no studies systematically and empirically examine how the definition of SSF has been articulated in science, including whether and how definitions have changed over time. We systematically analyzed how SSF were defined in the peer-reviewed scientific literature drawing on a database of 1,723 articles published between 1960 and 2015. We coded a 25% random sample of articles (n = 434) from our database and found that nearly one-quarter did not define SSF. Among those that did proffer a definition, harvest technologies such as fishing boats and gear were the most common characteristics used. Comparing definitions over time, we identified two notable trends over the 65-year time period studied: a decreasing proportion of articles that defined SSF and an increasing reliance on technological dimensions like boats relative to sociocultural characteristics. Our results resonate with findings from similar research on the definition of SSF in national fisheries policies that also heavily rely on boat length. We call attention to several salient issues that are obscured by an overreliance on harvest technologies in definitions of SSF, including dynamics along the wider fisheries value chain and social relations such as gender. We discuss our findings considering new policies and emerging tools that could steer scientists and practitioners toward more encompassing, consistent, and relational means of defining SSF that circumvent some of the limitations of longstanding patterns in science and policy that impinge upon sustainable and just fisheries governance.
The authors provide an overview of the telecoupling concept and framework as well as their applications to land system science. First, the authors clarify different interpretations of the framework such as it being structured versus processual, active versus passive roles of sending and receiving systems, comprehensiveness and flexibility, feasibility and entry points, system dynamics and boundaries, and scale dependencies. Second, they illustrate the framework’s utility for systematically understanding and managing telecoupled land use. Third, they highlight ongoing efforts to operationalise the framework and apply it to telecoupled governance by shifting from place-based to flow-based approaches. In conclusion, the authors present a glimpse of an extended framework (metacoupling) that is applicable across local-to-global scales for systematic analysis to address Sustainable Development Goals and other global challenges.
This book presents a comprehensive exploration of the emerging concept and framework of telecoupling and how it can help create a better understanding of land-use change in a globalised world. Land-use change is increasingly characterised by a spatial disconnect between its main environmental, socioeconomic and political drivers and the main impacts and outcomes of those changes. The authors examine how this separation of the production and consumption of land-based resources is driven by population growth, urbanisation, climate change, and biodiversity and carbon conservation efforts. Identifying and fostering more sustainable, just and equitable modes of land use and intervening in unsustainable ones thus constitute substantial, almost overwhelming challenges for science and policy. This book brings together leading scholars on land-use change and sustainability to systematically discuss the relevance of telecoupling research in addressing these challenges. The book presents an overview of the telecoupling approach, reflects on a number of the most pressing issues surrounding land-use change today and discusses the agenda for advancing understanding on sustainable land-use change through interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research.
Cecilie Friis is a post-doctoral researcher at the IRI THESys at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany. Her research focuses on land-use change, crop booms, and land grabbing in frontier regions of Southeast Asia, and she is the Co-Organiser of a Global Land Programme Working Group on Telecoupling Research towards Sustainable Transformation of Land Systems.
Jonas Ø. Nielsen is Professor of Integrative Geography at the Geography Department and Research Group Leader at the IRI THESys at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany. He is on the Scientific Steering Committee of the Global Land Programme and the Coordinator of a Horizon 2020 funded Innovative Training Network on telecoupling.
The European Union’s (EU) new Regulation on the sustainable management of external fishing fleets strengthens the framework under which authorisations are granted to EU vessels desiring to fish outside of EU waters. It applies to all such fishing activities, conditions the granting of authorisations on sustainability criteria, and provides a level of institutional control on Member States’ actions, as well as some transparency. It also covers poorly monitored practices, such as reflagging and chartering. However, there have been some missed opportunities, in particular with regard to unregulated high seas fishing and the public accessibility of data on beneficial ownership. More generally, the impact on sustainability of the EU’s stricter measures will depend, in the highly inter-connected world of fisheries, on whether other States also embrace such good governance principles.
Native plants and animals can rapidly become superabundant and dominate ecosystems, leading to claims that native species are no less likely than alien species to cause environmental damage, including biodiversity loss. We compared how frequently alien and native species have been implicated as drivers of recent extinctions in a comprehensive global database, the 2017 International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. Alien species were considered to be a contributing cause of 25% of plant extinctions and 33% of animal extinctions, whereas native species were implicated in less than 5% and 3% of plant and animal extinctions, respectively. When listed as a putative driver of recent extinctions, native species were more often associated with other extinction drivers than were alien species. Our results offer additional evidence that the biogeographic origin, and hence evolutionary history, of a species are determining factors of its potential to cause disruptive environmental impacts.
Telecoupling refers to socioeconomic and environmental interactions between distant coupled human and natural systems, and has become more extensive and intensive in the globalized era. The integrated framework of telecoupling examines flows of information, energy, matter, people, organisms, and other things such as financial capital and goods and products around the globe. It pinpoints causes and effects arising from engagement of diverse agents in the global sphere. This first special feature on telecoupling includes 16 articles that explore diverse telecouplings including trade, migration, tourism, information exchange, and transnational product certification schemes. Here we synthesize the articles by describing eight overarching lessons learned. These include the impact of physical, social, and institutional distance on telecouplings, key roles of agents and their inter-relationships, and the important function of telecoupling in enhancing information signals over long distances. Several lessons directly apply to global sustainability challenges, such as the importance of recognizing trade-offs between local and global sustainability and the need for multi-level management and governance solutions. We also suggest five areas of future research to help propel this nascent field forward and further cement its applicability to addressing global sustainability challenges.
Telecoupled flows of people, organisms, goods, information, and energy are expanding across the globe. Causes are integral components of the telecoupling framework, yet the rigor with which they have been identified and evaluated to date is unknown. We address this knowledge gap by systematically reviewing causal attribution in the telecoupling literature (n = 89 studies) and developing a standardized causal terminology and typology for consistent use in telecoupling research. Causes are defined based on six criteria: sector (e.g., environmental, economic), system of origin (i.e., sending, receiving, spillover), agent, distance, response time (i.e., time lapse between cause and effect), and direction (i.e., producing positive or negative effects). Using case studies from the telecoupling literature, we demonstrate the need to enhance the rigor of telecoupling causal attribution by combining qualitative and quantitative methods via process-tracing, counterfactual analysis, and related approaches. Rigorous qualitative-quantitative causal attribution is critical for accurately assessing the social-ecological causes and consequences of telecouplings and thereby identifying leverage points for informed management and governance of telecoupled systems.
The New England Fishery Management Council used management strategy evaluation (MSE) to evaluate possible harvest control rules for Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus), the first MSE in the US and perhaps globally to use open-invitation, public workshops for input. Stakeholder inclusion can increase both realism and likelihood of use by managers, but inclusivity is not achieved easily. Here, self-selected participants had diverse backgrounds and differing levels of interest and preparedness. We describe some challenges with directly engaging the public in MSE and offer broader insights for obtaining effective public participation during a decision-making process. Conducting an open MSE aligns well with publicly driven management but requires clear goals and communication. Investment in effective organizers, impartial facilitators, and knowledgeable analysts can improve communication and understanding of MSE to the betterment of fisheries management. We aim to further MSE best practices on integrating stakeholders and hope that our lessons learned on communication, engagement, and integration of MSE into an existing management arena will be useful to other practitioners.
The metacoupling framework provides grounds for characterizing interactions within and between coupled human and
natural systems, yet few studies quantify the nuances of these systems. Network analysis is a powerful and flexible tool that has been
used to quantify social, economic, and ecological systems. Our objective was to evaluate the utility of network analysis for quantifying
metacoupled systems by assessing global soybean trade among 217 countries from 1986 to 2013. We identified and quantified sending
and receiving systems, subnetworks and flow pathways, changes over time and across scales, feedbacks, and associations between trade
and tropical deforestation. Although a total of 165 distinct cliques were identified within the network, a few key players were
disproportionately influential in the 2872 partnerships, including Brazil (37.5%), China (48.6%), and the USA (72.3%). Total network
density increased five-fold over the study period with an increasingly smaller set of countries heavily engaged in trade, posing
sustainability and food security concerns. We found evidence of a positive feedback where countries with established trade partnerships
were more likely to expand trade relationships over the study period. Trade patterns were not explained by regional or continental
geography, highlighting limitations of neighborhood analyses commonly used in ecology. We also found evidence of a link between
soybean trade and tropical deforestation; in pantropical countries participating in soybean trade, cumulative soybean exports for the
period 2000–2012 were strongly associated with remotely sensed estimates of forest loss by country (Rsq = 0.35 , p < 0.0001). We
demonstrated that network analyses can be used to quantitatively assess relationships between metacoupled social-ecological systems.
Increased data access and platforms for integrating diverse data sources using multidisciplinary tools will be key to pushing the
boundaries of quantitative metacoupled systems research.
Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) is a benthic spawner, therefore its eggs are prone to encounter different water conditions during embryonic development, with bottom waters often depleted of oxygen and enriched in CO 2. Some Atlantic herring spawning grounds are predicted to be highly affected by ongoing Ocean Acidification and Warming with water temperature increasing by up to +3°C and CO 2 levels reaching ca. 1000 μatm (RCP 8.5). Although many studies investigated the effects of high levels of CO 2 on the embryonic development of Atlantic herring, little is known about the combination of temperature and ecologically relevant levels of CO 2. In this study, we investigated the effects of Ocean Acidification and Warming on embryonic metabolic and developmental performance such as mitochondrial function, respiration , hatching success (HS) and growth in Atlantic herring from the Oslo Fjord, one of the spawning grounds predicted to be greatly affected by climate change. Fertilized eggs were incubated under combinations of two PCO 2 conditions (400 μatm and 1100 μatm) and three temperatures (6, 10 and 14°C), which correspond to current and end-of-the-century conditions. We analysed HS, oxygen consumption (MO 2) and mitochondrial function of embryos as well as larval length at hatch. The capacity of the electron transport system (ETS) increased with temperature, reaching a plateau at 14°C, where the contribution of Complex I to the ETS declined in favour of Complex II. This relative shift was coupled with a dramatic increase in MO 2 at 14°C. HS was high under ambient spawning conditions (6-10°C), but decreased at 14°C and hatched lar-vae at this temperature were smaller. Elevated PCO 2 increased larval malformations, indicating sub-lethal effects. These results indicate that energetic limitations due to thermally affected mitochondria and higher energy demand for maintenance occur at the expense of embryonic development and growth.
Recreational fishing is often perceived as harmless when it comes to fisheries management, and its impact often estimated to surpass the economic outcomes of e.g. large-scale fisheries. Recreational fisheries are often an indication of political stability and sound ecosystem management. However, despite a high economic impact, the economic costs on traditional and small-scale commercial fishers is yet to be known. This paper answers the question of how unregulated recreational fisheries could rather generate a loss to an economy, and cause unfair competition with existing commercial sectors using the example of Algeria. This paper assesses catches and economic value of recreational fisheries in Algeria, and finds that over 6,000 tonnes reach commercial markets annually, competing directly with the small-scale artisanal sector, while selling recreationally caught fish is still illegal. The paper further finds that the public is thereby deprived—through lost tax, licence income and landed value of $45 million US annually.
Fisheries are coupled human and natural systems (CHANS) across distant places, yet fisheries research has generally focused on better understanding either fisheries ecology or human dimensions in a specific place, rather than their interactions over distances. As economic and ideational globalization accelerate, fisheries are becoming more globally connected via movements of fish products and fisheries finances, information, and stakeholders throughout the world. As such, there is a pressing need for systematic approaches to assess these linkages among global fisheries, their effects on ecosystems and food security, and their implications for fisheries science and sustainability. Use of the telecoupling framework is a novel and insightful method to systematically evaluate socioeconomic and environmental interactions among CHANS. Here, we apply the telecoupling framework to the Peruvian anchoveta (Engraulis ringens) fishery, the world’s largest single-species commercial fishery and a complex CHANS. The anchoveta fishery has diverse and significant telecouplings – socioeconomic and environmental interactions over distances – with the rest of the world, including fishmeal and fish oil trade, monetary flow, knowledge transfer, and movement of people. The use of the telecoupling framework reveals complex fishery dynamics such as feedbacks (e.g., profit maximization causing fishery overcapitalization) and surprises (e.g., stock collapse) resulting from local and long-distance ecological and socioeconomic interactions. The Peruvian anchoveta fishery illustrates how the telecoupling framework can be used to systematically assess the magnitude and diversity of local and distant fisheries interactions and thereby advance knowledge derived from traditional monothematic research approaches. Insights from the telecoupling framework provide a foundation from which to develop sustainable fisheries policy and management strategies across local, national, and international levels in a globalized world.
Human-nature interactions are complex and have important implications for achieving sustainable development goals and addressing other global challenges. Although numerous studies have explored human-nature (or human-environment) interactions and generated useful insights, they are largely disintegrated. Because conceptual frameworks are the foundation of quantitative and qualitative integration, many have been proposed but focus mainly on human-nature interactions within a specific system. To reflect human-nature interactions between distant coupled systems, the framework of telecoupling (socioeconomic and environmental interactions over distances) has been developed. However, no framework has explicitly integrated human-nature interactions between adjacent coupled systems, let alone within a coupled system as well as between adjacent and distant coupled systems simultaneously. To fill such an important gap, in this paper I present an integrated framework of metacoupling: human-nature interactions within a system (intracoupling), between distant systems (telecoupling), and between adjacent systems (pericoupling). A metacoupled system is a set of two or more coupled systems that interact internally as well as nearby and far away, facilitated by agents affected by various causes with various effects. By differentiating and integrating intracoupling, pericoupling, and telecoupling, the metacoupling framework advances a systems perspective on global sustainability and human well-being. The framework can help uncover hidden systemic connections such as spillovers and feedbacks that may not be apparent when focusing on a particular system. To demonstrate the utility of the metacoupling framework, I illustrate its application to human-nature interactions within a global flagship nature reserve as well as between the reserve and the rest of the world. The illustration suggests that the framework has the potential to help holistically understand and integrate human-nature interactions from local to global scales, over time, and among organizational levels. Finally, I offer suggestions for operationalizing the metacoupling framework and discuss the need for new policy, governance, and management for a sustainable future across the metacoupled world.
Here we reply to a commentary by Ye et al. (Mar. Policy 2017; Ye et al.) on our article (Pauly and Zeller, 2017 [2]) commenting on FAO's interpretation of current fisheries trends in SOFIA 2016 (The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture). We show how arguments such as FAO's catch statistics being “the best they can possibly be”, and other manifestations of FAO's difficulties in constructively engaging with comments compromises FAO's stated goal to engage with academia and civil society. This is particularly serious in an age where the value of an open scientific discourse is increasingly under threat, as is the food security of many poor countries in which fish supplied by domestic fisheries constitutes a strong component of local diets.
In a recent commentary, Pauly and Zeller disagreed with the Food and Agriculture Organization's interpretation of its global capture fishery production records, arguing that trends were distorted by unreliable statistics in some countries. They criticized FAO for not having used their “catch reconstructions” in the 2016 State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) report and questioned the interpretation and significance of FAO's aquaculture production statistics. In this paper, we refute their claims and demonstrate that their critique is based on fundamental misunderstandings caused by mixing up statistical metrics and using simple normative explanations to interpret highly complex datasets. We explain how FAO maintains, curates and updates the only validated source of global fisheries landings, describe our capacity building projects and activities underpinning the annual updates for the over 231 different sources of fisheries data, and clarify such updates include dialogues with member countries to improve and revise present and historical records. FAO will continue to work closely with member states, IGOs, NGOs, academia and civil society, to further improve fishery and aquaculture databases, while calling on states to make renewed efforts to improve data quality. It also welcomes research efforts that contribute to the improvement of statistical data which are critical to the sustainable management of fisheries and aquaculture.
Marine fisheries target and catch fish both for direct human consumption (DHC) as well as for fishmeal and fish oil, and other products. We derived the fractions used for each for 1950–2010 by fishing country, and thus provide a factual foundation for discussions of the optimal use of fisheries resources. From 1950 to 2010, 27% (~20 million tonnes annually) of globally reconstructed marine fisheries landings were destined for uses other than DHC. Importantly, 90% of fish destined for uses other than DHC are food-grade or prime food-grade fish, while fish without a ready market for DHC make up a much smaller proportion. These findings have implications for how we are using fish to feed ourselves or, more appropriately, how we are not using fish to feed ourselves.
Herring-eating killer whales debilitate herring with underwater tail slaps and likely herd herring into tighter schools using a feeding-specific low-frequency pulsed call (‘herding’ call). Feeding on herring may be dependent upon daylight, as the whales use their white underside to help herd herring; however, feeding at night has not been investigated. The production of feeding-specific sounds provides an opportunity to use passive acoustic monitoring to investigate feeding behaviour at different times of day. We compared the acoustic behaviour of killer whales between day and night, using an autonomous recorder deployed in Iceland during winter. Based upon acoustic detection of underwater tail slaps used to feed upon herring we found that killer whales fed both at night and day: they spent 50% of their time at night and 73% of daytime feeding. Interestingly, there was a significant diel variation in acoustic behaviour. Herding calls were significantly associated with underwater tail slap rate and were recorded significantly more often at night, suggesting that in low-light conditions killer whales rely more on acoustics to herd herring. Communicative sounds were also related to underwater tail slap rate and produced at different rates during day and night. The capability to adapt feeding behaviour to different light conditions may be particularly relevant for predator species occurring in high latitudes during winter, when light availability is limited.
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Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have spread across the Mediterranean to protect its rich biodiversity and manage human activities for a more sustainable coastal development. Within MPAs, traditional artisanal fishing is competing for space and resources with increasing recreational fishing, likely leading to interacting ecological effects. Such effects are difficult to unravel, given the multispecies character of both fisheries and the complexity of the food webs upon which they both impact. To address these issues, we developed an Ecopath and EcoTroph trophic model for the Portofino MPA case study (NW Mediter-ranean), in particular to (1) identify keystone species and assess fishing impact on them; (2) analyze the interacting impact of artisanal and recreational fishing on ecosystem biomass and trophic structure; and (3) assess the impact of recreational fishing on artisanal fishing catches. Two high trophic level predator (HTLP) groups coupled important keystone roles with high sensitivity to fishing pressure and should thus be regarded as " sentinels " to be prioritized for the definition of management actions. Recreational fishing had the widest impact on the food web, strongly impacting HTLP. Simulation of different mortality scenarios for each fishery highlighted that the ecosystem is far from its carrying capacity for HTLP. Forbidding recreational fishing allowed a 24% increase in HTLP biomass and benefited artisanal fishing by increased availability of HTLP catches. Artisanal fishing alone could instead be maintained with a moderate impact on the food web. Overall, Ecopath and EcoTroph modeling is a valuable tool to advise MPA management, but it is essential to increase data availability and quality by developing long-term monitoring programs on key species and on artisanal and recreational fishing.
Fisheries data assembled by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) suggest that global marine fisheries catches increased to 86 million tonnes in 1996, then slightly declined. Here, using a decade-long multinational 'catch reconstruction' project covering the Exclusive Economic Zones of the world's maritime countries and the High Seas from 1950 to 2010, and accounting for all fisheries, we identify catch trajectories differing considerably from the national data submitted to the FAO. We suggest that catch actually peaked at 130 million tonnes, and has been declining much more strongly since. This decline in reconstructed catches reflects declines in industrial catches and to a smaller extent declining discards, despite industrial fishing having expanded from industrialized countries to the waters of developing countries. The differing trajectories documented here suggest a need for improved monitoring of all fisheries, including often neglected small-scale fisheries, and illegal and other problematic fisheries, as well as discarded bycatch.
After 1950 traditional herring fisheries were revolutionized by a new technique: sonar, power block, larger nets and bigger boats. As a result all major herring stocks in the North East Atlantic Ocean collapsed. The most dramatic decline was that of the Atlanto-Scandian stock between Iceland and Norway from millions of tons to the border of extinction in a decade. It was one of the largest fish stocks in the world until the fishery crashed in the late 1960s. The catch in 1971 was only 20 thousand metric tons in contrast with the record of 2 million tons in 1966 and the spawning stock declined from 10 million tons to 10 thousand tons in 20 years. After more than 20 years of very restricted catches the stock finally recovered. With hindsight the cause of this disaster was a combination of biological, technological, economical and ecological factors, but the most important ones were over-fishing, recruitment failure and the cooling of the East-Icelandic current which was one aspect of a global climate change in this part of the world during the period 1965-2000. At that time there was no fisheries management authority to limit either catch or effort. The sudden closure of the fishery was a shock to many communities in Norway and Iceland. The small Icelandic economy was especially vulnerable because salting and reduction of herring was for many years the most important export industry in the country, sometimes exceeding 40% of the total value, and a source of wealth around the country that trickled down the society. After describing the simultaneously waning stock and waxing effort by mathematical models we will first demonstrate some macroeconomic quantities before and after the collapse and then take a closer microeconomic look at some of the communities that based their existence on the herring fishery. Finally we will outline the recovery when other species replaced the herring and new industries gradually diversified the economy.
Increasingly, the world is becoming socioeconomically and environmentally connected, but many studies have focused on human-environment interactions within a particular area. Although some studies have considered the impacts of external factors, there is little research on multiple reciprocal socioeconomic and environmental interactions between a focal area and other areas. Here we address this important knowledge gap by applying the new integrated framework of telecouplings (socioeconomic and environmental interactions between two or more areas over distances). Results show that even a protected area - i.e., the Wolong Nature Reserve for giant pandas in southwest China - has multiple telecoupling processes with the rest of the world; these include panda loans, tourism, information dissemination, conservation subsidies, and trade of agricultural and industrial products. The telecoupling processes exhibit nonlinear patterns, they change over time, and they have varying socioeconomic and environmental effects across the world. We also find complex relationships among different telecouplings - e.g., amplification, offsetting, spatial overlaps - which cannot be detected by traditional separate studies. Such an integrated study leads to a more comprehensive understanding of distant human-environment interactions and has significant implications for global sustainability and human well-being.
Globalization has increased the speed and flow of people, information, and commodities across space, integrating markets and increasing interdependence of geographically dispersed places worldwide. Places historically driven by largely local forces and market demands are now increasingly affected by drivers at multiple scales. Trade is particularly important in driving these changes and more fish is now exported to international markets than ever before. When small-scale fisheries are integrated into global markets, local social–ecological systems change with potentially both positive and negative impacts on livelihoods, economics and ecology, but few studies systematically investigate how and why the outcomes of market integration vary from case to case.
Worldwide increases of jellyfish has occurred during the last several decades. A dense population of a large scyphozoan jellyfish, Periphylla periphylla , has established itself as top predator in the Trondheimsfjord in Norway, impacting traditional fisheries. On this background we discuss the adaptive capacity of artisanal fishers and stakeholder involvement in environmental management. A serendipitous discovery was that fishers report that their capacity to adapt to the presence of jellyfish in fact was sufficient. What they could not adapt to, within the context of jellyfish proliferation, was top–down decisions from the national government allowing purse seiners into the fjord to harvest Sprat Sprattus sprattus and Atlantic Herring Clupea harengus rest quotas and thereby also large bycatches of the local codfishes. This harvest was perceived more detrimental to their fishery than was the jellyfish invasion. Relative to fisheries management's choice of regulatory mechanisms during times of climatic change, we argue that by involving stakeholders intimately, the resulting policy advice will be experienced bottom–up and, thus, more legitimate and serendipitous results of a critical nature are more likely to surface.
Received August 21, 2014; accepted March 20, 2015
Fish provides more than 4.5 billion people with at least 15 % of their average per capita intake of animal protein. Fish's unique nutritional properties make it also essential to the health of billions of consumers in both developed and developing countries. Fish is one of the most efficient converters of feed into high quality food and its carbon footprint is lower compared to other animal production systems. Through fish-related activities (fisheries and aquaculture but also processing and trading), fish contribute substantially to the income and therefore to the indirect food security of more than 10 % of the world population, essentially in developing and emergent countries. Yet, limited attention has been given so far to fish as a key element in food security and nutrition strategies at national level and in wider development discussions and interventions. As a result, the tremendous potential for improving food security and nutrition embodied in the strengthening of the fishery and aquaculture sectors is missed. The purpose of this paper is to make a case for a closer integration of fish into the overall debate and future policy about food security and nutrition. For this, we review the evidence from the contemporary and emerging debates and controversies around fisheries and aquaculture and we discuss them in the light of the issues debated in the wider agriculture/farming literature. The overarching question that underlies this paper is: how and to what extent will fish be able to contribute to feeding 9 billion people in 2050 and beyond? Keywords Fish. Food security and nutrition. Micro-nutrient deficiency. Fisheries. Aquaculture
One contribution of 16 to a Theme Issue 'Marine regime shifts around the globe: theory, drivers and impacts'. Regime shifts have been observed in marine ecosystems around the world, with climate and fishing suggested as major drivers of such shifts. The global and regional dynamics of the climate system have been studied in this context, and efforts to develop an analogous understanding of fishing activities are developing. Here, we investigate the timing of pelagic marine regime shifts in relation to the emergence of regional and global fishing activities of the Soviet Union. Our investigation of official catch statistics reflects that the Soviet Union was a major fishing actor in all large marine ecosystems where regime shifts have been documented, including in ecosystems where overfishing has been established as a key driver of these changes (in the Baltic and Black Seas and the Scotian Shelf). Globalization of Soviet Union fishing activities pushed exploitation to radically new levels and triggered regional and global governance responses for improved management. Since then, exploitation levels have remained and increased with new actors involved. Based on our exploratory work, we propose that a deeper understanding of the role of global fishing actors is central for improved management of marine ecosystems.
Nearly 40% of seafood is traded internationally and an even bigger proportion is affected by international trade, yet scholarship on marine fisheries has focused on global trends in stocks and catches, or on dynamics of individual fisheries, with limited attention to the link between individual fisheries, global trade and distant consumers. This paper examines the usefulness of fish price as a feedback signal to consumers about the state of fisheries and marine ecosystems. We suggest that the current nature of fisheries systems and global markets prevent transmission of such price signals from source fisheries to consumers. We propose several mechanisms that combine to weaken price signals, and present one example – the North Sea cod – to show how these mechanisms can be tested. The lack of a reliable price feedback to consumers represents a challenge for sustainable fisheries governance. We therefore propose three complimentary approaches to address the missing feedback: (i) strengthening information flow through improved traceability and visibility of individual fishers to consumers, (ii) capitalizing on the changing seafood trade structures and (iii) bypassing and complementing market mechanisms by directly targeting citizens and political actors regarding marine environmental issues through publicity and information campaigns. These strategies each have limitations and thus need to be pursued together to address the challenge of sustainability in global marine fisheries.
Dans la population équine de l‘île de Shacklesford Banks au large de la côte est est USA, des changements majeurs de l'organisation sociale sont apparus. Au lieu de vivre classiquement en harems occupant des territoires se “chevauchant”, on s'est rendu compte que certains harems défendaient leur territoire et même que certains chevaux n'appartenaient même pas à des groupes fixes. L'existence de ces variations sociales semble être due à l'habitat et aux caractéristiques géographiques uniques de l’île. Les territoires, dont les limites couraient le long de l‘île, n'existaient que là où celle-ci est étroite, la visibilité non obstruée et où les principales zones de végétation courent le long de l'axe principal de l’île. Ce n'est qu‘à ces endroits que les difficultés de défense étaient réduites et les posibilités de se nourrir et d'assurer la garde pour les mâles étaient supérieures. Dans les zones de hautes dunes de sable et de forêt épaisse, des assemblages provisoires ont été observés et des harems sans territoire fixe occupaient les zones semi-ouvertes accidentées avec des mâles célibataires.
Une fois les territoires défendus, de nombreux aspects des relations sociales individuelles changent. Les étalons à territoire ont moins tendance à influencer les activités quotidiennes de leurs groupes et plus à s'occuper de leurs femelles dominantes et à regrouper leurs femelles subordonnées que les étalons sans territoire. De plus, les distances individuelles sont généralement plus grandes entre animaux vivant dans des harems territoriaux par opposition à des harems non territoriaux.
Bei einer Pferdepopulation auf Shacklesford Banks, einer Insel vor der amerikanischen Ostküste, haben sich größere soziale Organisationsveränderungen ereignet. Anstatt in den typischen Harems in sich überschneidenden Heimatgebieten zu leben, wurde festgestellt, daß einige Harems ihre Territorien verteidigten und einige Pferde noch nicht einmal in festen Gruppen lebten. Das Bestehen dieser sozialen Variationen schien mit dem einzigartigen Lebensraum und den geographischen Besonderheiten der Insel in Zusammenhang zu stehen. Territorien, deren Grenzen über die ganze Breite der Insel verliefen, gab es nur an den Stellen, wo die Insel schmal und die Sicht unbegrenzt war und wo die Vegetationszonen entlang der Längsachse der Insel verliefen. Nur hier waren die Schwierigkeiten der Verteidigung reduziert und die Ernährung sowie die Möglichkeit der männlichen Partnerbewachung besser. Wo die Sanddünen hoch und die Wälder dicht waren, fanden zeitweise Zusammenschlüsse statt, und nichtterritoriale Harems bewohnten zusammen mit den weibchenlosen Männchen die uneinheitliche, halboffene Landschaft. Mit dem Beginn der Territoriumsverteidigung veränderten sich auch zahlreiche Aspekte der individuellen sozialen Verhältnisse. Territoriale Hengste neigten weniger dazu, das tägliche Aktivitätsmuster ihrer Gruppe zu beeinflussen, und tendierten eher dazu, ihre dominanten Weibchen zu versorgen und zu pflegen und ihre untergeordneten Weibchen zusammenzutreiben als ihre nicht-territorialen Gegenstücke. Bei territorialen Harems wurden auch größere Abstände zwischen den einzelnen Tieren beobachtet als bei nichtterritorialen.
In a horse population on Shackleford Banks, an island off the American east coast, major changes in social organisation have occurred. Instead of typically living in harems occupying overlapping home ranges, it was found that some harems defended territories and some horses did not even live in fixed membership groups. The existence of these social variations appeared to be correlated with the unique habitat and geographical features of the island. Territories, whose boundaries ran the width of the island, only occurred where the island was narrow, the visibility unrestricted and the essential vegetation zones ran along the island's long axis. Only here were the difficulties in defending reduced and feeding and male mate-guarding opportunities increased. Where the sand dunes were high and forest dense temporary assemblages occurred and non-territorial harems occupied the patchy semi-open area with the batchelor males.
Once territories were defended many aspects of individual social relationships became altered. Territorial stallions were less likely to influence the daily activity patterns of their groups and more likely to groom their dominant females and round-up their subordinate females than were their non-territorial counterparts. In addition, interpersonal distances were likely to be greater among horses living in territorial, as opposed to nonterritorial, harems.
New conceptual frameworks are urgently needed to understand the nature and scope of global interconnections and govern their profound impacts on the environment and human wellbeing. Telecoupling is a novel concept that integrates human–nature interactions over distances. Such integration is essential for addressing the fundamental challenge in humanity, that is, the complex relationship between socioeconomic development and environmental conservation. As an umbrella concept, telecoupling expands and encompasses various distant interactions in traditional disciplines, including teleconnection, globalization, migration, and trade. The telecoupling framework provides a comprehensive foundation to systematically understand the processes and impacts of spatial interconnections by uncovering complex flows between systems as well as their causes, effects, and agents across multiple scales. The telecoupling framework has been applied to advance multiple disciplines and tackle important issues such as biodiversity, ecosystem services, environment, human wellbeing, and sustainability. By filling critical knowledge gaps, telecoupling research can help pave pathways toward sustainable development and resolve other global challenges.
Land-use changes across distant places are increasingly affected by international agricultural trade, but most of the impacts and feedback remain unknown. The telecoupling framework-an analytical tool for examining socioeconomic and environmental interactions over distances-can be used to conceptualize the impacts of agricultural trade on land-use change and feedbacks across borders of importing and exporting countries and across spatio-temporal scales of land systems. We apply the framework to design an agent-based model (TeleABM) that represents land-use changes in telecoupled systems to investigate how local land-use changes are affected by flows. The Brazil-China telecoupled soybean system is used as a demonstration. With examples of research questions, we explore the possible applications of this model for assessing farm-level income, fertilizer usage, deforestation, and agricultural intensification, as a tool to quantify socio-ecological impacts between distant places and holistically inform sustainable land-practices across system boundaries. ARTICLE HISTORY
What do telephones, televisions, and telescopes have in common? They are devices for transmitting sounds or images over distances. In much the same way, a new scientific paradigm – the telecoupling framework – enables simultaneous assessment of socioeconomic and environmental interactions among local and distant locations. The framework is revolutionizing the way social and natural scientists understand and provide for sustainable resource management over space and time in our increasingly connected world. The telecoupling framework was developed from the integration of two different but related concepts: teleconnections (i.e., environmental interactions among natural systems over geographic space and time) and globalization (i.e., socioeconomic interactions among human systems over distances). The framework focuses on the structure, functioning, dynamics, trade-offs, and synergies of “telecouplings”: socioeconomic and environmental interactions among human and natural systems over distances. Because fish promote global food and nutrition security and support a growing aquaculture sector and commercial, recreational, and subsistence industries, fisheries are ideal systems in which to apply the telecoupling framework to better understand the impacts of local and more distant socioeconomic and environmental interactions that alter fisheries productivity, thereby yielding insights for fisheries management.
Artisanal fishery activities support the livelihoods of millions of people worldwide, particularly in developing countries. Within these fisheries, distal global drivers can promote switching between alternative target resources. These drivers can promote the rapid development of new, unregulated and previously unexploited fisheries that pose a threat to the sustainability of ecosystems. In this paper, we describe a new artisanal shore gathering activity that targets a previously unexploited resource: the sandhopper (Orchestoidea tuberculata). The activity is driven by aquarium trade demand for food. We used mixed methods to describe the activity, assessed basic socio-economic incentives, and estimated Catches per Unit Effort. Results show that the sandhopper plays an important role for the livelihoods of shore gatherers engaged in the activity. Gatherers have adapted and developed two main extraction methods with different degrees of investment and extraction rates. Furthermore, gatherers have developed local knowledge regarding the ecology and management of the resource. Results show that economic incentives can motivate a rapid expansion of this unregulated activity. Future research gaps and management options to address the development of this fishery are discussed in light of these findings.
We reconstruct the total Danish marine fisheries catch within the Kattegat, Skagerrak and North Sea Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) equivalent waters from 1950-2010. We use publically available electronic landings data from the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) as a ‘reporting’ baseline for our reconstruction. This baseline is then improved upon using all data accessible to us, including ICES stock assessments, peer-reviewed literature, grey literature and local expert opinions. Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) catches are assessed in the form of unreported catch, over-reported catch, discarded by-catch, as well as recreational and subsistence catches. The reconstructed total catch from 1950-2010 was estimated at 55 million t, which is 1.09 times greater than the reported landings of 50 million t. Sandeels (Ammodytes spp.) comprise the largest amount of reported baseline landings from 1950-2010 due to its importance in the Danish industrial reduction fisheries. The largest contribution to the unreported component is discarded by-catch. Our estimates suggest that whiting (Merlangius merlangus) is the most discarded species over the time series considered. The discrepancy between the reported landed catch and the reconstructed total catch is mostly due to discarded by-catch that is not officially reported by ICES in their public electronic catch database.
The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is one of the longest established and more controversial of the common policies of the EC. It deals principally with the management of fishery resources, relations between the EC and third States in fisheries matters, the marketing of and trade in fishery products, financial assistance to the fisheries sector, and aquaculture. However, the CFP is not just a matter for those with an economic interest in fisheries. It also raises many issues of more general concern, such as the capacity of the EC and its member states to manage important natural resources sustainably, the impact of fishing on the wider marine environment, and relations between developed and developing states. This book addresses the CFP from a legal perspective. It provides a detailed account of the very large body of EC law comprising the CFP, and draws on the European Commission's associated documents to aid interpretation and add context. As a result, the book will be of value to anyone wanting knowledge of the law of the CFP. Although not addressing the Commission's 2009 Green Paper on reform of the CFP, the book should provide a reference point against which to view the reform of parts of the CFP that is anticipated to take place over the next few years.
This paper uses customs figures to show that herring exports from the east and west coast lowlands expanded significantly in the last six decades of the sixteenth century. The paper argues that the rise was primarily due to the north-west Highland fisheries being opened up and exploited by east and west coast burghs. These ventures required greater capital supplies and more complex organisation than their local inshore fisheries and they were often interrupted by political hostilities. However, the costs were a fraction of those required to establish a deepwater buss fleet, enabling Scotland to expand production and take advantage of European demand for fish while minimising additional capital costs.
This article shows that despite increasing catches by foreign fishing fleets, the economic growth and social benefits from marine resources have not been met for many western African countries that host these fleets. A meta-analysis of changes in catches, market values, exports, imports, employment, access, and domestic supplies in western Africa since 1960 illustrates the impact of the expansion of distant-water fleets on not only the status of the marine resources and their ecosystems but also on the economic and social conditions of the people of western Africa. Finally, recommendations are made on appropriate management options for foreign fishing fleets and the key initiatives that could be considered by regional fish bodies and governments in western Africa.
The Ministerial Meeting of the OSPAR Commission held in Sintra on 22-23 July 1998 was a milestone in the protection of the marine environment of the north-east Atlantic, because it was the first meeting of the OSPAR Commission since the coming into force of the 1992 OSPAR Convention, and because Ministers adopted a number of important measures pursuant to the Convention. This article first analyses the provisions of the OSPAR Convention in the light of contemporary and subsequent international environmental law, and then outlines the measures adopted at Sintra, examining their history, their current significance and anticipated future developments.
Changes in population density and resource patterning affect the aggressive behaviour of pygmy sunfish (Elassoma everglaidei) in many ways. Increases in density significantly reduced the proportion of fights directly over clumped prey, the likelihood of initiators winning contests or acquiring clumped prey, and the length of contests. Increases in prey dispersion also reduce the proportion of resource fights in low-and high-density populations, the greater tendency for subordinates to initiate fights directly over resources, the likelihood of initiators acquiring a contested prey item in lowdensity populations, and the length of contests. Such increases, however, increase the likelihood of initiators winning contests at moderate competitive levels, and increase the effectiveness of rapid sequential communication in populations that abandon territoriality. In addition, some of these findings, such as the inverse relationship between contest length and both prey dispersion and rank differential, are consistent with predictions of cost-benefit models of fighting behaviour, namely, that escalated contests become more likely as asymmetries in fighting ability decrease and asymmetries in resource valuation simultaneously increase.