Fisheries Management and Ecology

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering New Zealand fisheries statistics, management frameworks (ITQ, TAC, MSY), population modeling, and historical case studies of stock collapse.

Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)

An area of coastal water and seabed within a certain distance of a country's coastline, to which the country claims exclusive rights for fishing and drilling; New Zealand's is the world's 4th largest at $4,053,000\,km^2$.

Total Allowable Commercial Catch (TACC)

the total quantity of fish that the commercial sector is permitted to harvest each year for sale.

Total Allowable Catch (TAC)

the total quantity of fish that can be sustainably taken each year, encompassing commercial (TACC), recreational, and customary fishing allowances.

Individually Transferable Quotas (ITQs)

a management system where commercial fishing enterprises purchase the right to harvest a set proportion of the TACC, which can then be sold or traded.

Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY)

The largest average yield or catch that can be taken from a stock over time without compromising its productive capacity; it usually occurs when the population is at approximately $30\%$ of its unexploited size.

BMSY

The biomass level required to support the maximum sustainable yield.

Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE)

a measure of fish abundance calculated as the catch of fish (in numbers or weight) taken per defined period of effort, such as one hour of trawling.

Fishery Management Areas (FMAs)

Geographic zones used to manage New Zealand fisheries; initially established as 26 species-groups across up to 10 management areas.

Resource Rental

A fee paid by fishers to the government for the right to use and profit from the national fishery resource.

Logistic Growth Equation

The mathematical description of population growth given by $\frac{dN}{dt} = rN (1 - \frac{N}{K})$, where $K$ is the carrying capacity.

Carrying Capacity (K)

The maximum population size of a species that a specific environment can sustain indefinitely, at which point population growth slows to zero.

Over-capitalisation

The expansion of fishing fleets and investment beyond what is necessary to efficiently harvest a resource, often leading to increased fishing pressure.

Serial Depletion

Also known as 'boom and bust' fishing, this occurs when fishers exhaust one local aggregation or stock before moving on to the next, common in deep-sea fisheries like orange roughy.

K-strategist

A type of species characterized by slow growth, late maturity, and long lifespan (e.g., orange roughy), making them particularly vulnerable to overfishing due to low productivity.

Orange Roughy

A deep-sea, slow-growing species that matures late and has experienced significant declines, dropping to approximately $5\%$ of its $1970$ biomass in some areas.

Atlantic Cod

A species that suffered a devastating collapse off the coast of Newfoundland in $1992$, leading to a fishing moratorium and the loss of $40,000$ jobs.

Factory-freezer Trawler

Large commercial fishing vessels, the first of which was the British vessel Fairtry in $1954$, capable of catching, processing, and freezing fish at sea.

Evolutionary Impact of Fisheries

Evidence from species like Atlantic cod showing a significant reduction in age-at-maturity ($16-30\%\text{ reduction}$) and length-at-maturity ($\sim 20\%\text{ reduction}$) due to selective fishing pressure.