Population Ecology Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
PLoS One. 2020 Oct 13;15(10):e0240322. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240322. eCollection 2020.
Globally, economies and marine ecosystems are increasingly dependent on sustainable fisheries management (SFM) to balance social, economic, and conservation needs. The overarching objectives of SFM are to maximize both conservation and socio-economic benefits, while minimizing short-term socio-economic costs. A number of tools have been developed to achieve SFM objectives, ranging from fishery specific to ecosystem-based strategies. Closures are a common SFM tool used to balance the trade-off between socio-economic and conservation considerations; they vary in scope from small-scale temporary closures to large-scale permanent networks. Unfortunately, closures are frequently implemented without a plan for monitoring or assessing whether SFM objectives are met. In situations in which a monitoring plan is not in place we propose that commonly available fishery data can often be used to evaluate whether management tools are effective in meeting SFM objectives. Here, we present a case study of closures on Georges Bank that shows how fishery data can be analyzed to perform such an assessment. Since 2006, on the Canadian side of Georges Bank, seasonal scallop fishery closures have been implemented with the aim of reducing by-catch of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) and yellowtail flounder (Pleuronectes ferruginea) during spawning. In lieu of data from a dedicated monitoring program, we analyzed data from Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS), fishery logbooks, and a scallop survey to assess the impact of these closures on the scallop fishery, and use observer data (i.e. by-catch) to assess the effectiveness of these closures in meeting their conservation objective. While compliance for these time-area closures was high, the closures did not significantly displace fishing activity and overall there was limited evidence of an impact on the scallop fishery. Further, the discard rates for both cod and yellowtail were above average when their respective closures were active. These results suggest that improvements to the closures design and/or other measures may be required to achieve the desired SFM objectives.
在全球范围内，经济和海洋生态系统越来越依赖可持续渔业管理（SFM）来平衡社会、经济和保护需求。SFM 的总体目标是最大限度地提高保护和社会经济效益，同时最大限度地减少短期社会经济成本。已经开发了许多工具来实现 SFM 目标，从特定于渔业的策略到基于生态系统的策略。关闭是一种常见的 SFM 工具，用于平衡社会经济和保护考虑之间的权衡；它们的范围从小规模的临时关闭到大规模的永久网络。不幸的是，关闭通常是在没有监测或评估 SFM 目标是否实现的计划的情况下实施的。在没有监测计划的情况下，我们建议通常可用的渔业数据通常可用于评估管理工具是否有效实现 SFM 目标。在这里，我们展示了一个关于 Georges Bank 的关闭案例研究，展示了如何分析渔业数据来进行这种评估。自 2006 年以来，在 Georges Bank 的加拿大一侧，已经实施了季节性扇贝渔业关闭，以减少在产卵期间兼捕大西洋鳕鱼（Gadus morhua）和黄尾鲽（Pleuronectes ferruginea）的数量。由于没有专门监测计划的数据，我们分析了船舶监测系统（VMS）、渔业日志和扇贝调查的数据，以评估这些关闭对扇贝渔业的影响，并使用观察员数据（即兼捕）评估这些关闭在实现其保护目标方面的有效性。虽然这些时间-区域关闭的合规性很高，但关闭并没有显著转移捕鱼活动，总体上对扇贝渔业的影响有限。此外，当鳕鱼和黄尾鲽的各自关闭处于活跃状态时，它们的丢弃率均高于平均水平。这些结果表明，可能需要改进关闭设计和/或其他措施来实现所需的 SFM 目标。
