Topic
Fishing
About: Fishing is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 26543 publications have been published within this topic receiving 455552 citations. The topic is also known as: angling.
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TL;DR: High adult mortality appears to lead to short-term apparently plastic changes in age and size at maturity: exploited populations are characterized by earlier age and increasedsize at maturity.
Abstract: An important aspect of species susceptibility to fishing are the changes in demographic characteristics of populations that fishing might induce. The purpose of this study is to show the short-term effects of fishing on growth and reproduction patterns. This assessment is made through a comparative study of key parameters (mortality, size, age and size at maturity, fecundity) among stocks subject to various levels of exploitation. Data have been assembled for 77 separate (primarily commercial) fish stocks.Trait variation is partitioned into effects attributable to size, phylogeny, and population. High adult mortality appears to lead to short-term apparently plastic changes in age and size at maturity: exploited populations are characterized by earlier age and increased size at maturity. This compensatory response to exploitation may conceal longer term selection effects, and may be worth considering in stock assessments.
177 citations
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TL;DR: Fishing communities are often among the highest risk groups in countries with high overall rates of HIV/AIDS prevalence Vulnerability to HIV prevalence stems from complex, interacting causes that may include the mobility of many fisherfolk, the time fishermen spend away from home, their access to daily cash income in an overall context of poverty and vulnerability, their demographic profile, the ready availability of commercial sex in fishing ports and the subcultures of risk taking and hypermasculinity among some fishermen.
Abstract: Fishing communities are often among the highest-risk groups in countries with high overall rates of HIV/AIDS prevalence Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS stems from complex, interacting causes that may include the mobility of many fisherfolk, the time fishermen spend away from home, their access to daily cash income in an overall context of poverty and vulnerability, their demographic profile, the ready availability of commercial sex in fishing ports and the subcultures of risk taking and hypermasculinity among some fishermen The subordinate economic and social position of women in many fishing communities in low-income countries makes them even more vulnerable HIV/AIDS in fishing communities was first dealt with as a public health issue, and most projects were conducted by health sector agencies and NGOs, focusing on education and health care provision More recently, as the social and economic impacts of the epidemic have become evident, wider social service provision and economic support have been added In the last 3 years, many major fishery development programmes in Africa, South/South-East Asia and the AsiaPacific region have incorporated HIV/AIDS awareness in their planning The HIV/ AIDS pandemic threatens the sustainability of fisheries by eclipsing the futures of many fisherfolk The burden of illness puts additional stresses on households, preventing them from accumulating assets derived from fishing income Premature death robs fishing communities of the knowledge gained by experience and reduces incentives for longer-term and inter-generational stewardship of resources Recent projects championing local knowledge and resource-user participation in management need to take these realities into account If the fishing communities of developing countries that account for 95% of the world’s fisherfolk and supply more than half the world’s fish are adversely impacted by HIV/AIDS, then the global supply of fish, particularly to lower-income consumers, may be jeopardized
177 citations
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TL;DR: This paper developed a deterministic, density-dependent, age-structured model for assessing the effects of longlining on wandering albatross populations and found that the marked decline in both populations, and subsequent recovery of the Crozet Islands population (but not the continued decline of the South Georgia population), can be explained by the tuna longline by-catch.
Abstract: Summary
1 Several albatross species, including the wandering albatross Diomedea exulans, have shown marked declines in abundance throughout their range. These seabirds are frequently taken as by-catch in longline fisheries and this mortality has been implicated in the population declines. 2 We developed a deterministic, density-dependent, age-structured model for assessing the effects of longlining on wandering albatross populations. We used demographic data from field studies at South Georgia and the Crozet Islands, data on albatross abundance from 1960 to 1995, and reported effort data from the tuna longline fisheries south of 30° S, to model estimated by-catch levels and other population parameters in the model.
3 The model used two alternative assumptions about patterns of at-sea distribution of wandering albatross (uniform between 30° S–60° S; proportional to the distribution of longline fishing effort between these latitudes).
4 Our model was able to predict reasonably closely the observed data from the Crozet Islands wandering albatross population, but the fit to the South Georgia population was substantially poorer. This probably reflects: (i) greater overlap in the Indian Ocean than in the Atlantic Ocean between the main areas of tuna longline fishing and the foraging ranges of wandering albatrosses from the Crozet Islands and South Georgia, respectively; and (ii) greater impact of poorly documented longline fisheries, especially the tuna fisheries in the south Atlantic and the Patagonian toothfish Dissostichus eleginoides fishery, within the foraging range of wandering albatrosses from South Georgia.
5 The model results suggest that the marked decline in both populations, and subsequent recovery of the Crozet Islands population (but not the continued decline of the South Georgia population), can be explained by the tuna longline by-catch. They further indicate that populations may be able to sustain some level of incidental take. However, the likely under-reporting of fishing effort (especially in non-tuna longline fisheries) and the delicate balance between a sustainable and unsustainable level of by-catch for these long-lived populations suggest great caution in any application of such findings.
177 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors review the global effects of fisheries and propose an integrated framework for managing biophysical processes and human ecology, focusing on the dynamics of interaction webs in a spatially constrained environment.
Abstract: Fishing remains one of the largest factors modifying marine ecosystems. Because fisheries constitute only one of many anthropogenic effects, management is shifting from single-species approaches toward ecosystem-based management. Interaction webs are a critical nexus to understand linkages, to model ecosystem change, and to apply management directives. Ecosystem-based management requires consideration of both direct and indirect effects of commercial fisheries. But it must also include impacts of bycatch, recreational fisheries, artisanal fisheries, and environmental change that can be large but unanticipated. Synergistic effects of fishing, environmental variation, and climate change increasingly threaten marine ecosystems and complicate management. Here we review the global effects of fisheries and propose an integrated framework for managing biophysical processes and human ecology. To incorporate the multitude of effects, this emerging approach focuses on the dynamics of interaction webs in a spatially...
177 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, the relative roles of human impacts and hydrographic conditions on assemblages of shallow (3-10 m depth) rocky reefs by comparing no-take reserves with fishing areas occurring in gradients of exposure of the coastline to dominant winds and waves around two Mediterranean islands, Capraia and Giannutri, Italy.
Abstract: Coastal marine assemblages are shaped by interactions between physical factors, biological interactions, and almost ubiquitously, human impacts. Large-scale ma- nipulations of human access replicated over a range of physical and biological conditions can generate insights over the processes shaping marine assemblages. We examined the relative roles of human impacts and hydrographic conditions on assemblages of shallow (3-10 m depth) rocky reefs by comparing no-take reserves with fishing areas occurring in gradients of exposure of the coastline to dominant winds and waves around two Mediter- ranean islands, Capraia and Giannutri, Italy. We hypothesized that fishing influences as- semblages directly by reducing populations of target fish species, and indirectly by reducing predation on sea urchins, intensifying herbivory, and causing ''barrens'' of encrusting coralline algae. We examined how the possible effects of fishing varied with physical exposure of the coastline. The composition of fish assemblages differed significantly between sites within no-take reserves and fished reference sites. Abundances and sizes of predatory fishes targeted by local fisheries were greater in no-take reserves than in fished areas. Sea urchin densities, the extent of coralline barrens, and the structure of the algal and invertebrate benthic assemblages showed clear variation associated with exposure of the coastline to dominant winds and waves, but weak effects of protection from human use. Densities of the black sea urchin Arbacia lixula were significantly greater along the windward than along the leeward sides of the islands, and were positively correlated with the extent of coralline barrens. In contrast, the purple sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus was more abundant along the leeward sides of islands and showed indirect responses to protection at Giannutri, where purple sea urchins tended to have greater densities at fished than at protected sites. Protection from fishing influenced fish assemblages directly, and benthic assemblages indirectly, but the latter effect was observed only at sites with lower physical exposure. Indirect effects of fishing and recovery of assemblages within marine protected areas through cascading trophic interactions are likely to vary depending on local physical conditions and on the characteristics of species that are locally dominant.
175 citations