Abstract Many of the world's fisheries are unassessed, with little information about population status or risk of overfishing. Unassessed fisheries are particularly predominant in developing countries and in small‐scale fisheries, where they are important for food security. Several catch‐only methods based on time series of fishery catch and commonly available life‐history traits have been developed to estimate stock status (defined as biomass relative to biomass at maximum sustainable yield: B/ B MSY ). While their stock status performance has been extensively studied, performance of catch‐only models as a management tool is unknown. We evaluated the extent to which a superensemble of three prominent catch‐only models can provide a reliable basis for fisheries management and how performance compares across management strategies that control catch or fishing effort. We used a management strategy evaluation framework to determine whether a superensemble of catch‐only models can reliably inform harvest control rules ( HCR s). Across five simulated fish life histories and two harvest‐dynamic types, catch‐only models and HCR combinations reduced the risk of overfishing and increased the proportion of stocks above B MSY compared to business as usual, though often resulted in poor yields. Precautionary HCR s based on fishing effort were robust and insensitive to error in catch‐only models, while catch‐based HCR s caused high probabilities of overfishing and more overfished populations. Catch‐only methods tended to overestimate B/ B MSY for our simulated data sets. The catch‐only superensemble combined with precautionary effort‐based HCR s could be part of a stepping stone approach for managing some data‐limited stocks while working towards more data‐moderate assessment methods.
Growing concern about forced and child labour abuses in the fishing industry has led to calls to integrate social issues within the sustainable seafood sector. While abusive labour practices in fisheries are increasingly studied, and consensus is building on overarching principles and benchmarks, few studies have reviewed the practical mechanisms available to mitigate forced and child labour risks. This paper provides an overview of labour risk management practices reported by fisheries certified to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Fisheries Standard, representing over 15% of the world's marine capture fishery production. MSC-certified fisheries have been required to submit forced and child labour statements since 2018. The statements were analysed to examine the mechanisms to mitigate forced and child labour across different fishery contexts. Results indicated where MSC-certified vessels were broadly in line with expectations from international, private, and NGO standards or guidelines on labour issues, but also illustrated where there were departures. These could be explained by differences in how policy and practice are applied in different regulatory and cultural contexts, such as the requirement for use of written contracts in countries that have ratified ILO C188 versus the preference in some cases for the use of verbal share agreements. This reflects the challenge of creating culturally-appropriate, adaptable standards that are able to detect real risks of labour violations. To fully consider these nuances, our proposed framework captures key aspects of setting, implementing, and monitoring and enforcement of requirements alongside the roles of government, companies, and civil society. We propose this framework could be applied more broadly to evaluate fisheries' practices.
This is a portion of the data used to calculate 2008 and 2013 cumulative human impacts in: Halpern et al. 2015. Spatial and temporal changes in cumulative human impacts on the world's ocean. Seven data packages are available for this project: (1) supplementary data (habitat data and other files); (2) raw stressor data (2008 and 2013); (3) stressor data rescaled by one time period (2008 and 2013, scaled from 0-1); (4) stressor data rescaled by two time periods (2008 and 2013, scaled from 0-1); (5) pressure and cumulative impacts data (2013, all pressures); (6) pressure and cumulative impacts data (2008 and 2013, subset of pressures updated for both time periods); (7) change in pressures and cumulative impact (2008 to 2013). All raster files are .tif format and coordinate reference system is mollweide wgs84. Here is an overview of the calculations: Raw stressor data -> rescaled stressor data (values between 0-1) -> pressure data (stressor data after adjusting for habitat/pressure vulnerability) -> cumulative impact (sum of pressure data) -> difference between 2008 and 2013 pressure and cumulative impact data. This data package includes 20 habitat rasters (preceded by hab_) and a vulnerability weighting matrix (csv) that describes the vulnerability of each habitat to each stressor. Also included are an ocean mask raster and a raster of the number of habitats in each raster cell (used to average the habitat vulnerability-weighted stressor intensities).
The benefits provided by a healthy ocean are receiving increasing attention in policy and management spheres. A fundamental challenge with assessing ocean health and ecosystem services is that we lack a scientific framework for expressing ecosystem conditions quantitatively in relation to management goals. Here we outline and operationalize a conceptual framework for identifying meaningful reference points and quantifying the current ecosystem state relative to them. The framework requires clear articulation of management goals and is built on a review of current scientific understanding and assessment of data availability. It develops a structured approach for choosing among three classes of reference points, including: (1) functional relationships that establish the ocean state that can be produced and sustained under different environmental conditions, (2) time series approaches that compare current to previous capacities to obtain a particular ocean state in a specific location, and (3) spatial reference points that compare current capacities to achieve a desired ocean state across regional (or, if necessary, global) scales. We illustrate this general framework through the lens of ocean health defined in terms of a coupled social‐ecological system, with examples from fisheries, marine livelihoods, and water quality in the USA. Assessment of ocean health and ecosystem services can be significantly influenced by the choice of indicators used to track changes in a management goal, the type of reference point selected, and how one measures the distance of the current state from the reference point. This framework provides flexible, standardized methods for evaluating ocean health and ecosystem services that can advance important components of ecosystem‐based management, including marine spatial planning, ecosystem service valuation, and integrated ecosystem assessments.
Indicators are increasingly used to measure environmental systems; however, they are often criticized for failing to measure and describe uncertainty. Uncertainty is particularly difficult to evaluate and communicate in the case of composite indicators which aggregate many indicators of ecosystem condition. One of the ongoing goals of the Ocean Health Index (OHI) has been to improve our approach to dealing with missing data, which is a major source of uncertainty. Here we: (1) quantify the potential influence of gapfilled data on index scores from the 2015 global OHI assessment; (2) develop effective methods of tracking, quantifying, and communicating this information; and (3) provide general guidance for implementing gapfilling procedures for existing and emerging indicators, including regional OHI assessments. For the overall OHI global index score, the percent contribution of gapfilled data was relatively small (18.5%); however, it varied substantially among regions and goals. In general, smaller territorial jurisdictions and the food provision and tourism and recreation goals required the most gapfilling. We found the best approach for managing gapfilled data was to mirror the general framework used to organize, calculate, and communicate the Index data and scores. Quantifying gapfilling provides a measure of the reliability of the scores for different regions and components of an indicator. Importantly, this information highlights the importance of the underlying datasets used to calculate composite indicators and can inform and incentivize future data collection.
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) eco-labeling program provides fisheries a pathway to demonstrate their sustainability by undergoing an environmental certification. Like other standard-setters, the MSC’s ‘theory of change’ presumes that markets use this information to select for sustainable products, providing an incentive for producers to improve their practices and become certified. However, the underlying mechanisms which actually work to link market behavior and participation in the program in different contexts have not been systematically identified. We draw on broad MSC field experience to identify processes that have supported the theory of change in individual fisheries. Then, we develop a broadly applicable rapid assessment protocol, relying on a semi-structured interviews of key informants, to gather systematic evidence for key dynamics within the theory of change: the effects of going through MSC certification on market processes, partnerships in the fishery, and governance. In a pilot test of the protocol, we identify important common and idiosyncratic processes in three canned product fisheries: United States west coast albacore tuna, Brittany sardines, and Portuguese sardines. We find that the harvesters and buyers/processors in these fisheries sought certification primarily to expand or maintain their market share, and that certification was synergistic with stakeholder cooperation. The cases demonstrate how our rapid assessment interviews allow program participants to relate their experience in their own words yet facilitate systematic comparison to identify common mechanisms within the theory of change. We propose its wider application to systematically advance our understanding of social and economic processes that drive of eco-label interventions in different geographies and supply chains around the world.
Management of marine ecosystems increasingly demands comprehensive and quantitative assessments of ocean health, but lacks a tool to do so. We applied the recently developed Ocean Health Index to assess ocean health in the relatively data-rich US west coast region. The overall region scored 71 out of 100, with sub-regions scoring from 65 (Washington) to 74 (Oregon). Highest scoring goals included tourism and recreation (99) and clean waters (87), while the lowest scoring goals were sense of place (48) and artisanal fishing opportunities (57). Surprisingly, even in this well-studied area data limitations precluded robust assessments of past trends in overall ocean health. Nonetheless, retrospective calculation of current status showed that many goals have declined, by up to 20%. In contrast, near-term future scores were on average 6% greater than current status across all goals and sub-regions. Application of hypothetical but realistic management scenarios illustrate how the Index can be used to predict and understand the tradeoffs among goals and consequences for overall ocean health. We illustrate and discuss how this index can be used to vet underlying assumptions and decisions with local stakeholders and decision-makers so that scores reflect regional knowledge, priorities and values. We also highlight the importance of ongoing and future monitoring that will provide robust data relevant to ocean health assessment.
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