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Since the 1990s, massive use of drifting Fish Aggregating Devices (dFADs) to aggregate tropical tunas has strongly modified global purse-seine fisheries. For the first time, a large data set of GPS positions from buoys deployed by French purse-seiners to monitor dFADs is analysed to provide information on spatio-temporal patterns of dFAD use in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans during 2007-2011. First, we select among four classification methods the model that best separates "at sea" from "on board" buoy positions. A random forest model had the best performance, both in terms of the rate of false "at sea" predictions and the amount of over-segmentation of "at sea" trajectories (i.e., artificial division of trajectories into multiple, shorter pieces due to misclassification). Performance is improved via post-processing removing unrealistically short "at sea" trajectories. Results derived from the selected model enable us to identify the main areas and seasons of dFAD deployment and the spatial extent of their drift. We find that dFADs drift at sea on average for 39.5 days, with time at sea being shorter and distance travelled longer in the Indian than in the Atlantic Ocean. 9.9% of all trajectories end with a beaching event, suggesting that 1,500-2,000 may be lost onshore each year, potentially impacting sensitive habitat areas, such as the coral reefs of the Maldives, the Chagos Archipelago, and the Seychelles.

The northern Gulf of St. Lawrence (NGSL) stock of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), historically the second largest cod population in the Western Atlantic, has known a severe collapse during the early 1990 s and is currently considered as endangered by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. As for many fish populations over the world which are currently being heavily exploited or overfished, urgent management actions in the form of recovery plans are needed for restoring this stock to sustainable levels. Stochastic projections based on a statistical population model incorporating predation were conducted over a period of 30 years (2010-2040) to assess the expected outcomes of alternative fishing strategies on the stock recovery under different scenarios of harp seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus) abundance and environmental conditions. This sensitivity study shows that water temperature is key in the rebuilding of the NGSL cod stock. Model projections suggest that maintaining the current management practice under cooler water temperatures is likely to maintain the species in an endangered status. Under current or warmer conditions in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, partial recovery might only be achieved by significant reductions in both fishing and predation pressure. In the medium-term, a management strategy that reduces catch could be favoured over a complete moratorium so as to minimize socio-economic impacts on the industry.

Primary production must constrain the amount of fish and invertebrates available to expanding fisheries; however the degree of limitation has only been demonstrated at regional scales to date. Here we show that phytoplanktonic primary production, estimated from an ocean-colour satellite (SeaWiFS), is related to global fisheries catches at the scale of Large Marine Ecosystems, while accounting for temperature and ecological factors such as ecosystem size and type, species richness, animal body size, and the degree and nature of fisheries exploitation. Indeed we show that global fisheries catches since 1950 have been increasingly constrained by the amount of primary production. The primary production appropriated by current global fisheries is 17-112% higher than that appropriated by sustainable fisheries. Global primary production appears to be declining, in some part due to climate variability and change, with consequences for the near future fisheries catches.

The COVID-19 pandemic has depressed the world economy to a magnitude and timeliness that could hardly be predicted by economists. Because of remoteness and a lack of resources, small island developing states (SIDS) are often considered more vulnerable than others to external shocks such as weatherization or disease. In 2020, the Republic of Seychelles has suffered a 70% collapse of foreign visitors, while tourism represents a key pillar of the economy with two thirds of its Gross Domestic Product and employment. The fishery-related industries have nonetheless resisted to this economic shock and become more prominent, with a foreign-owned tuna fleet supplying the local canning plant, main provider of private jobs and trade in the archipelago. This research attempts to forecast the economic effects of several scenarios affecting both fishing and tourism activities in a small island economy. It shows that fish-related industries can represent a resilient contributor to the domestic economy as long as natural stocks are sustainably managed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computable general equilibrium models have been a popular tool for policy analysis in recent decades, but rarely applied for fisheries policy and management. This paper presents an inter-temporal computable general equilibrium model with fisheries details. While the model in a full-scale and disaggregate way describes the structure and dynamics of a regional fisheries economy, it further specifies the heterogeneous bottom-up fish producers, such as harvesters, aquaculture and fish-processing firms, and links fisheries with the top–down non-fisheries economic sectors. In addition, the model can be externally linked with fish biological models to consider interactions between economic and biological systems. The model is designed to provide a comprehensive tool for analysis of new fisheries policy in general and to study five European fishery regions in particular. The empirics in the paper evaluate the impact of several important management and policy instruments on the Salerno economy and on recovery of endangered species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Northern Mozambique Channel (NMC) is a tropical area of ~ 1 million km2 where pelagic fisheries supply proteins to more than 9 million people living in Comoros, Mayotte, and along the coasts of Mozambique, Tanzania and Madagascar. Although uncertain, statistics suggest that about 20,000 mt of tropical tuna and other pelagic fish are annually caught by artisanal fisheries in the area. The NMC is also a major seasonal fishing ground for high-seas fleets that export an annual average catch of more than 20,000 mt to tuna can and sashimi markets of high-income countries for a value estimated to be more than 100 million USD. The fisheries productivity of the NMC appears to be highly variable in relation to strong annual and seasonal variability in oceanographic conditions. Our review shows that the NMC is a key feeding area for tropical tunas and a major spawning area for skipjack tuna thanks to warm waters and strong mesoscale activity that results in the enrichment of surface waters and efficient energy transfers enabled by short food chains. Projections of climate models under future warming scenarios predict some strong changes in the oceanographic conditions of the NMC which has already experienced substantial warming over the last decades. Changes in the pelagic ecosystem of the NMC could have dramatic consequences on the coastal populations that are expected to increase towards 100 million people by 2100. Improving monitoring systems and collecting information on the socio-economics of coastal fisheries is crucial to assess the dependence of NMC populations on tuna resources and empower the countries to more involvement in the management of tuna stocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective use of spatial management in the pelagic realm presents special challenges due to high fish and fisher mobility, limited knowledge and significant governance challenges. The tropical Indian Ocean provides an ideal case study for testing our ability to apply existing data sources to assessing impacts of spatial management on tuna fisheries because of several recent controversial spatial closures. We review the scientific underpinnings of pelagic MPA effects, spatio-temporal patterns of Indian Ocean tuna catch, bycatch and fish movements, and the consequences of these for the efficacy of spatial management for Indian Ocean tropical tuna fisheries. The tropical Indian Ocean is characterized by strong environmental fluctuations, regular seasonal variability in catch, large observed tuna displacement distances, relatively uniform catch-per-unit-effort and bycatch rates over space, and high fisher mobility, all of which suggest significant variability and movement in tropical tuna fisheries that are simply not well adapted to static spatial closures. One possible exception to this overall conclusion would be a large time/area closure east of Somalia. If closed for a significant fraction of the year it could reduce purse-seine bycatch and juvenile tuna catch. Dynamic closures following fish migratory patterns are possible, but more focused information on fish movements will be needed for effective implementation. Fortunately, several recent improvements in conventional fishery management and reporting will likely enhance our ability to evaluate spatial and non-spatial management options in the near future, particularly as pertaining to bycatch species. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Chassot, E., Bonhommeau, S., Reygondeau, G., Nieto, K., Polovina, J. J., Huret, M., Dulvy, N. K., and Demarcq, H. 2011. Satellite remote sensing for an ecosystem approach to fisheries management. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68: 651–666.Satellite remote sensing (SRS) of the marine environment has become instrumental in ecology for environmental monitoring and impact assessment, and it is a promising tool for conservation issues. In the context of an ecosystem approach to fisheries management (EAFM), global, daily, systematic, high-resolution images obtained from satellites provide a good data source for incorporating habitat considerations into marine fish population dynamics. An overview of the most common SRS datasets available to fishery scientists and state-of-the-art data-processing methods is presented, focusing on recently developed techniques for detecting mesoscale features such as eddies, fronts, filaments, and river plumes of major importance in productivity enhancement and associated fish aggregation. A comprehensive review of remotely sensed data applications in fisheries over the past three decades for investigating the relationships between oceanographic conditions and marine resources is provided, emphasizing how synoptic and information-rich SRS data have become instrumental in ecological analyses at community and ecosystem scales. Finally, SRS data, in conjunction with automated in situ data-acquisition systems, can provide the scientific community with a major source of information for ecosystem modelling, a key tool for implementing an EAFM. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Trophic spectra represent the distribution of biomass, abundance, or catch by trophic level, and may be used as indicators of the trophic structure and functioning of aquatic ecosystems in a fisheries context. As a theoretical background, we present a simple ecosystem model of biomass flow reflecting predation and ontogenetic processes. Biomass trophic spectrum of total biomass can be modelled as the result of three major factors and processes: trophic efficiency, transfer kinetics, and extent of top-down control. In the simulations, changes in the spectrum highlight fishing impacts on trophic structure and reveal some functional characteristics of the underlying ecosystem. As examples of potential applications, three case studies of trophic spectra are presented. Catch trophic spectra allow description of structural differences among European fishing areas and periods. Abundance trophic spectra of coral-reef fish assemblages display different trophic signatures, characterizing different reef habitats in New Caledonia and highlighting fishing effects in a marine protected area context. Biomass trophic spectra of demersal resources off Northwest Africa show a shift in ecosystem structure that can be attributed to the rapid increase in fishing pressure during the past few decades. Off Senegal, total biomass remained fairly constant, suggesting a strong top-down control linked to fisheries targeting high trophic level species. Off Guinea, exploitation rates are spread over a wider range of trophic levels, and the total biomass of demersal resources tended to decrease. The trophic spectrum is concluded to be a useful indicator describing and comparing systems in time and space, detecting phase shifts linked to natural or anthropogenic perturbations, and revealing differences in ecosystem functioning. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The little information available on fuel consumption and emissions by high seas tuna fisheries indicates that the global tuna fleet may have consumed about 2.5 Mt of fuel in 2009, resulting in the production of about 9 Mt of CO 2 -equivalent greenhouse gases (GHGs), i.e., about 4.5–5% of the global fishing fleet emissions. We developed a model of annual fuel consumption for the large-scale purse seiners operating in the western Indian Ocean as a function of fishing effort, strategy, and vessel characteristics based on an original and unique data set of more than 4300 bunkering operations that spanned the period 2013–2019. We used the model to estimate the total fuel consumption and associated GHG and SO 2 emissions of the Indian Ocean purse seine fishery between 1981 and 2019. Our results showed that the energetic performance of this fishery was characterized by strong interannual variability over the last four decades. This resulted from a combination of variations in tuna abundance but also changes in catchability and fishing strategy. In recent years, the increased targeting of schools associated with fish aggregating devices in response to market incentives combined with the IOTC management measure implemented to rebuild the stock of yellowfin tuna has strongly modified the productivity and spatio-temporal patterns of purse seine fishing. This had effects on fuel consumption and air pollutant emissions. Over the period 2015 to 2019, the purse seine fishery, including its support vessel component, annually consumed about 160,000 t of fuel and emitted 590,000 t of CO2-eq GHG. Furthermore, our results showed that air pollutant emissions can be significantly reduced when limits in fuel composition are imposed. In 2015, SO 2 air pollution exceeded 1500 t, but successive implementation of sulphur limits in the Indian Ocean purse seine fishery in 2016 and 2018 have almost eliminated this pollution. Our findings highlight the need for a routine monitoring of fuel consumption with standardized methods to better assess the determinants of fuel consumption in fisheries and the air pollutants they emit in the atmosphere. Image 1 • We modelled the annual fuel consumption in tuna purse seiners of the Indian Ocean. • Days at sea, numbers of operations, vessel length and age affect fuel consumption. • Fuel Use Intensity and consumption showed strong variability over 1981 to 2019. • Greenhouse gas emissions were about 600,000 t y−1 of CO 2 -eq over 2015 to 2019. • Sulphur limits reduced annual SO 2 emissions from >1500 t to almost none since 2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debris from fisheries pose significant threats to coastal marine ecosystems worldwide. Tropical tuna purse seine fisheries contribute to this problem via the construction and deployment of thousands of human-made drifting fish aggregating devices (dFADs) annually, many of which end up beaching in coastal areas. Here, we analyzed approximately 40,000 dFAD trajectories in the Indian Ocean and 12,000 dFAD trajectories in the Atlantic Ocean deployed over the decade 2008–2017 to identify where and when beachings occur. We find that there is tremendous promise for reducing beaching events by prohibiting deployments in areas most likely to lead to a beaching. For example, our results indicate that 21% to 40% (depending on effort redistribution after closure) of beachings can be prevented if deployments are prohibited in areas in the south of 8°S latitude, the Somali zone in winter, and the western Maldives in summer for the Indian Ocean, and in an elongated strip of areas adjacent to the western African coast for the Atlantic Ocean. In both oceans, the riskiest areas for beaching are not coincident with areas of high dFAD deployment activity, suggesting that these closures could be implemented with relatively minimal impact to fisheries. Furthermore, the existence of clear hotspots for beaching likelihood and the high rates of putative recovery of dFAD buoys by small-scale fishers in some areas suggests that early warning systems and dFAD recovery programs may be effective in areas that cannot be protected via closures if appropriate incentives can be provided to local partners for participating in these programs. • dFAD beaching rate increased dramatically over 2008–2013 and then stabilized at ~18%. • dFAD beaching locations clearly identify coastal beaching hotspots. • Beaching risk depends on the upper ocean circulation and its seasonal variability. • Prohibiting dFAD deployments in the highest risk areas significantly reduces beaching. • Spatial closure optimization can account for seasonal variability in beaching risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]