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Evidence of large‐scale biodiversity degradation in marine ecosystems has been reported worldwide, yet most research has focused on few species of interest or on limited spatiotemporal scales. Here we assessed the spatial and temporal changes in the taxonomic and functional composition of fish communities in European seas over the last 25 years (1994–2019). We then explored how these community changes were linked to environmental gradients and fishing pressure. We show that the spatial variation in fish species composition is more than two times higher than the temporal variation, with a marked spatial continuum in taxonomic composition and a more homogenous pattern in functional composition. The regions warming the fastest are experiencing an increasing dominance and total abundance of r‐strategy fish species (lower age of maturity). Conversely, regions warming more slowly show an increasing dominance and total abundance of K‐strategy species (high trophic level and late reproduction). Among the considered environmental variables, sea surface temperature, surface salinity and chlorophyll‐a most consistently influenced communities' spatial patterns, while bottom temperature and oxygen had the most consistent influence on temporal patterns. Changes in communities' functional composition were more closely related to environmental conditions than taxonomic changes. Our study demonstrates the importance of integrating community‐level species traits across multi‐decadal scales and across a large region to better capture and understand ecosystem‐wide responses and provides a different lens on community dynamics that could be used to support sustainable fisheries management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management of crustacean fisheries is often data‐limited, and techniques used in finfish fisheries are often inappropriate for crustaceans due to life‐history differences. Limitations in modeling capacity and data availability make it difficult to determine the status of crustacean stocks using model‐based biological reference points (BRPs), but BRPs are a key component of successful fisheries management. Using crustacean fishery case studies depicting model‐based and empirical management strategies, we synthesized the current state of crustacean fisheries management with respect to data availability and use of management controls. Input and output controls can be successful with supplemental BRPs, but whatever methods are used must explicitly consider species' unique life‐history characteristics. In data‐limited fisheries, output controls can effectively conserve a species under high levels of exploitation. Implementation of discrete BRPs can improve sustainability of both emerging and data‐rich crustacean fisheries, to make these quantitative metrics a valuable tool for crustacean management globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managing natural resources under large-scale environmental fluctuations like the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is likely to become increasingly important under climate change. Forecasts of environmental conditions are improving, but the best response to an unfavorable forecast remains unclear; many practitioners advocate reducing harvest as a more precautionary approach, while prior economic theory favors increasing harvest. Using logistic and age-structured fisheries models, we show that informational constraints--uncertain stock estimates and restrictions on harvest policies--play a central role in choosing how to respond to a forecasted shock. With perfect knowledge and no policy constraints, risk-neutral managers should increase harvest when a negative shock is forecast. However, informational constraints may drive the optimal response to a forecast of a negative shock toward or away from precaution. Precautionary forecast responses arise when informational constraints make the harvest policy insufficiently sensitive to the true resource status. In contrast, uncertainty about the stock size can lead to more aggressive forecast responses when stock dynamics are nonlinear and not all fish are susceptible to fishing. La gestion des ressources naturelles en reponse a des fluctuations environnementales a grande echelle comme l'oscillation australe El Nino (ENSO) sera vraisemblablement de plus en plus importante dans un contexte de changements climatiques. Les predictions concernant les conditions environnementales s'ameliorent, mais la meilleure reaction a une prediction defavorable demeure incertaine; de nombreux specialistes recommandent la reduction des prises comme approche prudente, alors que la theorie economique existante favorise une hausse des prises. En utilisant des modeles logistiques et de peches structures par age, nous montrons que des contraintes associees a l'information, comme des estimations des stocks incertaines et des restrictions aux politiques de prises, jouent un role central dans la selection de la reaction a un choc predit. Avec des connaissances parfaites et aucune contrainte associee aux politiques, des gestionnaires ayant une approche neutre a l'egard du risque devraient accroitre les prises quand un choc negatif est predit. Cependant, des contraintes associees a l'information pourraient faire en sorte que la reaction optimale a une prediction d'un choc negatif tende vers l'approche prudente ou s'en eloigne. Des reactions prudentes aux predictions sont de mise quand des contraintes associees a l'information rendent les politiques en matiere de prises trop peu sensibles a l'etat reel des ressources. A l'inverse, l'incertitude associee a la taille des stocks peut mener a des reactions moins prudentes aux predictions quand la dynamique des stocks est non lineaire et que tous les poissons ne sont pas susceptibles d'etre peches. [Traduit par la Redaction], Introduction Fluctuations in the physical ocean environment can have major effects on fish and fisheries (Brander 2007; Holland and Herrera 2009; Pinsky and Byler 2015; Dee et al. 2016). Many [...]

Climate change is a new disrupter to global fisheries systems and their governance frameworks. It poses a pressing management challenge, particularly in China, which is renowned as the world's largest fishing country and seafood producer. As climate change continues to intensify in the region and climate awareness grows within the country's national policy, the need to understand China's fisheries' resilience to the escalating climate crisis becomes paramount. In this study, we conduct an interdisciplinary analysis to assess the vulnerability and risk of China's marine capture fisheries in response to climate change. This study employs a spatially explicit, indicator-based approach with a coupled social-ecological framework, focusing on 67 species and 11 coastal regions. By integrating diverse sets of climatic, ecological, economic, societal, and governance indicators and information, we elucidate the factors that could hinder climate adaptation, including a limited understanding of fish early life stages, uncertainty in seafood production, unequal allocation and accessibility of resources, and inadequate consideration of inclusive governance and adaptive management. Our results show that species, which have managed to survive the stress of overfishing, demonstrate a remarkable ability to adapt to climate change. However, collapsing stocks such as large yellow croaker face a high risk due to the synergistic effects of inherent biological traits and external management interventions. We emphasize the imperative to build institutional, scientific, and social capacity to support fisheries adaptation. The scientific insights provided by this study can inform fisheries management decisions and promote the operationalization of climate-resilient fisheries in China and other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both the ecological and social dimensions of fisheries are being affected by climate change. As a result, policymakers, managers, scientists and fishing communities are seeking guidance on how to holistically build resilience to climate change. Numerous studies have highlighted key attributes of resilience in fisheries, yet concrete examples that explicitly link these attributes to social‐ecological outcomes are lacking. To better understand climate resilience, we assembled 18 case studies spanning ecological, socio‐economic, governance and geographic contexts. Using a novel framework for evaluating 38 resilience attributes, the case studies were systematically assessed to understand how attributes enable or inhibit resilience to a given climate stressor. We found population abundance, learning capacity, and responsive governance were the most important attributes for conferring resilience, with ecosystem connectivity, place attachment, and accountable governance scoring the strongest across the climate‐resilient fisheries. We used these responses to develop an attribute typology that describes robust sources of resilience, actionable priority attributes and attributes that are case specific or require research. We identified five fishery archetypes to guide stakeholders as they set long‐term goals and prioritize actions to improve resilience. Lastly, we found evidence for two pathways to resilience: (1) building ecological assets and strengthening communities, which we observed in rural and small‐scale fisheries, and (2) building economic assets and improving effective governance, which was demonstrated in urban and wealthy fisheries. Our synthesis presents a novel framework that can be directly applied to identify approaches, pathways and actionable levers for improving climate resilience in fishery systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Undertaking climate vulnerability assessments (CVAs) on marine fisheries is instrumental to the identification of regions, species, and stakeholders at risk of impacts from climate change, and the development of effective and targeted responses for fisheries adaptation. In this global literature review, we addressed three important questions to characterize fisheries CVAs: (i) what are the available approaches to develop CVAs in various social–ecological contexts, (ii) are different geographic scales and regions adequately represented, and (iii) how do diverse knowledge systems contribute to current understanding of vulnerability? As part of these general research efforts, we identified and characterized an inventory of frameworks and indicators that encompass a wide range of foci on ecological and socioeconomic dimensions of climate vulnerability on fisheries. Our analysis highlighted a large gap between countries with top research inputs and the most urgent adaptation needs. More research and resources are needed in low‐income tropical countries to ensure existing inequities are not exacerbated. We also identified an uneven research focus across spatial scales and cautioned a possible scale mismatch between assessment and management needs. Drawing on this information, we catalog (1) a suite of research directions that could improve the utility and applicability of CVAs, particularly the examination of barriers and enabling conditions that influence the uptake of CVA results into management responses at multiple levels, (2) the lessons that have been learned from applications in data‐limited regions, particularly the use of proxy indicators and knowledge co‐production to overcome the problem of data deficiency, and (3) opportunities for wider applications, for example diversifying the use of vulnerability indicators in broader monitoring and management schemes. This information is used to provide a set of recommendations that could advance meaningful CVA practices for fisheries management and promote effective translation of climate vulnerability into adaptation actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge co-production offers a promising approach to design effective and equitable pathways to reach development goals. Fisheries Strategies for Changing Oceans and Resilient Ecosystems by 2030 (FishSCORE), a United Nations Ocean Decade programme, will co-produce knowledge that advances solutions for climate resilient fisheries through networks and partnerships that include scientists, stakeholders, practitioners, managers, and policy experts. FishSCORE will establish (1) a global network that will develop broadly relevant information and tools to assess and operationalize climate resilience in marine fisheries and (2) local and regional partnerships that will apply those tools to identify and forward context-specific resilience strategies. FishSCORE’s activities will be guided by a set of core principles that include commitments to inclusivity, equity, co-leadership, co-ownership, and reciprocity. FishSCORE will focus on identifying solutions for climate resilient fisheries, and it will also advance goals associated with capacity, power, and agency that will support iterative, pluralistic approaches to decision-making in fisheries experiencing ongoing climate-driven changes. This process of co-producing knowledge and strategies requires considerable investments of time from all partners, which is well aligned with the Ocean Decade. However, secure funding must be prioritized to support and implement co-production activities over this long time horizon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research shows that population status can be predicted using catch data, but there is little justification for why these predictions work or how they account for changes in fisheries management. We demonstrate that biomass can be reconstructed from catch data whenever fishing mortality follows predictable dynamics over time (called 'effort dynamics'), and we develop a state-space catch only model (SSCOM) for this purpose. We use theoretical arguments and simulation modeling to demonstrate that SSCOM can, in some cases, estimate population status from catch data. Next, we use meta-analysis to estimate effort dynamics for US West Coast groundfishes before and after fisheries management changes in the mid-1990s. We apply the SSCOM using meta-analytic results to data for eight assessed species and compare results with stock assessment and data-poor methods. Results indicate general agreement among all three methods. We conclude that effort dynamics provides a theoretical basis for using catch data to reconstruct biomass and has potential for conducting data-poor assessments. However, we still recommend that index and compositional data be collected to allow application of data-rich methods. Si la recherche a demontre que l'etat des populations peut etre predit a l'aide de donnees sur les prises, les travaux justifiant la pertinence de ces predictions et leur adequation pour expliquer les changements dans la gestion des peches demeurent tres limites. Nous demontrons que la biomasse peut etre reconstituee a partir de donnees sur les prises quand la mortalite par peche suit une dynamique previsible dans le temps (appelee la'dynamique de l'effort') et, a cette fin, developpons un modele d'espace d'etats reposant uniquement sur les prises (SSCOM). Nous faisons appel a des arguments theoriques et la simulation pour demontrer que le SSCOM peut, dans certains cas, estimer l'etat de la population a partir de donnees sur les prises. Nous utilisons ensuite la metaanalyse pour estimer la dynamique de l'effort pour les poissons de fond de la cote Ouest americaine avant et apres des changements a la gestion des peches au milieu des annees 1990. Nous appliquons le SSCOM en utilisant les resultats de la metaanalyse a des donnees pour huit especes evaluees et comparons les resultats a des methodes d'evaluation des stocks et reposant sur des donnees limitees. Les resultats indiquent une bonne concordance, en general, des trois methodes. Nous en concluons que la dynamique de l'effort constitue une base theorique pour l'utilisation de donnees sur les prises dans le but de reconstituer la biomasse et pourrait etre utile pour des evaluations basees sur des donnees limitees. Nous recommandons toutefois que des donnees indicielles et compositionnelles soient recueillies pour permettre l'application de methodes axees sur des donnees abondantes. [Traduit par la Redaction], Introduction Marine fisheries globally have an enormous value in terms of food production, employment, and income for small- and large-scale fishers (Ye et al. 2012). However, the vast majority of [...]

Marine reserves have not been widely used to conserve mobile species because species abundance levels can be highly variable over space and time. Here we explore the potential for marine reserves to reduce bycatch of mobile species using red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) as a case study. Bycatch in Gulf of Mexico shrimp trawls is a major source of juvenile red snapper mortality, and marine reserves may be mandated if bycatch reduction targets are not met. Using geographic information system (GIS) analyses of fishery-independent data, we investigated whether red snapper juveniles concentrate in 'hot spots' and examined the trade-offs between abundance within hot spots (intensity) and predictability over time (persistence). These trade-offs allow fishery managers to tailor marine reserves to meet specific conservation goals. For red snapper, hot spots were primarily located around the 30 m isobath, with hot spots spread along the Texas coast in fall and clustered around the Texas-Louisiana border in summer. Increased intensity of hot spots led to lower persistence due to the smaller spatial area of higher intensity hot spots. Hot spots moved annually but generally persisted in the same locations over time, indicating that marine reserves could reduce red snapper bycatch. This approach provides a foundation for making informed decisions about design and placement of reserves for mobile species. Resume: Les reserves marines n'ont pas beaucoup servi a la conservation des especes mobiles parce que les niveaux d'abondance des especes peuvent varier considerablement dans le temps et l'espace. Nous examinons ici le potentiel des reserves marines dans la reduction des prises accessoires des especes mobiles en utilisant le vivaneau campeche (Lutjanus campechanus) comme modele. Les prises accessoires dans les chaluts a crevettes dans le golfe du Mexique representent une cause importante de mortalite juvenile de vivaneaux campeches et des reserves marines seront peutetre prescrites siles cibles de reduction des prises accessoires ne sont pas atteintes. Au moyen d'analyses de donnees independantes de la peche a l'aide du systeme d'information geographique (GIS), nous avons cherche a savoir siles jeunes vivaneaux campeches se concentrent en [much less than] points chauds ≫ et examine les compromis entre l'abondance dans les points chauds (intensite) et la previsibilite dans le temps (persistance). Ces compromis permettent aux gestionnaires de la peche d'ajuster les reserves marines afin d'atteindre des objectifs specifiques de conservation. Chez le vivaneau campeche, les points chauds se situent principalement aux environs de l'isobathe de 30 m; ils se repartissent le long de la cote du Texas en automne et se concentrent autour de la frontiere Texas-Louisiane en ete. L'intensite accrue dans les points chauds entraine une persistance reduite a cause de la surface spatiale restreinte des points chauds a forte intensite. Les points chauds peuvent se deplacer d'une annee a l'autre, mais ils persistent generalement aux memes endroits dans le temps, ce qui fait que des reserves marines pourraient reduire les captures accessoires de vivaneaux campeches. Notre methodologie fournit une base pour prendre des decisions eclairees sur la conception et la localisation de reserves pour les especes mobiles. [Traduit par la Redaction], Introduction Marine reserves are closures of areas to fishing, diving, or other activities that impact marine resources. Marine reserves are beneficial in preserving biodiversity, protecting habitat, reducing overfishing, and increasing [...]

In a changing climate, there is an imperative to build coupled social‐ecological systems—including fisheries—that can withstand or adapt to climate stressors. Although resilience theory identifies system attributes that supposedly confer resilience, these attributes have rarely been clearly defined, mechanistically explained, nor tested and applied to inform fisheries governance. Here, we develop and apply a comprehensive resilience framework to examine fishery systems across (a) ecological, (b) socio‐economic and (c) governance dimensions using five resilience domains: assets, flexibility, organization, learning and agency. We distil and define 38 attributes that confer climate resilience from a coupled literature‐ and expert‐driven approach, describe how they apply to fisheries and provide illustrative examples of resilience attributes in action. Our synthesis highlights that the directionality and mechanism of these attributes depend on the specific context, capacities, and scale of the focal fishery system and associated stressors, and we find evidence of interdependencies among attributes. Overall, however, we find few studies that test resilience attributes in fisheries across all parts of the system, with most examples focussing on the ecological dimension. As such, meaningful quantification of the attributes' contributions to resilience remains a challenge. Our synthesis and holistic framework represent a starting point for critical application of resilience concepts to fisheries social‐ecological systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fisheries are critically important for nutrition, food security, livelihoods, and culture of hundreds of millions of people globally. As climate impacts on ocean ecosystems increase, policy-makers are asking critical questions about how to implement reforms at local and national levels to reach goals around improving performance of management systems, sustainability, equity, and resilience to climate change. These goals can be achieved by enhancing the structure, function, and biodiversity of marine ecosystems as climate change proceeds, together with adaptive, sustainable management. However, resource, technical, and governance capacities vary widely across management systems. These capacities will determine, in part, the best policy approaches to build resilience and overcome systemic challenges to equity and sustainability to stressors such as climate change. To illuminate how fisheries resilience can be improved within the constraints imposed by these capacity limits, we present case studies from Myanmar, Belize, Peru, and Iceland, which offer a spectrum of capacity conditions to explore social–ecological resilience challenges and solutions. Using a set of nine social–ecological resilience criteria, we examine each system's attributes that may confer or undermine resilience and explore interactions between them. We use this assessment to identify policy approaches that can help build resilience in each particular context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in fish distribution are being observed across the globe. In Europe's Common Fisheries Policy, the share of the catch of each fish stock is split among management areas using a fixed allocation key known as 'Relative Stability': in each management area, member states get the same proportion of the total catch each year. That proportion is largely based on catches made by those member states in the 1970s. Changes in distribution can, therefore, result in a mismatch between quota shares and regional abundances within management areas, with potential repercussions for the status of fish stocks and the fisheries that depend on them. Assessing distribution changes is crucial to ensure adequate management and sustainable exploitation of our fish resources. We analysed scientific survey data using a three‐tiered analytical approach to provide, for the first time, an overview of changes in distribution for 19 northeast Atlantic fish species encompassing 73 commercial stocks over 30 yr. All species have experienced changes in distribution, five of which did so across management areas. A cross‐species analysis suggested that shifts in areas of suitable thermal habitat, and density‐dependent use of these areas, are at least partly responsible for the observed changes. These findings challenge the current use of relative stability to allocate quotas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many of the world's fisheries are unassessed, with little information about population status or risk of overfishing. Unassessed fisheries are particularly predominant in developing countries and in small‐scale fisheries, where they are important for food security. Several catch‐only methods based on time series of fishery catch and commonly available life‐history traits have been developed to estimate stock status (defined as biomass relative to biomass at maximum sustainable yield: B/BMSY). While their stock status performance has been extensively studied, performance of catch‐only models as a management tool is unknown. We evaluated the extent to which a superensemble of three prominent catch‐only models can provide a reliable basis for fisheries management and how performance compares across management strategies that control catch or fishing effort. We used a management strategy evaluation framework to determine whether a superensemble of catch‐only models can reliably inform harvest control rules (HCRs). Across five simulated fish life histories and two harvest‐dynamic types, catch‐only models and HCR combinations reduced the risk of overfishing and increased the proportion of stocks above BMSY compared to business as usual, though often resulted in poor yields. Precautionary HCRs based on fishing effort were robust and insensitive to error in catch‐only models, while catch‐based HCRs caused high probabilities of overfishing and more overfished populations. Catch‐only methods tended to overestimate B/BMSY for our simulated data sets. The catch‐only superensemble combined with precautionary effort‐based HCRs could be part of a stepping stone approach for managing some data‐limited stocks while working towards more data‐moderate assessment methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The role of spatial management, including marine protected areas, in achieving fisheries outcomes alongside conservation goals is debated. In fisheries that fail to meet fishing mortality targets, closed areas are sometimes implemented to reduce fishing mortality. However, fisheries with stronger management, including rights‐based approaches that can address overcapacity and overfishing problems, often employ spatial management as well. Here, we compare the objectives, design, and performance of spatial management in nine temperate demersal fisheries in North America, Oceania, Europe, and Africa that employ rights‐based systems. Common objectives of spatial management included protecting habitat, juveniles, and spawners and reducing discards. Recovering age structure and creating scientific reference sites were less common objectives, despite being widely cited benefits of spatial management. Some fisheries adopted single closures to achieve single objectives, whereas others adopted diverse networks to achieve multiple objectives. Importantly, many spatial protections are implemented primarily through industry initiatives. Environmental change compromised the efficacy of spatial management in some cases, suggesting the need to design spatial management systems that are robust to changing ocean conditions. Fisheries with diverse and extensive spatial management systems have generally healthier fish stocks. Whether this implies that spatial management contributed substantially to fishery performance is unclear due to an absence of large‐scale, long‐term studies aimed at discerning different drivers of success. Although these targeted monitoring studies of closed areas are limited, such studies are necessary to help resolve the ongoing debate and to enable more purposeful design of spatial management for fisheries and conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The exploitation status of marine fisheries stocks worldwide is of critical importance for food security, ecosystem conservation, and fishery sustainability. Applying a suite of data‐limited methods to global catch data, combined through an ensemble modeling approach, we provide quantitative estimates of exploitation status for 785 fish stocks. Fifty‐three percent (414 stocks) are below BMSY and of these, 265 are estimated to be below 80% of the BMSY level. While the 149 stocks above 80% of BMSY are conventionally considered “fully exploited,” stocks staying at this level for many years, forego substantial yield. Our results enable managers to consider more detailed information than simply a categorization of stocks as “fully” or “over” exploited. Our approach is reproducible, allows consistent application to a broad range of stocks, and can be easily updated as new data become available. Applied on an ongoing basis, this approach can provide critical, more detailed information for resource management for more exploited fish stocks than currently available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 2014 and 2016, an interdisciplinary team of researchers including physical oceanographers, biologists, economists and anthropologists developed a working example of an Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) for three ecologically distinct regions of the Northwest Atlantic; Georges Bank, the Gulf of Maine and the Grand Banks, as part of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) Working Group on the Northwest Atlantic Regional Sea (WGNARS). In this paper, we review the transdisciplinary and collaborative process by which the IEA was developed, with a particular focus on the decision points arising from the IEA construct itself. The aim is to identify key issues faced in developing any IEA, practical decisions made to address these issues within the working group and lessons learned from the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fishery managers must often reconcile conflicting estimates of population status and trend. Superensemble models, commonly used in climate and weather forecasting, may provide an effective solution. This approach uses predictions from multiple models as covariates in an additional 'superensemble' model fitted to known data. We evaluated the potential for ensemble averages and superensemble models (ensemble methods) to improve estimates of population status and trend for fisheries. We fit four widely applicable data-limited models that estimate stock biomass relative to equilibrium biomass at maximum sustainable yield (B/ BMSY). We combined these estimates of recent fishery status and trends in B/ BMSY with four ensemble methods: an ensemble average and three superensembles (a linear model, a random forest and a boosted regression tree). We trained our superensembles on 5,760 simulated stocks and tested them with cross-validation and against a global database of 249 stock assessments. Ensemble methods substantially improved estimates of population status and trend. Random forest and boosted regression trees performed the best at estimating population status: inaccuracy (median absolute proportional error) decreased from 0.42 - 0.56 to 0.32 - 0.33, rank-order correlation between predicted and true status improved from 0.02 - 0.32 to 0.44 - 0.48 and bias (median proportional error) declined from −0.22 - 0.31 to −0.12 - 0.03. We found similar improvements when predicting trend and when applying the simulation-trained superensembles to catch data for global fish stocks. Superensembles can optimally leverage multiple model predictions; however, they must be tested, formed from a diverse set of accurate models and built on a data set representative of the populations to which they are applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fisheries provide nutrition and livelihoods for coastal populations, but many fisheries are fully or over-exploited and we lack an approach for analysing which factors affect management tool performance. We conducted a literature review of 390 studies to assess how fisheries characteristics affected management tool performance across both small-scale and large-scale fisheries. We defined success as increased or maintained abundance or biomass, reductions in fishing mortality or improvements in population status. Because the literature only covered a narrow set of biological factors, we also conducted an expert elicitation to create a typology of broader fishery characteristics, enabling conditions and design considerations that affect performance. The literature suggested that the most commonly used management tool in a region was often the most successful, although the scale of success varied. Management tools were more often deemed successful when used in combination, particularly pairings of tools that controlled fishing mortality or effort with spatial management. Examples of successful combinations were the use of catch limits with quotas and limited entry, and marine protected areas with effort restrictions. The most common factors associated with inadequate biological performance were 'structural' issues, including poor design or implementation. The expert-derived typologies revealed strong local leadership, high community involvement and governance capacity as common factors of success across management tool categories (i.e. input, output and technical measures), but the degree of importance varied. Our results are designed to inform selection of appropriate management tools based on empirical data and experience to increase the likelihood of successful fisheries management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fisheries have had major negative impacts on marine ecosystems, and effective fisheries management and governance are needed to achieve sustainable fisheries, biodiversity conservation goals and thus good ecosystem status. To date, the IndiSeas programme (Indicators for the Seas) has focussed on assessing the ecological impacts of fishing at the ecosystem scale using ecological indicators. Here, we explore fisheries 'Management Effectiveness' and 'Governance Quality' and relate this to ecosystem health and status. We developed a dedicated expert survey, focused at the ecosystem level, with a series of questions addressing aspects of management and governance, from an ecosystem-based perspective, using objective and evidence-based criteria. The survey was completed by ecosystem experts (managers and scientists) and results analysed using ranking and multivariate methods. Results were further examined for selected ecosystems, using expert knowledge, to explore the overall findings in greater depth. Higher scores for 'Management Effectiveness' and 'Governance Quality' were significantly and positively related to ecosystems with better ecological status. Key factors that point to success in delivering fisheries and conservation objectives were as follows: the use of reference points for management, frequent review of stock assessments, whether Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated ( IUU) catches were being accounted for and addressed, and the inclusion of stakeholders. Additionally, we found that the implementation of a long-term management plan, including economic and social dimensions of fisheries in exploited ecosystems, was a key factor in successful, sustainable fisheries management. Our results support the thesis that good ecosystem-based management and governance, sustainable fisheries and healthy ecosystems go together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a Monte Carlo method ( CMSY) for estimating fisheries reference points from catch, resilience and qualitative stock status information on data-limited stocks. It also presents a Bayesian state-space implementation of the Schaefer production model ( BSM), fitted to catch and biomass or catch-per-unit-of-effort ( CPUE) data. Special emphasis was given to derive informative priors for productivity, unexploited stock size, catchability and biomass from population dynamics theory. Both models gave good predictions of the maximum intrinsic rate of population increase r, unexploited stock size k and maximum sustainable yield MSY when validated against simulated data with known parameter values. CMSY provided, in addition, reasonable predictions of relative biomass and exploitation rate. Both models were evaluated against 128 real stocks, where estimates of biomass were available from full stock assessments. BSM estimates of r, k and MSY were used as benchmarks for the respective CMSY estimates and were not significantly different in 76% of the stocks. A similar test against 28 data-limited stocks, where CPUE instead of biomass was available, showed that BSM and CMSY estimates of r, k and MSY were not significantly different in 89% of the stocks. Both CMSY and BSM combine the production model with a simple stock-recruitment model, accounting for reduced recruitment at severely depleted stock sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) reflect peoples' physical and cognitive interactions with nature and are increasingly recognised for providing non-material benefits to human societies. Whereas coasts, seas, and oceans sustain a great proportion of the human population, CES provided by these ecosystems have remained largely unexplored. Therefore, our aims were (1) to analyse the state of research on marine and coastal CES, (2) to identify knowledge gaps, and (3) to pinpoint research priorities and the way forward. To accomplish these objectives, we did a systematic review of the scientific literature and synthesised a subset of 72 peer-reviewed publications. Results show that research on marine and coastal CES is scarce compared to other ecosystem service categories. It is primarily focused on local and regional sociocultural or economic assessments of coastal ecosystems from Western Europe and North America. Such research bias narrows the understanding of social-ecological interactions to a western cultural setting, undermining the role of other worldviews in the understanding of a wide range of interactions between cultural practices and ecosystems worldwide. Additionally, we have identified clusters of cooccurring drivers of change affecting marine and coastal habitats and their CES. Our systematic review highlights knowledge gaps in: (1) the lack of integrated valuation assessments; (2) linking the contribution of CES benefits to human wellbeing; (3) assessing more subjective and intangible CES classes; (4) identifying the role of openocean and deep-sea areas in providing CES; and (5) understanding the role of non-natural capital in the co-production of marine and coastal CES. Research priorities should be aimed at filling these knowledge gaps. Overcoming such challenges can result in increased appreciation of marine and coastal CES, and more balanced decision-supporting mechanisms that will ultimately contribute to more sustainable interactions between humans and marine ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies illustrate variable patterns in individual species distribution shifts in response to changing temperature. However, an assemblage, a group of species that shares a common environmental niche, will likely exhibit similar responses to climate changes, and these community-level responses may have significant implications for ecosystem function. Therefore, we examine the relationship between observed shifts of species in assemblages and regional climate velocity (i.e., the rate and direction of change of temperature isotherms). The assemblages are defined in two sub-regions of the U.S. Northeast Shelf that have heterogeneous oceanography and bathymetry using four decades of bottom trawl survey data and we explore temporal changes in distribution, spatial range extent, thermal habitat area, and biomass, within assemblages. These sub-regional analyses allow the dissection of the relative roles of regional climate velocity and local physiography in shaping observed distribution shifts. We find that assemblages of species associated with shallower, warmer waters tend to shift west-southwest and to shallower waters over time, possibly towards cooler temperatures in the semi-enclosed Gulf of Maine, while species assemblages associated with relatively cooler and deeper waters shift deeper, but with little latitudinal change. Conversely, species assemblages associated with warmer and shallower water on the broad, shallow continental shelf from the Mid-Atlantic Bight to Georges Bank shift strongly northeast along latitudinal gradients with little change in depth. Shifts in depth among the southern species associated with deeper and cooler waters are more variable, although predominantly shifts are toward deeper waters. In addition, spatial expansion and contraction of species assemblages in each region corresponds to the area of suitable thermal habitat, but is inversely related to assemblage biomass. This suggests that assemblage distribution shifts in conjunction with expansion or contraction of thermal habitat acts to compress or stretch marine species assemblages, which may respectively amplify or dilute species interactions to an extent that is rarely considered. Overall, regional differences in climate change effects on the movement and extent of species assemblages hold important implications for management, mitigation, and adaptation on the U.S. Northeast Shelf. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meta-analysis has been an integral tool for fisheries researchers since the late 1990s. However, there remain few guidelines for the design, implementation or interpretation of meta-analyses in the field of fisheries. Here, we provide the necessary background for readers, authors and reviewers, including a brief history of the use of meta-analysis in fisheries, an overview of common model types and distinctions, and examples of different goals that can be achieved using meta-analysis. We outline the primary challenges in implementing meta-analyses, including difficulties in discriminating between alternative hypotheses that can explain the data with equal plausibility, the importance of validating results using multiple lines of evidence, the trade-off between complexity and sample size and problems associated with the use of model output. For each of these challenges, we also provide suggestions, such as the use of propensity scores for dealing with selection bias and the use of covariates to control for confounding effects. These challenges are then illustrated with examples from diverse subfields of fisheries, including (i) the analysis of the stock-recruit relationship, (ii) fisheries management, rebuilding and population viability, (iii) habitat-specific vital rates, (iv) life-history theory and (v) the evaluation of marine reserves. We conclude with our reasons for believing that meta-analysis will continue to grow in importance for these and many other research goals in fisheries science and argue that standards of practice are therefore essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International and regional policies aimed at managing ocean ecosystem health need quantitative and comprehensive indices to synthesize information from a variety of sources, consistently measure progress, and communicate with key constituencies and the public. Here we present the second annual global assessment of the Ocean Health Index, reporting current scores and annual changes since 2012, recalculated using updated methods and data based on the best available science, for 221 coastal countries and territories. The Index measures performance of ten societal goals for healthy oceans on a quantitative scale of increasing health from 0 to 100, and combines these scores into a single Index score, for each country and globally. The global Index score improved one point (from 67 to 68), while many country-level Index and goal scores had larger changes. Per-country Index scores ranged from 41–95 and, on average, improved by 0.06 points (range -8 to +12). Globally, average scores increased for individual goals by as much as 6.5 points (coastal economies) and decreased by as much as 1.2 points (natural products). Annual updates of the Index, even when not all input data have been updated, provide valuable information to scientists, policy makers, and resource managers because patterns and trends can emerge from the data that have been updated. Changes of even a few points indicate potential successes (when scores increase) that merit recognition, or concerns (when scores decrease) that may require mitigative action, with changes of more than 10–20 points representing large shifts that deserve greater attention. Goal scores showed remarkably little covariance across regions, indicating low redundancy in the Index, such that each goal delivers information about a different facet of ocean health. Together these scores provide a snapshot of global ocean health and suggest where countries have made progress and where a need for further improvement exists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bush stone-curlew Burhinus grallarius is listed as 'Near threatened' on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In NSW, bush stone-curlews are listed as 'Endangered' under the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995. The present study focused on bush stone-curlew populations throughout the central coast of NSW and the aim of this study was to develop an inductive spatial model in Geographical Information System (GIS) of suitable bush stone-curlew habitat based on historical sightings and empirical data. To develop the models, micro-habitat data from 30 sites where bush stone-curlews have been recorded were combined with broad historical habitat maps between Gosford and Port Stephens. The habitat data and developed spatial models indicated that bush stonecurlew sightings are associated with trees dominated by Casuarina glauca and Syncarpia glomulifera. In terms of broad habitat classifications, bush stone-curlews are more likely to be sighted in wet sclerophyll forests (towards Gosford) and dry sclerophyll forests and saline wetlands (Port Stephens). The spatial model developed for this endangered bird will help direct conservation efforts to maintain and promote habitat in areas where urban development is rapidly increasing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The imperative to increase seafood supply while dealing with its overfished local stocks has pushed the European Union (EU) and its Member States to fish in the Exclusive Economic Zones of other countries through various types of fishing agreements for decades. Although European public fishing agreements are commented on regularly and considered to be transparent, this is the first global and historical study on the fee regime that governs them. We find that the EU has subsidized these agreements at an average of 75% of their cost (financial contribution agreed upon in the agreements), while private European business interests paid the equivalent of 1.5% of the value of the fish that was eventually landed. This raises questions of fisheries benefit-sharing and resource-use equity that the EU has the potential to address during the nearly completed reform of its Common Fisheries Policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People value the existence of a variety of marine species and habitats, many of which are negatively impacted by human activities. The Convention on Biological Diversity and other international and national policy agreements have set broad goals for reducing the rate of biodiversity loss. However, efforts to conserve biodiversity cannot be effective without comprehensive metrics both to assess progress towards meeting conservation goals and to account for measures that reduce pressures so that positive actions are encouraged. We developed an index based on a global assessment of the condition of marine biodiversity using publically available data to estimate the condition of species and habitats within 151 coastal countries. Our assessment also included data on social and ecological pressures on biodiversity as well as variables that indicate whether good governance is in place to reduce them. Thus, our index is a social as well as ecological measure of the current and likely future status of biodiversity. As part of our analyses, we set explicit reference points or targets that provide benchmarks for success and allow for comparative assessment of current conditions. Overall country-level scores ranged from 43 to 95 on a scale of 1 to 100, but countries that scored high for species did not necessarily score high for habitats. Although most current status scores were relatively high, likely future status scores for biodiversity were much lower in most countries due to negative trends for both species and habitats. We also found a strong positive relationship between the Human Development Index and resilience measures that could promote greater sustainability by reducing pressures. This relationship suggests that many developing countries lack effective governance, further jeopardizing their ability to maintain species and habitats in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on a study according to which improved fisheries management can help in minimizing adverse impacts of climate change. Topics discussed include information on potential range of human responses to climate change; adverse impact of climate change over marine ecosystems and resources; and information on use of species distribution for forecasting responses to climate velocity.

Demand for data-limited stock assessment methods is increasing, and new methods are being developed rapidly. One class of these methods requires only catch time series and, in some cases, information about life history or fishery characteristics, to estimate stock status. These catch-only methods (COMs) range from statistical models trained on data-rich stocks to mechanistic population models that make assumptions about changes in fishing effort. We review 11 COMs, comparing performance through application to data-rich stocks and simulated fisheries. The catch-only methods evaluated here produce imprecise and biased estimates of B/B MSY , especially for stocks that are lightly exploited. They were also generally poor classifiers of stock status. While no method performed best across all stocks, ensembles of multiple COMs generally performed better than individual COMs. We advocate for testing new COMs using this common platform. We also caution that performance in estimating stock status is not sufficient for gauging the usefulness of COMs in managing fisheries. Greater use of management strategy evaluation is needed before COMs can be considered a reliable tool for management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]