Archive for the ‘Co-management’ Category

The State of Global Fisheries

Friday, May 31st, 2013

So what is the global state of wild-caught or capture fisheries?

In recent decades, the amount of wild caught fish has leveled off, even declined, while the amount of farmed fish and shrimp has grown ever greater. We could conclude that we are now fishing sustainably from wild populations, and the surge in farming has helped reduce the pressure on them.

We would be so wrong.

Though the global sale of fish continues to climb, farmed fish are responsible for all the recent growth (earth-policy.org)

Though the global sale of fish continues to climb, farmed fish are responsible for all the recent growth (earth-policy.org)

Instead over the past few decades fishing fleets have grown in size and searched for fish ever further in the world’s oceans. The result is ever greater fishing effort, but increasingly less catch per unit effort. These are features of unsustainable fishing, not sustainable. The FAO estimates that 57% of fish stocks are fully exploited, and 30% are over-exploited. That doesn’t leave much.

As effort in fishing has increased (number and size of vessels), the catch per effort has decreased (worldbank.org)

As effort in fishing has increased (number and size of vessels), the catch has decreased (worldbank.org)

How can an industry continue to grow despite declining yields? This is a result of huge government subsidies, valued at about 19 billion dollars US per year for developing countries and about nine billion for developed.

Another view - as more and more of the world's oceans have been fished, the catch per effort has declined (worldbank.com)

Another view – as more and more of the world’s oceans have been fished, the catch per effort has declined (worldbank.com)

And there is much more.

For instance, we know that bottom trawling with its indiscriminate destruction of bottom habitats and of non-target species continues to occur on almost every coast and in increasingly deep water despite condemnation by conservation organizations and fisheries scientists.

We also know that for both fish stocks and coastal fishing communities to persist, large areas of coastline need to be protected as ‘no-take’ areas, but still only about 1% of the world’s coastlines are protected in any way. That number should probably be around 20-30%. Even where no-take areas exist, enforcement is often difficult or impossible.

No-take zones in marine protected areas work - like this area in the Dry Tortugas off of Florida where yellow tailed snapper and red grouper have a chance of survival (saltwatersportsman.com)

No-take zones in marine protected areas work – like this area in the Dry Tortugas off of Florida where yellow tailed snapper and red grouper have a chance of survival (saltwatersportsman.com)

If you want to really dig into the state of the world’s fisheries, the best place to go is The Sea Around Us Project where you can explore what is happening and what has happened in each of the world’s 65 coastal Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs). It is a very sobering journey.

Much of all of this of course has been known for decades, but what’s new is that the amount of data, of evidence, has become immense. What’s now emerging is an ability to assess things accurately on a global scale.

For example, we now know that global fishing effort needs to be cut by about 40% in order to keep fish stocks sustainable. To get there, government subsidies need to eliminated, the number of large fishing vessels and licenses need to be reduced through buy-back programs, and smaller quotas need to be enforced. Reducing the industrial scale and increasing the locally managed fleets of smaller craft would mitigate some of the economic pain and support community-based management.

At the same time, the goal of global fisheries scientists remains to manage fisheries not at the species level but at the ecosystem level, even the level of the LME. Almost all nations except for USA and North Korea have ratified the UN Law of the Sea, agreeing to accept the associated obligations and commitments. Imperfect though it no doubt is, it is a vehicle for regulating fishing pressure and resolving differences. We know that where a few or more nations share an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), fisheries agreements are elusive at best and dangerously volatile at worst (as they currently are in the South China Sea). But treaties continue to emerge, and opportunities for cooperative management at least exist.

Worth watching: China claims most of the South China Sea, and may reject the lines drawn as a result of UN Law of the Sea adjudication (victoryinstitute.net)


Worth watching: China claims most of the South China Sea, and may reject the lines drawn as a result of UN Law of the Sea adjudication (victoryinstitute.net)

With increasing global information about the world’s oceans – including challenging data on coastal development, pollution, ocean warming and acidification – we can encourage decisions that recognize that the Earth is a single, dynamic and adaptable system whose resilience in the face of rapid change is clearly not unlimited.

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Fundy Tidal Power

Saturday, July 28th, 2012

When the first tide-driven turbines were placed in Minas Basin, the tides basically ripped them up within a few weeks. At the north end of the Bay of Fundy, tidal amplitude in the Basin reaches about 15 meters, and the sea moves in and out with the tide at up to 12 knots. These really are astonishing numbers, and you have to see them to believe them.

The Bay of Fundy funnels the tide to ever greater amplitude, reaching 15 meters or more in Minas Basin (yellowmaps.com)

At the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, though, the tides are less, about 6 meters, or 20 feet, and run at only about 4-6 knots, still impressive if you happen to try to navigate the area in a small boat. And there, near Eastport and Lubec, the first commercial-scale tidal-power generator in the US is now being placed.

This one ought to work. The turbine is about 100 feet long, 15 feet high, with long curved foils. Ocean Renewable Power Company is in charge, and a lot of outside investment has made the event happen.

The 98ft turbine sits on the bottom, fastened to a tide resistant supporting framework (pressherald.com)

There are a few ways to bring something new, like a wind farm, or a fish farm, or in this case underwater turbines into a coastal community. The method makes all the difference. It can be done secretly and aggressively, without concern for buy-in from the local community, and most likely it will fail. If it fails, nobody in the community cares.

Or it can be done with the extensive involvement of the local community.

The Eastport community has certainly been involved in the tidal power initiative there. Fishermen have advised on the best sites for placement of the turbines. Local conservationists have been consulted. Where possible, local contractors have been employed. Community officials have been included in making decisions. Restaurants and B&Bs have remained open beyond the usual three month tourist season.

The town of Eastport, Maine is as far east as you can go in the US, lying at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy just across the border from New Brunswick (treehugger.com)

The turbines at Eastport will start to generate power in October. Not much at first, but it’s a start. Over the next few years, more turbines will be added. In time, they should serve the needs of most of the town.

What works for Eastport should work for the many other coastal communities along the Bay of Fundy, and elsewhere around the world where tidal currents run fast enough.

This is not large-scale power generation. But it is community-based, and the community appears to be strongly supportive. It should succeed.

Where coastal communities are involved in all aspects of an initiative, whether it is a fish farm, wind farm, coastal fishery, or tidal-power generation, conflicts are reduced, and success is more likely.

Consultation, inclusion, integrity and transparency are all essential components.

Interesting, isn’t it, that we seem to have learn this lesson over and over again?

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The Gulf of Mexico: High Hopes.

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

Dr. Nancy Rabelais continues to monitor, analyse and comment on the everlasting Dead Zone in the Northern Gulf of Mexico.

Nancy Rabelais is still at it. She deserves awards not just for her research on the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico, but also for her enthused persistence for about the last 30 years. She has monitored the Dead Zone, warned relentlessly about it, pushed hard for corrective action, while the Dead Zone continues to recur every year. In fact, she just won the Heinz Award and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute’s Ketchum Award honoring her extraordinary effort and ability.

The Dead Zone in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Red indicates hypoxic (oxygen depleted) water. (earthsky.org)

The Dead Zone, a result of runoff of fertilizers from the endless cropland of the immense Mississippi watershed, is, of course, just one of the discouraging stresses that have largely wrecked the Gulf Coast. Fish have been overfished, wetlands lost, barrier islands eroded, estuarine habitats degraded, pipelines laid, shipping channels dug, levees built, freshwater flow diverted – and then the ecosystem was hit first by Katrina and then by the pollution from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Existing (red) and planned (blue) oil and gas pipelines: it is getting crowded (eoearth.org)

What a test of resilience, for both a natural ecosystem and for the affected human communities.

In response to all of this, The Gulf Coast Restoration Task Force has just published its report, and it’s a report to want to believe in. The Task Force, established by Presidential Executive Order, was composed of representatives from the five Gulf States and from 11 Federal Agencies. The group listened to everyone – state and federal agencies, tribes, communities, academics, local government, business and industry, NGOs.

The Task Force report insists on the integration of the coastal human communities as a critical part of the ecosystem. It recognizes that waiting for scientific certainly is inappropriate, and that adaptive management should guide us through the restoration efforts. It calls for extensive monitoring and modelling by scientists, which is what they do best. It imagines a restored ecosystem, with improved water quality, protected coastal resources, sustainable fisheries, and enhanced community resilience.

If it is actually possible to restore a large-scale ecosystem, the Gulf Coast should be an excellent place to try. As always, the needed ingredients are knowledge, ability, incentive, cooperation, funds, and political will. Challenging, to say the least.

The Gulf of Mexico - large, complex, rich in resources, threatened but fixable (eoearth.org)

Of course it is a long-term plan, but nothing in the proposal is impossible. Much of it should have started sooner, in response to Rabelais’ work, and as a result of Katrina’s impact. Maybe this time it will become reality.

High hopes, yes. Based on past practices, we should limit our expectations.

But this is a chance, a rare opportunity to do the right thing. Let’s do this. And show ourselves and the world that it can be done, that large ecosystems can be restored to something that might be sustainable. They don’t need to deteriorate to sterility and oblivion.

Go Gulf.

Futile attempt at adaptation on Dauphin Island - a typical migrating sand bar, a barrier island off the coast of Louisiana. We're smarter than this (clui.org).

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A Network That Works

Friday, November 18th, 2011

It is easy to forget that despite the mess the world is in, there are still successful initiatives, involving a lot of people, communities and organizations.

A remarkable example is a network of communities in the South Pacific that have adopted community-based, adaptive fisheries management. Formally called the Locally-Managed Marine Area Network, or LMMA, it has just celebrated its first ten years of operation and growth.

Its vision is to develop healthy coastal ecosystems and communities, with abundant and sustainable fisheries and, by working together, to take actions that have a high chance of measurable long-term success.

Coastal village in Indonesia (lmmanetwork.org)

Current members are Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Palau, and Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia. Other Pacific island nations such as Kiribati and New Caledonia are exploring membership.

Island nations of the South Pacific. Not identified, in yellow: Indonesia extends west from PNG, and the Philippines lie to the north of Indonesia. Ignore Australia.

In each country, each participating village or group of villages agrees to support the basic vision of the network. Each sets up restricted or tabu areas, free from any fishing, and bans destructive fishing. Important species may be restored. Alternatives to fishing are explored. Mangroves are replanted. And each protects the area from commercial fishermen and poachers.

Diver monitoring site in Fiji (lmmanetwork)

Good communication is critical, of course. Information of successes and failures is freely shared. Villagers are trained to gather and analyse data in order to document the success of initiatives such as banning fishing of replanting mangroves, and they share their knowledge and experience with other communities.

Sharing information at a workshop (lmmanetwork.org)

These really are community-based initiatives. The community makes the decisions, guided by community leaders, with advice from conservation groups and university researchers from the region. Usually an NGO is involved, varying is size from local community-based organizations to WWF and The Nature Conservancy.

Gamma Gades, on the right, is a fisheries warden who helps protect Hinatuan Bay on Mindaneo Island, South Phillipines (lmmanetwork.org)

Ten years of existence is a very short time, and many communities have not been involved nearly that long, yet a new report indicates that the benefits are real. At selected sites in Indonesia, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, and Fiji, fish catches have improved, poverty is less, new jobs (mostly related to tourism) have emerged, health and sanitation are better, local governance has improved, more women are involved, and more children are in school and staying in school.

The LMMA Network council (lmmanetwork.org)

Of course there still are problems. Poaching, intrusion by commercial fishermen, and destructive fishing can be hard to deal with, stressful for those who are trying to enforce the community’s regulations. Alternative jobs to fishing can also be hard to develop or sustain. And teachers can be hard to find to introduce the planned environmental programs in the schools.

But the protected coral reefs are healthier, fish stocks are improving, mangroves are growing, and communities are deeply invested. Increasing numbers of villages are joining the Network – there really is no limit to how big this could all grow. Certainly it has the potential to encompass all the island nations of the Indo-Pacific, and there is no reason to think it should stop there.

A report on poverty reduction where communities have joined the LMMA network.

Where does global warming, with its rising sea levels and ocean acidification, fit in here? Communities include in their objectives ways to adapt to climate change, but adaptation may in some cases be very difficult. Coastal communities participating in the LMMA Network will, however, be able to share their challenges and their solutions.

Hope lies in such rational, evidence-based discussion. The LMMA Network is a model we should look at carefully. Here’s the link again: lmmanetwork.org.

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Community Leadership

Monday, February 28th, 2011

Why do some fisheries fail, from overfishing or mismanagement, while others appear to be successful, or at least sustainable?

A lovely study, published in Nature this past month (online Jan 5, but hard copy Feb 17), indicates that a carefully community-based, co-managed fishery is the way to go – perhaps the only way that fisheries can be prevented from crashing.

Such co-management involves the usual scientists and managers, but it also depends on the fishers, and a willingness by all to work together. The common objective is to manage the fishery successfully, while at the same time sustaining the fishing community. Who can argue with that?

The authors of the study (Nicolas Gutierrez, Ray Hilborn and Omar Defeo) call it “the only realistic solution for the majority of the world’s fisheries.” A strong statement.

They assessed 130 co-managed fisheries in 44 countries, and of course the diversity in ecology, community, and politics of the fisheries was immense. They identified a number of features of a successful fishery, and their conclusion is that the more features a fishery possesses, the more likely it is to be sustainable. That’s not surprising, but they also ranked the importance of the various ingredients.

This map of co-managed fisheries around the world is from the Nature article. Colours indicate how many useful features a fishery possesses - successful ones have most (light and dark green), while least successful ones have only one (red). (washington.edu)

The most successful examples of sustainable fisheries include protected areas where fishing is restricted, territorial user rights by those doing the fishing, and accepted quotas of what individuals or the community can catch.

Most important by far, however, is the presence of at least one individual in the community who is well respected, energetic, and deeply committed to the success of the co-management of the fishery. Of course there are conflicts over aspects like quotas, licenses, and poaching in even the best of co-managed fisheries, and such a community leader needs political skills as well..

This is reassuring news. Even hopeful. The other components are certainly necessary – scientists assessing stock sizes and proposing what the quotas should be, managers providing a diversity of regulations – but without strong community leadership, successful co-management is unlikely. And every fishing community is certain to have talented individuals interested and willing to provide the necessary leadership.

The advantages to community based co-management are so very clear. The authors of the Nature article point them out:
- Enhanced ownership by fishers, encouraging responsible fishing.
- Greater sensitivity to socio-economic and ecological constraints.
- Improved management through use of local knowledge.
- Collective ownership by fishers in decision making.
- Increased compliance with regulations through peer pressure.
- Better monitoring, control and surveillance by fishers.

On the one hand, it seems odd that we are only truly learning this now. What have we been thinking during all these years of fisheries failures? On the other hand, co-management is truly happening in more and more fisheries, and we now know a lot about what makes co-management succeed.

This is real, not fantasy. Community-based co-management works.
Community leaders arise! Now is your time.

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