Gaya's Lectures

Lectures 21 - 23

What are the main ocean boundaries around a country?

Territorial sea (12nm)

Exclusive economic zone (200nm from TS)

Continental rise

High Seas

What are the three types of fishery stocks?

Transboundary stocks

Straddling stocks

Highly migratory stocks

What are transboundary stocks?

Stocks that cross the EEZ of two or more bordering coastal states.

What are straddling stocks?

Stocks that cross neighbouring EEZs and adjacent high seas.

What are highly migratory stocks?

Stocks that cross non-neighbouring EEZs and the high seas.

Caribbean Eco-regions & International Fisheries Management

The Caribbean has populations that are not self-recruiting, making it difficult to manage as some countries act as larvae-sources and some as juvenile-sinks.

What is serial depeletion?

Harvesting resources from patch to patch, localised depletion of individuals where re-establishment may not occur.

How did serial depletion affect the sea urchin industry?

Sea urchin fishery started in Japan in 1940s, as the demand increased they moved global and depleted those stocks. International growth masked the regional declines in the fishery.

What international conventions do we have for the high seas? (5)

1958 Convention on the high seas

1972 Convention on the prevention of marine pollution

1973 International convention for the prevention of pollution from ships

1982 UNCLOS

2009 Agreement on port state management

When is fishing illegal?

No authorisation

Against conservation and management by RFMOs

Against national laws or international obligations

When is fishing unreported?

No reported, or the reporting contravenes international, RFMO or national laws and regulations

When is fishing unregulated?

The fishing vessel has no nationality

Fishing activities jeopardise fish stocks

What is CCAMLR?

Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resource

What does CCAMLR do?

Aims to manage natural resources (excluding mammals) and support conservation in the Southern Ocean.

What is the UN Fish Stocks Agreement of 1995?

International agreement for the conservation and sustainable use of straddling and highly migratory fish stocks.

What are the challenges of the UN Fish Stocks Agreement?

Data efficiency

IUU

Fishing subsidies

Bycatch

What are regional mechanisms?

Dedicated to sustainable management of fishery resources in a particular region or a highly migratory species.

What are examples of regional fishery mechanisms?

Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna.

The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission.

The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission.

What does the International Whaling Commission do?

Provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and orderly development of the whaling industry.

Catch limits, designates areas are whale sanctuaries, places restrictions on hunting methods.

What are marine protected areas?

Areas of the marine environment that are protected from extractive impacts (e.g. fishing, mining)

What are the benefits of MPAs? (5)

Increases in species diversity, abundance and size (reproductive potential).

Phase shift.

Protection of key habitats (spawning & nursery).

Larval export.

Fisheries spillover effects.

What are the challenges of MPAs? (7)

Limiting boundaries, defining size, connectivity, and length of time.

Increase predation risk.

Obtaining baseline ecological data.

Fisheries displacement.

Monitoring.

Governance.

Enforcement.

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park

World’s largest coral reef ecosystem, the marine park protects biodiversity and regulates activities in the area.

What are type 1 MPAs in NZ?

Created under the Marine Reserves Act 1971, with the purpose to preserve marine life for scientific study.

Why might type 1 MPAs be established?

Contain underwater scenery, natural features or marine life of distinctive quality.

What can type 1 MPAs control?

Fishing, aquaculture, anchoring, research, bio-prospecting, tourism.

What are type 2 MPAs in NZ?

Created outside of the Marine Reserves Act 1971 but provide enough protection from the adverse effects of fishing to meet MPA Protection Standard.

What are examples of type 2 MPAs?

Fiordland Marine Management Area

Cook Strait Submarine Cable Closure

Sugar Loaf Islands (Taranaki)

Fiordland Marine Management Area

Made up of 10 marine reserves, a network that provide some connectivity between different areas.

Includes are wide range of fishing restrictions, including a total set net ban.

What are other Marine Protection Tools outside of MPAs?

Benthic protection areas

Seamount area closures

Marine mammal sanctuaries

What are customary fisheries management areas?

Areas that enable local management to better recognise Treaty rights and rangatiratanga.

What are Mataitai Reserves?

Traditional fishing grounds for tangata whenua, don’t allow commercial fishing.

Managed by designated tangata tiaka/kaitiaki who can implement bylaws.

Taiapure Local Fisheries (Fisheries Act 1996)

Areas that have customarily been of special significance to any iwi or hapu, allowing all types of fishing.

Managed by committee, can implement regulations.

East Otago Taiapure

Prohibition of set netting, taking help, restriction for blue cod and other fin fish, prohibition on the take of paua from the area.

What are S186a and S186b closures?

Temporary closures of any area of NZ fishery waters intended to respond to localised depletion & provide for management by Tangata Whenua.

How long may S186a and S186b enclosures be enforced?

No more than 2 years, but do have the option to renew.

What is rahui?

A closure that can be used for a multitude of reasons (claim of ownership, loss of life, environmental health, stock replenishment).

Applied and enforced by mana of the rangatira.

What are locally managed marine areas (LMMAs)?

Customary marine tenures throughout the Indo-Pacific, emphasising community led management of local fisheries.

What are Community Conservation Areas?

Newer than MPAs, lack capacity, expertise and funding.

What are TURFs?

Territorial Use Rights of Fisheries, gives individuals or communities exclusive access to marine resources in a given area.

Incentive to sustainably harvest and maintain fisheries.

TURFs in Chile

Overfishing crises led to the critical closures of local fisheries in late 1980s, TURF policy created in 1991.

700 separate TURFs, increased economic stability, increase biomass and size of individuals.

Enforcement/poaching still a large issue.

What are common fisheries tools? (5)

Minimum size limits

Maximum size limits

Prohibitions on harvesting specific individuals

Gear restrictions

Temporal and spatial closures

Minimum size limits challenges

Not effective for species that have poor survivorship

Will not support reproduction if set below size at maturity.

Challenges of maximum size limits?

Needs to be set low enough for fish to reach safety.

Not effective for species that have poor survivorship.

Need to ensure senescence is not an issue.

Fecundity & gamete quality.

Why are maximum size limits useful?

Protects the BOFFFFs or most fecund individuals within populations (as fecundity is associated with size).

Prohibitions on harvests specific individuals?

Often put in place to protect brooding animals (e.g. rock lobsters).

What do gear restrictions entail?

Narrowing down the specific gear that can or cannot be used.

What are the challenges around gear restrictions?

May be susceptible to effort creep.

Economic efficiency.

Enforcement.

What are challenges around temporal closures?

Unlikely to reduce fishing effort unless coupled with other tools.

Could shift fishing effort to other areas.

In multi-specific fisheries how to time temporal closures?

Why might temporal closures be used?

To protect individuals or populations during periods of vulnerability (such as reproduction) where they are at risk of overfishing.

What are the challenges of spatial closures?

Not effective for highly migratory species.

Where should the boundaries be?

Fisheries displacement.

Removes access to public.

What does SLOSS mean?

Single large or several small

The Quota Management System

Largely single species.

Maximum sustainable yield.

The purpose of the act is to ‘provide for the utilisation of fisheries resources while ensuring sustainability’ (s8).

What does bycatch in NZ typically include?

Birds, mammals, corals and sharks.

Ecosystem based management approaches for the future

Need to shift away from a single species approach to one that is truly ecosystem based.