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Successful implementation of marine conservation plans is largely inhibited by inadequate consideration of the broader social and economic context within which conservation operates. Marine waters and their biodiversity are shared by a host of stakeholders, such as commercial fishers, recreational users and offshore developers. Hence, to improve implementation success of conservation plans, we must incorporate other marine activities while explicitly examining trade-offs that may be required. In this study, we test how the inclusion of multiple marine activities can shape conservation plans. We used the entire Mediterranean territorial waters of Israel as a case study to compare four planning scenarios with increasing levels of complexity, where additional zones, threats and activities were added (e.g., commercial fisheries, hydrocarbon exploration interests, aquaculture, and shipping lanes). We applied the marine zoning decision support tool Marxan to each planning scenario and tested a) the ability of each scenario to reach biodiversity targets, b) the change in opportunity cost and c) the alteration of spatial conservation priorities. We found that by including increasing numbers of marine activities and zones in the planning process, greater compromises are required to reach conservation objectives. Complex plans with more activities incurred greater opportunity cost and did not reach biodiversity targets as easily as simplified plans with less marine activities. We discovered that including hydrocarbon data in the planning process significantly alters spatial priorities. For the territorial waters of Israel we found that in order to protect at least 10% of the range of 166 marine biodiversity features there would be a loss of ∼15% of annual commercial fishery revenue and ∼5% of prospective hydrocarbon revenue. This case study follows an illustrated framework for adopting a transparent systematic process to balance biodiversity goals and economic considerations within a country's territorial waters.

Jellyfish are often described as a nuisance species, but as our understanding shifts to more ecosystem-based conceptions, they are also recognized as both important components of marine ecosystems and a resource for humans. Here, we describe global jellyfish fisheries and review production, fishing methods, and applications based on the existing literature. We then focus on future development of a European jellyfish fishery based on current and recent EU research initiatives. Jellyfish have been a staple food in East Asia for eons and now show a potential for non-food applications as well. The main fishing methods are mostly traditional, with set-nets, driftnets, hand-nets, and scoop-nets utilizing small crafts or beach-seines. All require a lot of manual labor, thus providing vital, albeit seasonal, occupation to weaker populations. Larger commercial vessels such as purse seines and trawlers are newly introduced métiers which may enable a larger catch per unit effort and total catch, but pose questions of selectivity, bycatch, vessel stability, and transshipment. Social concerns arising from the seasonality of jellyfish fisheries must be met in SE Asia, Latin America, and in any location where new fisheries are established. In the EU, we recognize at least 15 species showing potential for commercial harvesting, but as of 2021, a commercial fishery has yet to be developed; as in finfish fisheries, we advise caution and recognition of the role of jellyfish in marine ecosystems in doing so. Sustainable harvesting techniques and practices must be developed and implemented for a viable practice to emerge, and social and ecological needs must also be incorporated into the management plan. Once established, the catch, effort, and stock status must be monitored, regulated, and properly reported to FAO by countries seeking a viable jellyfish fishery. In the near future, novel applications for jellyfish will offer added value and new markets for this traditional resource.

Over the past six decades, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has reported fisheries ‘landings’, not ‘total removals’ for Israel. Thus, public data do not include all removals, including discards, the recreational fishery, subsistence portions of the catch or Bluefin tuna catches. Moreover, FAO data inadvertently included landings by Gaza fishers in the Gaza Strip during the 1960s and 1970s. We reconstructed total removals for Israel fishing in the Mediterranean Sea using various anchor points from recent studies to account for the missing removals. We estimated total removals at slightly over 255,400 tonnes for 1950-2010, which are nearly 30% higher than the 198,136 t of Israel’s reported catch to FAO (after exclusion of data from the Gaza Strip). The major components of unreported removals were discards (over 37,400 t), dominated by the trawl fishery, and recreational removals (over 15,500 t), which account for a large and rapidly growing fishery sector in Israel. In contrast, subsistence catches (just under 4,000 t) are low, which is not unexpected for a developed country. Non-indigenous Indo-Pacific organisms are a large and growing component in the multispecies catch of Mediterranean fishers; however they appear to change species composition and mode of exploitation more than they affect the level of total removals. In the highly oligotrophic, yet fast changing Levantine Sea, the high discarding rates, use of unsustainable fishing methods and under-regulated fisheries (particularly the recreational sector) pose a threat to the integrity of the marine environment and the ecosystem services we expect from it., Tijekom proteklih šest desetljeća, FAO je davao izvješća o ulovu (iskrcajnom ulovu), ali ne i o ukupnom izlovu za Izrael. Stoga, javni podaci ne uključuju sve izlove, uključujući odbačeni ulov, ulov u rekreacijskom ribolovu, ulove u dopunskom ribolovu kao i ulove plavoperajne tune. Štoviše, FAO podaci nehotice uključuju i ulov ribara u pojasu Gaze tijekom 1960-ih i 1970- ih. Rekonstruirani su ukupni izlovi za Izraelski ribolov u Sredozemnom moru, koristeći razna polazišta iz nedavnih studija kako bi se obračunali nedostajući podaci o sveukupnom izlovu. Procijenjen ukupni izlov iznosi nešto više od 255.400 tona za razdoblje od 1950.-2010., koji je gotovo 30% veći od 198.136 t izraelskog prijavljenog ulova prema FAO (nakon odbacivanja podataka iz pojasa Gaze). Glavne komponente neprijavljenih izlova su: odbačeni ulov (preko 37.400 t), u kojem dominira koćarski ribolov, i rekreacijski izlov (preko 15.500 t), koji čini veliki i brzo rastući sektor ribarstva u Izraelu. Nasuprot tome, ulovi u dopunskom ribolovu (nešto manje od 4.000 t) su niski, što i nije neočekivano za razvijene zemlje. Strani organizmi iz Crvenog mora su velika i rastuća komponenta u ulovima mediteranskih ribara, no čini se da će isti promijeniti sastav vrsta kao i način iskorištavanja živih bogatstava znatno više nego što recimo utječu na razini ukupnog izlova. U vrlo oligotrofnom, ali i brzo mijenjajućem Levantskom moru, velike količine odbačenog ulova, postojeća uporaba neodrživih metoda ribolova kao i slabo reguliran ribolov (osobito unutar rekreativnog sektora) predstavljaju prijetnju integritetu morskog ekosustava te ujedno time i onome što možemo očekivati od njega.