Hardin M P, Legore R S
Greystone Environmental Consultants, Inc. 5231 South Quebec Street, Greenwood Village, CO 80111, USA.
Rev Biol Trop. 2005 May;53 Suppl 1:139-44.
In recent years the collection of tropical marine organisms for the aquarium trade has become perceived as an activity with an unsustainable history as well as obvious potential for rehabilitation through resource-based fisheries management and consumer-oriented product certification. In the case of Puerto Rico, collection of ornamentals has existed for decades, though unregulated due to a weak fisheries law dating from the 1930's. The new Fisheries Law 278 of 1998 enabled new regulatory approaches for marine ornamentals, which were met with serious challenges rooted in (1) an information gap concerning the fishery regarding participant numbers, collection methods and export volumes, and (2) the absence of consultation of fishers by agency regulators. The information gap led to worst-case assumptions of impact by regulators, and a closure of the fishery, which set the stage for threatening personal confrontations and lawsuits, the latter leading to de facto resource management by judicial order. To redress these issues and move management back into the arena of science and public policy, regulators have initiated a three-phase program: (1) characterize fisher numbers, methods and exports, (2) describe populations and biology of commercial species, and (3) propose appropriate fisheries management approaches. This paper describes only the first phase of this program.
近年来，为水族贸易收集热带海洋生物这一活动，已被视为一段不可持续的历史，同时也被认为通过基于资源的渔业管理和以消费者为导向的产品认证有着显著的恢复潜力。就波多黎各而言，观赏鱼的收集活动已存在数十年，但由于可追溯到20世纪30年代的一部薄弱渔业法，该活动一直处于无监管状态。1998年新的第278号渔业法为海洋观赏鱼带来了新的监管方法，但这些方法面临着严重挑战，根源在于：（1）关于渔业的信息缺口，涉及参与者数量、收集方法和出口量；（2）机构监管者未与渔民进行协商。信息缺口导致监管者做出最坏情况的影响假设，并关闭了渔业，这引发了威胁性的个人对抗和诉讼，后者导致通过司法命令进行事实上的资源管理。为了解决这些问题并将管理带回科学和公共政策领域，监管者启动了一个三阶段计划：（1）确定渔民数量、方法和出口情况；（2）描述商业物种的种群和生物学特征；（3）提出适当的渔业管理方法。本文仅描述该计划的第一阶段。
