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Rapid and lasting gains from solving illegal fishing

Authors :
Steven D. Gaines
Nimmi Zulbainarni
Zuzy Anna
Duto Nugroho
Abdul Ghofar
Juan Mayorga
John Lynham
Umi Muawanah
Reniel B. Cabral
Mira
Christopher Costello
Michaela Clemence
Sonny Koeshendrajana
Source :
NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION, vol 2, iss 4
Publication Year :
2018
Publisher :
Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2018.

Abstract

Perhaps the greatest challenge facing global fisheries is that recovery often requires substantial short-term reductions in fishing effort, catches and profits. These costs can be onerous and are borne in the present; thus, many countries are unwilling to undertake such socially and politically unpopular actions. We argue that many nations can recover their fisheries while avoiding these short-term costs by sharply addressing illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. This can spur fishery recovery, often at little or no cost to local economies or food provision. Indonesia recently implemented aggressive policies to curtail the high levels of IUU fishing it experiences from foreign-flagged vessels. We show that Indonesia’s policies have reduced total fishing effort by at least 25%, illustrating with empirical evidence the possibility of achieving fishery reform without short-term losses to the local fishery economy. Compared with using typical management reforms that would require a 15% reduction in catch and 16% reduction in profit, the approach of curtailing IUU has the potential to generate a 14% increase in catch and a 12% increase in profit. Applying this model globally, we find that addressing IUU fishing could facilitate similar rapid, long-lasting fisheries gains in many regions of the world. Analysis of Indonesia’s recent push to aggressively police illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing demonstrates a cost-effective way to improve fisheries recovery while limiting the reduction of legal catch (and the subsequent impact on food supply and profit) that could be applied to other regions.

Details

ISSN :
2397334X
Volume :
2
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Nature Ecology & Evolution
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....9a1d79912b64c20507e0984fda7efd50
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0499-1