|
|||||
|
|
Sustainability of deep-sea fisheries |
|
| Authors: | Elliott A Norse Sandra BrookeWilliam WL Cheung Malcolm R ClarkIvar Ekeland Rainer FroeseKristina M Gjerde Richard L HaedrichSelina S Heppell Telmo Morato Lance E MorganDaniel Pauly Rashid SumailaReg Watson |
| Institution: | a Marine Conservation Institute, 2122 112th Ave NE, Suite B-300, Bellevue WA 98004, USA b School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK c National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Evans Bay Parade, Wellington 6021, New Zealand d Department of Mathematics, University of British Columbia, 1984 Mathematics Road, Vancouver BC, Canada V6T 1Z2 e Leibniz-Institute of Marine Sciences, IFM-GEOMAR, Düsternbrooker Weg 20, 24105 Kiel, Germany f IUCN Global Marine Programme, Rue Mauverney 28, 1196 Gland, Switzerland g Memorial University, 53 Beaver Meadow Road, Norwich, VT 05055, USA h Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, 104 Nash Hall, Corvallis OR 97330, USA i Departmento de Oceanografia e Pescas, Universidade dos Açores, 9901-862 Horta, Portugal j Oceanic Fisheries Program, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Noumea, New Caledonia k Marine Conservation Institute, 14301 Arnold Drive, Suite 25, Glen Ellen CA 95442, USA l Fisheries Centre, 2202 Main Mall, University of British Columbia, Vancouver BC, Canada, V6T 1Z4 |
| Abstract: | As coastal fisheries around the world have collapsed, industrial fishing has spread seaward and deeper in pursuit of the last economically attractive concentrations of fishable biomass. For a seafood-hungry world depending on the oceans' ecosystem services, it is crucial to know whether deep-sea fisheries can be sustainable.The deep sea is by far the largest but least productive part of the oceans, although in very limited places fish biomass can be very high. Most deep-sea fishes have life histories giving them far less population resilience/productivity than shallow-water fishes, and could be fished sustainably only at very low catch rates if population resilience were the sole consideration. But like old-growth trees and great whales, their biomass makes them tempting targets while their low productivity creates strong economic incentive to liquidate their populations rather than exploiting them sustainably (Clark's Law). Many deep-sea fisheries use bottom trawls, which often have high impacts on nontarget fishes (e.g., sharks) and invertebrates (e.g., corals), and can often proceed only because they receive massive government subsidies. The combination of very low target population productivity, nonselective fishing gear, economics that favor population liquidation and a very weak regulatory regime makes deep-sea fisheries unsustainable with very few exceptions. Rather, deep-sea fisheries more closely resemble mining operations that serially eliminate fishable populations and move on.Instead of mining fish from the least-suitable places on Earth, an ecologically and economically preferable strategy would be rebuilding and sustainably fishing resilient populations in the most suitable places, namely shallower and more productive marine ecosystems that are closer to markets. |
| Keywords: | Sustainability Deep-sea fisheries Fishery collapse Fisheries economics Clark's law High seas |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ | |