Fisheries Management and Environmental Benefits

Transcription

1 Fisheries Management and Environmental Benefits 2016 Fisheries Innovation Scotland Ray Hilborn School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences University of Washington

2 Key Messages Fish stocks are healthy or increasing in abundance where fisheries management systems are in place and effective Capture fisheries provide human food at low environmental cost compared to alternatives Effective fisheries management protects marine biodiversity better than Marine Protected Areas

3 Full disclosure of funding

4 Source: Time magazine, November 2006

5 What the public believes Most fisheries are unsustainably managed Stocks worldwide are declining The act of fishing destroys the environment Experts have warned that cod are all but extinct from the Daily Star

6 RAM Legacy Stock Assessment Data Base (40% of global catch) Source: Global Assessment Database (ramlegacy.org)

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8 Status and potential of all stocks

9 Abundance of harvested species

10 Status of fish stocks Good and/or improving where fisheries management is in place and effective Generally declining where fisheries management is not in place or effective

11 Should you eat fish? What is the environmental cost of the alternative?

12 CO 2 per 40 g protein

13 Nutrient release per 40 g protein

14 Imagine you could produce high quality protein Without draining our rivers and aquifers Without polluting rivers with fertilizers Without antibiotics Without causing soil erosion Without chopping down rain forests

15 Organic vegetable field my wife farmed

16 Total loss of native biodiversity in this organic vegetable field

17 My son modifying biodiversity

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19 MPAs and threats to the ocean biodiversity Global Warming Ocean Acidification Oil spills Land based run off of sediments Plastics and other pollutants Legal regulated fishing Illegal and unregulated fishing

20 History of MPA movement 1990s were a time of overfishing and stock collapse in N. Atlantic Marine protectionists took the terrestrial paradigm of parks The early MPA movement assumed that there were no fish outside reserves, thus the need for networks so there was dispersal between islands of fish in reserves amid a desert of empty ocean The early MPA movement assumed fisheries management did not work

21 What MPAs do Move existing effort outside MPA no effort inside more effort outside Differs from terrestrial systems When fisheries are regulated there are lots of fish outside of reserves Farms, cities don t support much biodiversity

22 Theory and empirical data suggest You will always have higher abundance of targeted species inside reserves that are effectively enforced If fisheries are well regulated abundance outside reserves will be less If fisheries are not well regulated the reserves will augment both catch and abundance If enforced and size is write for a particular species Size cannot be write for all species

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26 The MPA movement fails to acknowledge that fisheries management better protects biodiversity By making sure that abundance is maintained at a high level throughout the entire area (not just the MPA) By reducing by-catch in the entire area By identifying and protecting sensitive habitats throughout the entire area

27 Identify and protect sensitive habitats

28 What should be done Identify the problem(s) and alternative tools. These tools include the fisheries management actions catch and effort limitation, gear modification, closed areas to specific gears and MPAs. Evaluate which tools provide the best mix of yield and biodiversity protection

29 MPAs and fisheries management cannot protect the ocean MPAs and fisheries management do not protect the ocean from most of the threats so it is silly to equate MPAs with ocean protection Packard Foundation did a program review and concluded that the $200 million they had spent on MPA science and advocacy would have protected biodiversity better if it had focused on improving fisheries management.

30 Final thought MPAs have a negative impact on global biodiversity if imposed where fisheries management is effective They reduce fisheries yield The lost food production will be made up by either more terrestrial production or from fisheries lacking effective fisheries management

31 If we don t manage our fisheries well is this the consequence

32 What the public believes At least Daily Star readers Experts have warned that cod are all but extinct These experts are some NGOs and scientists who depend on fear to raise funds

33 North Atlantic Cod abundance 9,000,000 8,000,000 7,000,000 6,000,000 5,000,000 4,000,000 3,000,000 2,000,000 1,000,

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35 Thanks to collaborators

36 Oxford University Press publication Available in English, Japanese and Chinese

37 United States Iceland Norway Russia New Zealand Canada South Africa United Kingdom France Argentina Spain South Korea Chile Japan Peru Mexico Morocco Vietnam Nigeria India Malaysia Indonesia Philippines Bangladesh China Brazil Thailand Myanmar Research Management Enforcement Socioeconomics Stock status Average response by governance dimension Average response by dimension n = 191 survey responses