ORCID Profile
0000-0001-7201-8865
Current Organisation
University of Tasmania
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Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 21-06-2010
Abstract: Successful ocean management needs to consider not only fishing impacts but drivers of harvest. Consolidating post-1950 global catch and economic data, we assess which attributes of fisheries are good indicators for fishery development. Surprisingly, year of development and economic value are not correlated with fishery trophic levels. Instead, patterns emerge of profit-driven fishing for attributes related to costs and revenues. Post-1950 fisheries initially developed on shallow ranging species with large catch, high price, and big body size, and then expanded to less desirable species. Revenues expected from developed fisheries declined 95% from 1951 to 1999, and few high catch or valuable fishing opportunities remain. These results highlight the importance of economic attributes of species as leading indicators for harvest-related impacts in ocean ecosystems.
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 12-09-2008
Abstract: Our results provide an important first step toward a full assessment of how human activities act cumulatively to affect the condition of the oceans. Fisheries (and climate change) impacts are some of the hardest to map and measure accurately. Consequently, species-specific considerations and fine-scale analyses should be left to more nuanced regional-scale replicates of our mapping framework.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-07-2011
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-05-2004
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2014
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 05-02-2008
Abstract: As human impacts to the environment accelerate, disparities in the distribution of damages between rich and poor nations mount. Globally, environmental change is dramatically affecting the flow of ecosystem services, but the distribution of ecological damages and their driving forces has not been estimated. Here, we conservatively estimate the environmental costs of human activities over 1961–2000 in six major categories (climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, agricultural intensification and expansion, deforestation, overfishing, and mangrove conversion), quantitatively connecting costs borne by poor, middle-income, and rich nations to specific activities by each of these groups. Adjusting impact valuations for different standards of living across the groups as commonly practiced, we find striking imbalances. Climate change and ozone depletion impacts predicted for low-income nations have been overwhelmingly driven by emissions from the other two groups, a pattern also observed for overfishing damages indirectly driven by the consumption of fishery products. Indeed, through disproportionate emissions of greenhouse gases alone, the rich group may have imposed climate damages on the poor group greater than the latter's current foreign debt. Our analysis provides prima facie evidence for an uneven distribution pattern of damages across income groups. Moreover, our estimates of each group's share in various damaging activities are independent from controversies in environmental valuation methods. In a world increasingly connected ecologically and economically, our analysis is thus an early step toward reframing issues of environmental responsibility, development, and globalization in accordance with ecological costs.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-11-2013
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-08-2017
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.12619
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2014
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-2017
DOI: 10.1111/FAF.12234
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 18-06-2014
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-06-2013
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-02-2015
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.12281
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2006
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-2011
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2006
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2019
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 30-09-2012
DOI: 10.1038/NCLIMATE1691
Publisher: Inter-Research Science Center
Date: 18-08-2008
DOI: 10.3354/MEPS07414
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-1995
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 22-08-2017
DOI: 10.1038/S41559-017-0258-8
Abstract: Fisheries and aquaculture make a crucial contribution to global food security, nutrition and livelihoods. However, the UN Sustainable Development Goals separate marine and terrestrial food production sectors and ecosystems. To sustainably meet increasing global demands for fish, the interlinkages among goals within and across fisheries, aquaculture and agriculture sectors must be recognized and addressed along with their changing nature. Here, we assess and highlight development challenges for fisheries-dependent countries based on analyses of interactions and trade-offs between goals focusing on food, bio ersity and climate change. We demonstrate that some countries are likely to face double jeopardies in both fisheries and agriculture sectors under climate change. The strategies to mitigate these risks will be context-dependent, and will need to directly address the trade-offs among Sustainable Development Goals, such as halting bio ersity loss and reducing poverty. Countries with low adaptive capacity but increasing demand for food require greater support and capacity building to transition towards reconciling trade-offs. Necessary actions are context-dependent and include effective governance, improved management and conservation, maximizing societal and environmental benefits from trade, increased equitability of distribution and innovation in food production, including continued development of low input and low impact aquaculture.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-2002
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 23-01-2017
Abstract: Phytoplankton provide the energy that sustains marine fish populations. The relationship between phytoplankton productivity and fisheries catch, however, is complicated by uncertainty in catch estimates, fishing effort, and marine food web dynamics. We enlist global data sources and a high-resolution earth system model to address these uncertainties. Results show that cross-ecosystem fisheries catch differences far exceeding differences in phytoplankton production can be reconciled with fishing effort and variations in marine food web structure and energy transfer efficiency. Food web variations explaining contemporary fisheries catch act to lify projected catch trends under climate change, suggesting catch changes that may exceed a factor of 2 for some regions. Failing to account for this would hinder adaptation to climate change.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-10-2010
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-07-2015
DOI: 10.1111/ELE.12474
Abstract: Species' ranges are shifting globally in response to climate warming, with substantial variability among taxa, even within regions. Relationships between range dynamics and intrinsic species traits may be particularly apparent in the ocean, where temperature more directly shapes species' distributions. Here, we test for a role of species traits and climate velocity in driving range extensions in the ocean-warming hotspot of southeast Australia. Climate velocity explained some variation in range shifts, however, including species traits more than doubled the variation explained. Swimming ability, omnivory and latitudinal range size all had positive relationships with range extension rate, supporting hypotheses that increased dispersal capacity and ecological generalism promote extensions. We find independent support for the hypothesis that species with narrow latitudinal ranges are limited by factors other than climate. Our findings suggest that small-ranging species are in double jeopardy, with limited ability to escape warming and greater intrinsic vulnerability to stochastic disturbances.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2011
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2013
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 29-01-2005
Abstract: This contribution, which reviews some broad trends in human history and in the history of fishing, argues that sustainability, however defined, rarely if ever occurred as a result of an explicit policy, but as result of our inability to access a major part of exploited stocks. With the development of industrial fishing, and the resulting invasion of the refuges previously provided by distance and depth, our interactions with fisheries resources have come to resemble the wars of extermination that newly arrived hunters conducted 40 000–50 000 years ago in Australia, and 11 000–13 000 years ago against large terrestrial mammals arrived in North America. These broad trends are documented here through a map of change in fish sizes, which displays characteristic declines, first in the nearshore waters of industrialized countries of the Northern Hemisphere, then spread offshore and to the Southern Hemisphere. This geographical extension met its natural limit in the late 1980s, when the catches from newly accessed stocks ceased to compensate for the collapse in areas accessed earlier, hence leading to a gradual decline of global landing. These trends affect developing countries more than the developed world, which have been able to meet the shortfall by increasing imports from developing countries. These trends, however, together with the rapid growth of farming of carnivorous fishes, which consumes other fishes suited for human consumption, have led to serious food security issues. This promotes urgency to the implementation of the remedies traditionally proposed to alleviate overfishing (reduction of overcapacity, enforcement of conservative total allowable catches, etc.), and to the implementation of non–conventional approaches, notably the re–establishment of the refuges (also known as marine reserves), which made possible the apparent sustainability of pre–industrial fisheries.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-04-2017
Abstract: Global fisheries landings data from a range of public sources was harmonised and mapped to 30-min spatial cells based on the distribution of the reported taxa and the fishing fleets involved. This data was extended to include the associated fishing gear used, as well as estimates of illegal, unregulated and unreported catch (IUU) and discards at sea. Expressed as catch rates, these results also separated small-scale fisheries from other fishing operations. The dataset covers 1950 to 2014 inclusive. Mapped catch allows study of the impacts of fisheries on habitats and fauna, on overlap with the diets of marine birds and mammals, and on the related use of fuels and release of greenhouse gases. The fine-scale spatial data can be aggregated to the exclusive economic zone claims of countries and will allow study of the value of landed marine products to their economies and food security, and to those of their trading partners.
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2018
DOI: 10.1071/MF17248
Abstract: Climate change, in combination with population growth, is placing increasing pressure on the world’s oceans and their resources. This is threatening sustainability and societal wellbeing. Responding to these complex and synergistic challenges requires holistic management arrangements. To this end, ecosystem-based management (EBM) promises much by recognising the need to manage the ecosystem in its entirety, including the human dimensions. However, operationalisation of EBM in the marine environment has been slow. One reason may be a lack of the inter-disciplinary science required to address complex social–ecological marine systems. In the present paper, we synthesise the collective experience of the authors to explore progress in integrating natural and social sciences in marine EBM research, illustrating actual and potential contributions. We identify informal barriers to and incentives for this type of research. We find that the integration of natural and social science has progressed at most stages of the marine EBM cycle however, practitioners do not yet have the capacity to address all of the problems that have led to the call for inter-disciplinary research. In addition, we assess how we can support the next generation of researchers to undertake the effective inter-disciplinary research required to assist with operationalising marine EBM, particularly in a changing climate.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 17-02-2006
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-2001
DOI: 10.1038/35107050
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2011
DOI: 10.1016/J.CUB.2011.05.005
Abstract: The Mediterranean Sea (0.82% of the global oceanic surface) holds 4%-18% of all known marine species (~17,000), with a high proportion of endemism [1, 2]. This exceptional bio ersity is under severe threats [1] but benefits from a system of 100 marine protected areas (MPAs). Surprisingly, the spatial congruence of fish bio ersity hot spots with this MPA system and the areas of high fishing pressure has not been assessed. Moreover, evolutionary and functional breadth of species assemblages [3] has been largely overlooked in marine systems. Here we adopted a multifaceted approach to bio ersity by considering the species richness of total, endemic, and threatened coastal fish assemblages as well as their functional and phylogenetic ersity. We show that these fish bio ersity components are spatially mismatched. The MPA system covers a small surface of the Mediterranean (0.4%) and is spatially congruent with the hot spots of all taxonomic components of fish ersity. However, it misses hot spots of functional and phylogenetic ersity. In addition, hot spots of endemic species richness and phylogenetic ersity are spatially congruent with hot spots of fishery impact. Our results highlight that future conservation strategies and assessment efficiency of current reserve systems will need to be revisited after deconstructing the different components of bio ersity.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-2002
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE01017
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 30-04-2008
Abstract: Sumaila, U. R., Teh, L., Watson, R., Tyedmers, P., and Pauly, D. 2008. Fuel price increase, subsidies, overcapacity, and resource sustainability. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 65: 832–840. Global fisheries are currently overcapitalized, resulting in overfishing in many of the world’s fisheries. Given that fuel constitutes a significant component of fishing costs, we expect recent increases in fuel prices to reduce overcapacity and overfishing. However, government fuel subsidies to the fishing sector reduce, if not completely negate, this positive aspect of increasing fuel costs. Here, we explore the theoretical basis for the expectation that the increasing fuel prices faced by fishing enterprises will reduce fishing pressure. Next, we estimate the amount of fuel subsidies to the fishing sector by governments globally to be in the range of US$4.2–8.5 billion per year. Hence, depending on how much of this subsidy existed before the recent fuel price increases, fishing enterprises, as a group, can absorb as much as this amount of increase in their fuel budget before any conservation benefits occur as a result of fuel price increases.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-01-2014
DOI: 10.1111/FAF.12013
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-09-2017
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-017-10723-1
Abstract: Functional ersity is thought to enhance ecosystem resilience, driving research focused on trends in the functional composition of fisheries, most recently with new reconstructions of global catch data. However, there is currently little understanding of how accounting for unreported catches (e.g. small-scale and illegal fisheries, bycatch and discards) influences functional ersity trends in global fisheries. We explored how ersity estimates varied among reported and unreported components of catch in 2010, and found these components had distinct functional fingerprints. Incorporating unreported catches had little impact on global-scale functional ersity patterns. However, at smaller, management-relevant scales, the effects of incorporating unreported catches were large (changes in functional ersity of up to 46%). Our results suggest there is greater uncertainty about the risks to ecosystem integrity and resilience from current fishing patterns than previously recognized. We provide recommendations and suggest a research agenda to improve future assessments of functional ersity of global fisheries.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2012
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-09-2014
DOI: 10.1111/FAF.12004
Publisher: Research Square Platform LLC
Date: 22-11-2021
DOI: 10.21203/RS.3.RS-1102108/V1
Abstract: Sustaining the organisms, ecosystems, and processes that underpin human well-being is necessary to achieve sustainable development. Here we analyze 14 of nature’s contributions to people (NCP) for food, water, and climate security. Using spatial optimization, we identify critical natural assets, the most important ecosystems for providing NCP, comprising 30% (for local benefits) to 44% (for local and global benefits) of total global land area and 24% of national territorial waters. Many of these NCP are left out of international agreements focused on conserving species or mitigating climate change, yet our analysis shows that explicitly prioritizing critical natural assets jointly advances development, climate, and conservation goals. Crafting policy and investment strategies that protect critical natural assets is essential for sustaining human well-being and securing Earth’s life support systems.
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 28-05-2010
Abstract: In 2002, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) committed to a significant reduction in the rate of bio ersity loss by 2010. There has been widespread conjecture that this target has not been met. Butchart et al. (p. 1164 , published online 29 April) analyzed over 30 indicators developed within the CBD's framework. These indicators include the condition or state of bio ersity (e.g., species numbers, population sizes), the pressures on bio ersity (e.g., deforestation), and the responses to maintain bio ersity (e.g., protected areas) and were assessed between about 1970 and 2005. Taken together, the results confirm that we have indeed failed to meet the 2010 targets.
Publisher: Inter-Research Science Center
Date: 05-12-2011
DOI: 10.3354/MEPS09375
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 23-05-2022
Abstract: The world produces enough food to nourish the global population, but inequitable distribution of food means many people remain at risk for undernutrition. Attainment of Sustainable Development Goal 2 relies on greater attention to distribution processes that match food qualities with dietary deficiencies. We explore this in the context of fisheries. Foreign fishing and international trade ert nutrients caught in marine fisheries from nutrient-insecure toward nutrient-secure nations. Where nutrient-insecure countries do benefit from foreign fishing and trade, there tends to be high vulnerability to future changes in nutrient flows arising from changes to foreign fishing and trade. This research highlights the need for greater transparency around distribution of fish and for nutrition security to be considered more centrally in development of trade agreements.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date: 2007
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Date: 06-2021
Abstract: Ocean activities are rapidly expanding as Blue Economy discussions gain traction, creating new potential synergies and conflicts between sectors. To better manage ocean sectors and their development, we need to understand how they interact and the respective outcomes of these interactions. To provide a first comprehensive picture of the situation, we review 3187 articles to map and analyze interactions between economically important ocean sectors and find 93 unique direct and 61 indirect interactions, often mediated via the ocean ecosystem. Analysis of interaction outcomes reveals that some sectors coexist synergistically (e.g. renewable energy, tourism), but many interactions are antagonistic, and negative effects on other sectors are often incurred via degradation of marine ecosystems. The analysis also shows that ocean ecosystems are fundamental for supporting many ocean sectors, yet 13 out of 14 ocean sectors have interactions resulting in unidirectional negative ecosystem impact. Fishing, drilling, and shipping are hubs in the network of ocean sector interactions, and are involved in many of the antagonistic interactions. Antagonistic interactions signal trade-offs between sectors. Qualitative analysis of the literature shows that these tradeoffs relate to the cumulative nature of many ecosystem impacts incurred by some sectors, and the differential power of ocean sectors to exert their rights or demands in the development of the ocean domain. There are also often time lags in how impacts manifest. The ocean governance landscape is not currently well-equipped to deal with the full range of trade-offs, and opportunities, likely to arise in the pursuit of a Blue Economy in a rapidly changing ocean context. Based on our analysis, we therefore propose a set principles that can begin to guide strategic decision-making, by identifying both tradeoffs and opportunities for sustainable and equitable development of ocean sectors.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-05-2015
DOI: 10.1111/FAF.12082
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 19-10-2013
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-2013
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE12156
Abstract: Marine fishes and invertebrates respond to ocean warming through distribution shifts, generally to higher latitudes and deeper waters. Consequently, fisheries should be affected by 'tropicalization' of catch (increasing dominance of warm-water species). However, a signature of such climate-change effects on global fisheries catch has so far not been detected. Here we report such an index, the mean temperature of the catch (MTC), that is calculated from the average inferred temperature preference of exploited species weighted by their annual catch. Our results show that, after accounting for the effects of fishing and large-scale oceanographic variability, global MTC increased at a rate of 0.19 degrees Celsius per decade between 1970 and 2006, and non-tropical MTC increased at a rate of 0.23 degrees Celsius per decade. In tropical areas, MTC increased initially because of the reduction in the proportion of subtropical species catches, but subsequently stabilized as scope for further tropicalization of communities became limited. Changes in MTC in 52 large marine ecosystems, covering the majority of the world's coastal and shelf areas, are significantly and positively related to regional changes in sea surface temperature. This study shows that ocean warming has already affected global fisheries in the past four decades, highlighting the immediate need to develop adaptation plans to minimize the effect of such warming on the economy and food security of coastal communities, particularly in tropical regions.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 25-02-2009
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2020
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-1993
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 27-11-2017
DOI: 10.1038/S41559-017-0388-Z
Abstract: Large teleost (bony) fish are a dominant group of predators in the oceans and constitute a major source of food and livelihood for humans. These species differ markedly in morphology and feeding habits across oceanic regions large pelagic species such as tunas and billfish typically occur in the tropics, whereas demersal species of gadoids and flatfish dominate boreal and temperate regions. Despite their importance for fisheries and the structuring of marine ecosystems, the underlying factors determining the global distribution and productivity of these two groups of teleost predators are poorly known. Here, we show how latitudinal differences in predatory fish can essentially be explained by the inflow of energy at the base of the pelagic and benthic food chain. A low productive benthic energy pathway favours large pelagic species, whereas equal productivities support large demersal generalists that outcompete the pelagic specialists. Our findings demonstrate the vulnerability of large teleost predators to ecosystem-wide changes in energy flows and hence provide key insight to predict the responses of these important marine resources under global change.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 08-05-2018
Abstract: Understanding global fisheries patterns contributes significantly to their management. By combining harmonized unmapped data sources with maps from satellite tracking data, regional tuna management organisations, the ranges of fished taxa, the access of fleets and the logistics of associated fishing gears the expansion and intensification of marine fisheries for nearly a century and half (1869–2015) is illustrated. Estimates of industrial, non-industrial reported, illegal/unreported (IUU) and discards reveal changes in country dominance, catch composition and fishing gear use. Catch of industrial and non-industrial marine fishing by year, fishing country, taxa and gear by 30-min spatial cell broken to reported, IUU and discards is available. Results show a historical increase in bottom trawl with corresponding reduction in the landings from seines. Though erse, global landings are now dominated by demersal and small pelagic species.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-2020
DOI: 10.1002/AQC.3374
Publisher: Inter-Research Science Center
Date: 13-09-2007
DOI: 10.3354/MEPS07065
Publisher: CABI Publishing
Date: 2003
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-02-2014
DOI: 10.1002/AQC.2445
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2012
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 28-01-2019
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 28-11-2022
DOI: 10.1038/S41559-022-01934-5
Abstract: Sustaining the organisms, ecosystems and processes that underpin human wellbeing is necessary to achieve sustainable development. Here we define critical natural assets as the natural and semi-natural ecosystems that provide 90% of the total current magnitude of 14 types of nature’s contributions to people (NCP), and we map the global locations of these critical natural assets at 2 km resolution. Critical natural assets for maintaining local-scale NCP (12 of the 14 NCP) account for 30% of total global land area and 24% of national territorial waters, while 44% of land area is required to also maintain two global-scale NCP (carbon storage and moisture recycling). These areas overlap substantially with cultural ersity (areas containing 96% of global languages) and bio ersity (covering area requirements for 73% of birds and 66% of mammals). At least 87% of the world’s population live in the areas benefitting from critical natural assets for local-scale NCP, while only 16% live on the lands containing these assets. Many of the NCP mapped here are left out of international agreements focused on conserving species or mitigating climate change, yet this analysis shows that explicitly prioritizing critical natural assets and the NCP they provide could simultaneously advance development, climate and conservation goals.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-12-2010
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 16-06-2015
DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS8365
Abstract: The growing human population must be fed, but historic land-based systems struggle to meet expanding demand. Marine production supports some of the world’s poorest people but increasingly provides for the needs of the affluent, either directly by fishing or via fodder-based feeds for marine and terrestrial farming. Here we show the expanding footprint of humans to utilize global ocean productivity to feed themselves. Our results illustrate how incrementally each year, marine foods are sourced farther from where they are consumed and moreover, require an increasing proportion of the ocean’s primary productivity that underpins all marine life. Though mariculture supports increased consumption of seafood, it continues to require feeds based on fully exploited wild stocks. Here we examine the ocean’s ability to meet our future demands to 2100 and find that even with mariculture supplementing near-static wild catches our growing needs are unlikely to be met without significant changes.
Publisher: Inter-Research Science Center
Date: 12-03-2007
DOI: 10.3354/MEPS333001
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 03-11-2006
Abstract: Human-dominated marine ecosystems are experiencing accelerating loss of populations and species, with largely unknown consequences. We analyzed local experiments, long-term regional time series, and global fisheries data to test how bio ersity loss affects marine ecosystem services across temporal and spatial scales. Overall, rates of resource collapse increased and recovery potential, stability, and water quality decreased exponentially with declining ersity. Restoration of bio ersity, in contrast, increased productivity fourfold and decreased variability by 21%, on average. We conclude that marine bio ersity loss is increasingly impairing the ocean's capacity to provide food, maintain water quality, and recover from perturbations. Yet available data suggest that at this point, these trends are still reversible.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2005
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2015
Publisher: Research Square Platform LLC
Date: 22-04-2022
DOI: 10.21203/RS.3.RS-1102108/V2
Abstract: Sustaining the organisms, ecosystems, and processes that underpin human well-being is necessary to achieve sustainable development. Here we identify critical natural assets, natural and semi-natural ecosystems that provide 90% of the total current magnitude of 14 types of nature’s contributions to people (NCP). Critical natural assets for maintaining local-scale NCP (12 of the 14 NCP mapped) comprise 30% of total global land area and 24% of national territorial waters, while 44% of land area is required for maintaining all NCP (including those that accrue at the global scale, carbon storage and moisture recycling). At least 87% of the world’s population lives in the areas benefiting from critical natural assets for local-scale NCP, while only 16% lives on the lands containing these assets. Critical natural assets also overlap substantially with areas important for bio ersity (covering area requirements for 73% of birds and 66% of mammals) and cultural ersity (representing 96% of global Indigenous and non-migrant languages). Many of the NCP mapped here are left out of international agreements focused on conserving species or mitigating climate change, yet this analysis shows that explicitly prioritizing critical natural assets for NCP could simultaneously advance development, climate, and conservation goals. Crafting policy and investment strategies that protect critical natural assets is essential for sustaining human well-being and securing Earth’s life support systems.
Publisher: Canadian Science Publishing
Date: 10-2014
Abstract: Although inland and marine environments, their fisheries, fishery managers, and the realm-specific management approaches are often different, there are a surprising number of similarities that frequently go unrecognized. We contend that there is much to be gained by greater cross-fertilization and exchange of ideas and strategies between realms and the people who manage them. The purpose of this paper is to provide ex les of the potential or demonstrated benefits of working across aquatic boundaries for enhanced sustainable management of the world’s fisheries resources. Ex les include the need to (1) engage in habitat management and protection as the foundation for fisheries, (2) rethink institutional arrangements and management for open-access fisheries systems, (3) establish “reference points” and harvest control rules, (4) engage in integrated management approaches, (5) reap conservation benefits from the link to fish as food, and (6) reframe conservation and management of fish to better engage the public and industry. Cross-fertilization and knowledge transfer between realms could be realized using environment-independent curricula and symposia, joint scientific advisory councils for management, integrated development projects, and cross-realm policy dialogue. Given the interdependence of marine and inland fisheries, promoting discussion between the realms has the potential to promote meaningful advances in managing global fisheries.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 23-03-2013
DOI: 10.1111/FAF.12032
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 31-12-2013
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.12480
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-07-2018
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-018-28805-Z
Abstract: Overfishing impacts the three pillars of sustainability: social, ecological and economic. Tuna represent a significant part of the global seafood market with an annual value exceeding USD$42B and are vulnerable to overfishing. Our understanding of how social and economic drivers contribute to overexploitation is not well developed. We address this problem by integrating social, ecological and economic indicators to help predict changes in exploitation status, namely fishing mortality relative to the level that would support the maximum sustainable yield (F/F MSY ). To do this we examined F/F MSY for 23 stocks exploited by more than 80 states across the world’s oceans. Low-HDI countries were most at risk of overexploitation of the tuna stocks we examined and increases in economic and social development were not always associated with improved stock status. In the short-term frozen price was a dominant predictor of F/F MSY providing a positive link between the market dynamics and the quantity of fish landed. Given the dependence on seafood in low-income regions, improved measures to safeguard against fisheries overexploitation in the face of global change and uncertainty are needed.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-1992
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date: 18-10-2018
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-2010
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE09528
Abstract: Bio ersity indicators provide a vital window on the state of the planet, guiding policy development and management. The most widely adopted marine indicator is mean trophic level (MTL) from catches, intended to detect shifts from high-trophic-level predators to low-trophic-level invertebrates and plankton-feeders. This indicator underpins reported trends in human impacts, declining when predators collapse ("fishing down marine food webs") and when low-trophic-level fisheries expand ("fishing through marine food webs"). The assumption is that catch MTL measures changes in ecosystem MTL and bio ersity. Here we combine model predictions with global assessments of MTL from catches, trawl surveys and fisheries stock assessments and find that catch MTL does not reliably predict changes in marine ecosystems. Instead, catch MTL trends often erge from ecosystem MTL trends obtained from surveys and assessments. In contrast to previous findings of rapid declines in catch MTL, we observe recent increases in catch, survey and assessment MTL. However, catches from most trophic levels are rising, which can intensify fishery collapses even when MTL trends are stable or increasing. To detect fishing impacts on marine bio ersity, we recommend greater efforts to measure true abundance trends for marine species, especially those most vulnerable to fishing.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-03-2010
DOI: 10.1111/J.1461-0248.2010.01443.X
Abstract: 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.
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 09-11-2020
DOI: 10.1101/2020.11.08.361014
Abstract: Sustaining the organisms, ecosystems, and processes that underpin human well-being is necessary to achieve sustainable development. Here we identify critical natural assets, natural and semi-natural ecosystems that provide 90% of the total current magnitude of 14 types of nature’s contributions to people (NCP). Critical natural assets for maintaining local-scale NCP (12 of the 14 NCP mapped) comprise 30% of total global land area and 24% of national territorial waters, while 44% of land area is required for maintaining all NCP (including those that accrue at the global scale, carbon storage and moisture recycling). At least 87% of the world’s population lives in the areas benefiting from critical natural assets for local-scale NCP, while only 16% lives on the lands containing these assets. Critical natural assets also overlap substantially with areas important for bio ersity (covering area requirements for 73% of birds and 66% of mammals) and cultural ersity (representing 96% of global Indigenous and non-migrant languages). Many of the NCP mapped here are left out of international agreements focused on conserving species or mitigating climate change, yet this analysis shows that explicitly prioritizing critical natural assets for NCP could simultaneously advance development, climate, and conservation goals. Crafting policy and investment strategies that protect critical natural assets is essential for sustaining human well-being and securing Earth’s life support systems.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 22-06-2017
Abstract: Zooplankton underpin the health and productivity of global marine ecosystems. Here we present evidence that suggests seismic surveys cause significant mortality to zooplankton populations. Seismic surveys are used extensively to explore for petroleum resources using intense, low-frequency, acoustic impulse signals. Experimental air gun signal exposure decreased zooplankton abundance when compared with controls, as measured by sonar (~3-4 dB drop within 15-30 min) and net tows (median 64% decrease within 1 h), and caused a two- to threefold increase in dead adult and larval zooplankton. Impacts were observed out to the maximum 1.2 km range s led, which was more than two orders of magnitude greater than the previously assumed impact range of 10 m. Although no adult krill were present, all larval krill were killed after air gun passage. There is a significant and unacknowledged potential for ocean ecosystem function and productivity to be negatively impacted by present seismic technology.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 22-02-2010
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 18-08-2010
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2013
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-2018
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2003
Publisher: Research Square Platform LLC
Date: 22-04-2022
DOI: 10.21203/RS.3.RS-1569773/V1
Abstract: Sustaining the organisms, ecosystems, and processes that underpin human well-being is necessary to achieve sustainable development. Here we identify critical natural assets, natural and semi-natural ecosystems that provide 90% of the total current magnitude of 14 types of nature’s contributions to people (NCP). Critical natural assets for maintaining local-scale NCP (12 of the 14 NCP mapped) comprise 30% of total global land area and 24% of national territorial waters, while 44% of land area is required for maintaining all NCP (including those that accrue at the global scale, carbon storage and moisture recycling). At least 87% of the world’s population lives in the areas benefiting from critical natural assets for local-scale NCP, while only 16% lives on the lands containing these assets. Critical natural assets also overlap substantially with areas important for bio ersity (covering area requirements for 73% of birds and 66% of mammals) and cultural ersity (representing 96% of global Indigenous and non-migrant languages). Many of the NCP mapped here are left out of international agreements focused on conserving species or mitigating climate change, yet this analysis shows that explicitly prioritizing critical natural assets for NCP could simultaneously advance development, climate, and conservation goals. Crafting policy and investment strategies that protect critical natural assets is essential for sustaining human well-being and securing Earth’s life support systems.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2010
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-02-2014
DOI: 10.1111/FAF.12025
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 24-10-2017
DOI: 10.1038/S41559-017-0319-Z
Abstract: Concepts underpinning the planetary boundaries framework are being incorporated into multilateral discussions on sustainability, influencing international environmental policy development. Research underlying the boundaries has primarily focused on terrestrial systems, despite the fundamental role of marine biomes for Earth system function and societal wellbeing, seriously hindering the efficacy of the boundary approach. We explore boundaries from a marine perspective. For each boundary, we show how improved integration of marine systems influences our understanding of the risk of crossing these limits. Better integration of marine systems is essential if planetary boundaries are to inform Earth system governance.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2018
Publisher: Inter-Research Science Center
Date: 03-07-2006
DOI: 10.3354/MEPS316285
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2019
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2010
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 02-12-2010
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-2003
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2010
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 23-06-2009
Publisher: Canadian Science Publishing
Date: 03-2012
DOI: 10.1139/F2011-171
Abstract: Marine oil spills usually harm organisms at two interfaces: near the water surface and on shore. However, because of the depth of the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon well blowout, deeper parts of the Gulf of Mexico are likely impacted. We estimate the potential negative economic effects of this blowout and oil spill on commercial and recreational fishing, as well as mariculture (marine aquaculture) in the US Gulf area, by computing potential losses throughout the fish value chain. We find that the spill could, in the next 7 years, result in (midpoint) present value losses of total revenues, total profits, wages, and economic impact of US$3.7, US$1.9, US$1.2, and US$8.7 billion, respectively. Commercial and recreational fisheries would likely suffer the most losses, with a respective estimated US$1.6 and US$1.9 billion of total revenue losses, US$0.8 and US$1.1 billion in total profit losses, and US$4.9 and US$3.5 billion of total economic losses.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 13-07-2012
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 31-07-2009
Abstract: In the debate concerning the future of the world's fisheries, some have forecasted complete collapse but others have challenged this view. The protagonists in this debate have now joined forces to present a thorough quantitative review of current trends in world fisheries. Worm et al. (p. 578 ) evaluate the evidence for a global rebuilding of marine capture fisheries and their supporting ecosystems. Contrasting regions that have been managed for rebuilding with those that have not, reveals trajectories of decline and recovery from in idual stocks to species, communities, and large marine ecosystems. The management solutions that have been most successful for rebuilding fisheries and ecosystems, include both large- and small-scale fisheries around the world.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-1997
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 08-03-2011
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2021
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2022
DOI: 10.1016/J.WATRES.2022.118897
Abstract: High levels of E. coli and associated faecal microbes in waterways as a result of agricultural and residential land use can pose environmental, human health, and economic risks. This study aims to understand the impacts of land use, climatic variables, and riparian buffers on in-stream E. coli concentrations. Flow, temperature, and E. coli were monitored during three s ling c aigns within eleven independent catchments. These catchments have varying land use and extents of riparian buffer coverage. Results showed that catchments with predominantly agricultural and residential land uses (average = 349.7 MPN/100 mL) had higher E. coli concentrations than predominantly forested catchments (average = 111.8 MPN/100 mL). However, there were no statistically significant differences in E. coli concentrations between the agricultural and residential land uses. Riparian buffers appear to reduce E. coli concentrations in streams, as indicated by significant negative correlations between in-stream E. coli concentrations with the riparian buffer areal coverage (Pearson's r = -0.95, Spearman's ρ = -0.90) and the ratio of buffer length to stream length (Pearson's r = -0.87, Spearman's ρ = -0.90). We find that riparian buffers potentially disrupt transport pathways that govern E. coli movement, which in-turn can affect the concentration-discharge relationship. This reinforces the importance of protecting and restoring riparian buffers along drainage lines in agricultural and rural-residential catchments to improve downstream microbial water quality.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-09-2018
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.13873
Abstract: With the human population expected to near 10 billion by 2050, and diets shifting towards greater per-capita consumption of animal protein, meeting future food demands will place ever-growing burdens on natural resources and those dependent on them. Solutions proposed to increase the sustainability of agriculture, aquaculture, and capture fisheries have typically approached development from single sector perspectives. Recent work highlights the importance of recognising links among food sectors, and the challenge cross-sector dependencies create for sustainable food production. Yet without understanding the full suite of interactions between food systems on land and sea, development in one sector may result in unanticipated trade-offs in another. We review the interactions between terrestrial and aquatic food systems. We show that most of the studied land-sea interactions fall into at least one of four categories: ecosystem connectivity, feed interdependencies, livelihood interactions, and climate feedback. Critically, these interactions modify nutrient flows, and the partitioning of natural resource use between land and sea, amid a backdrop of climate variability and change that reaches across all sectors. Addressing counter-productive trade-offs resulting from land-sea links will require simultaneous improvements in food production and consumption efficiency, while creating more sustainable feed products for fish and livestock. Food security research and policy also needs to better integrate aquatic and terrestrial production to anticipate how cross-sector interactions could transmit change across ecosystem and governance boundaries into the future.
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 15-02-2008
Abstract: The management and conservation of the world's oceans require synthesis of spatial data on the distribution and intensity of human activities and the overlap of their impacts on marine ecosystems. We developed an ecosystem-specific, multiscale spatial model to synthesize 17 global data sets of anthropogenic drivers of ecological change for 20 marine ecosystems. Our analysis indicates that no area is unaffected by human influence and that a large fraction (41%) is strongly affected by multiple drivers. However, large areas of relatively little human impact remain, particularly near the poles. The analytical process and resulting maps provide flexible tools for regional and global efforts to allocate conservation resources to implement ecosystem-based management and to inform marine spatial planning, education, and basic research.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-02-2015
DOI: 10.1038/SREP08481
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 07-06-2019
Abstract: Newly derived thresholds show that about half the world’s marine ecosystems are experiencing “ecosystem” overfishing.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 18-08-2010
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-06-2007
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 16-02-2012
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-1999
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 28-05-2019
Abstract: We independently reconstructed vessels number, engine power, and effort of the global marine fishing fleet, in both the artisanal and industrial sectors. Although global fishing capacity and effort have more than doubled since 1950 in all but the most industrialized regions, the nominal catch per unit of effort (CPUE) has comparatively decreased. Between 1950 and 2015 the effective CPUE, among the most widely used indicator to assess fisheries management and stocks well being, has decreased by over 80% for most countries. This paper highlights the large differences in the development of sectorial fishing fleets regionally. This detailed paper empowers future exploration of the drivers of these changes, critical to develop sector and regionally specific management models targeting global fisheries sustainability.
Publisher: Inter-Research Science Center
Date: 07-08-2007
DOI: 10.3354/MEPS06860
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 21-11-2003
Abstract: Formal analyses of long-term global marine fisheries prospects have yet to be performed, because fisheries research focuses on local, species-specific management issues. Extrapolation of present trends implies expansion of bottom fisheries into deeper waters, serious impact on bio ersity, and declining global catches, the last possibly aggravated by fuel cost increases. Examination of four scenarios, covering various societal development choices, suggests that the negative trends now besetting fisheries can be turned around, and their supporting ecosystems rebuilt, at least partly.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 08-08-2011
Abstract: Lam, V. W. Y., Sumaila, U. R., Dyck, A., Pauly, D., and Watson, R. 2011. Construction and first applications of a global cost of fishing database. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68: 1996–2004. The development of a new global database of fishing cost is described, and an overview of fishing cost patterns at national, regional, and global scales is provided. This fishing cost database provides economic information required for assessing the economics of fisheries at various scales. It covers variable and fixed costs of maritime countries, representing ∼98% of global landings in 2005. Linked to country and gear-type combinations, cost estimates can be mapped to a database of spatially allocated fisheries catches for future analysis in both spatial and temporal dimensions. The global average variable cost per tonne of catch in 2005 is estimated to range between US$639 and $1217, and the total cost per tonne from $763 to $1477, with mean values of $928 and $1120, respectively. The total global variable fishing cost is estimated to be in the range US$50–96 billion per year, with a mean of $73 billion per annum in 2005 dollar equivalents.
Publisher: Research Square Platform LLC
Date: 28-06-2021
DOI: 10.21203/RS.3.RS-611352/V1
Abstract: Seafood is the most traded food commodity globally, but is underpinned by unsustainable fishing practices. When a country obtains seafood from outside its jurisdiction, any negative social and environmental impacts associated with fishing are displaced to the fished location. ‘Unequal displacement’ occurs when seafood is obtained from a place with poorer, less-effective, fisheries management than the country that catches or imports the seafood. We found that up to 22% (19.9 MT) of wild-capture seafood was unequally displaced, much of which is caught in the high seas, Russia, Malaysia, and Angola. Unequal displacement occurs for up to 50% (10.0 MT) of traded seafood. Almost all 172 countires that we assessed unequally displace seafood, but few are responsible for the majority (China, India, Thailand, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Netherlands, UK, USA). Achieving both sustainable food provision and ocean health requires new policies that encourage the reduction of unequal seafood displacement.
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 28-02-2005
Abstract: Since the demonstration, in 1998, of the phenomenon now widely known as ‘fishing down marine food webs’, and the publication of a critical rejoinder by Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) staff, a number of studies have been conducted in different parts of the world, based on more detailed data than the global FAO fisheries statistics originally used, which established the validity and ubiquity of this phenomenon. In this contribution, we briefly review how, rather than being an artefact of biased data, this phenomenon was in fact largely masked by such data, and is in fact more widespread than was initially anticipated. This is made visible here by comparing two global maps of trophic level (TL) changes from the early 1950s to the present. The first presents the 50-year difference of the grand mean TL values originally used to demonstrate the fishing down effect, while the second is based on means above a cut-off TL (here set at 3.25), thus eliminating the highly variable and abundant small pelagic fishes caught throughout the world. Based on this, we suggest that using mean TL as ‘Marine Trophic Index’ (MTI), as endorsed by the Convention on Biological Diversity , always be done with an explicitly stated cut-off TL (i.e. cut MTI), chosen (as is the case with our proposed value of 3.25) to emphasize changes in the relative abundance of the more threatened, high-TL fishes. We also point out the need to improve the taxonomic resolution, completeness and accuracy of the national and international fisheries catch data series upon which the cut MTI is to be based.
No related grants have been discovered for Reg Watson.