Prioritising species for research, conservation and management: a case study of exploited fish species

Studies that categorise species according to their conservation status often fall short in their implementation by not having taken into account the impacts on, or the response from, those that either benefit from, or exploit, the resource under consideration. This is especially true in multispecies fisheries where personnel and funding limitations often create the dilemma over which species should be the first to receive management and research attention. This study uses a multicriteria decision analysis approach to prioritise 176 South African linefish species on the basis of a number of criteria indicating conservation and socio-economic, including fishery sector, importance. For each species, conservation criteria were: abundance trend, level of knowledge, vulnerability, range, and relative exploitation throughout that range. Sectoral criteria were: total catch, degree of targeting, the number of participants and the economic value of each species. The scores given to each species on the basis of each...