Sustainable fisheries
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| Bycatch and Discards
Bycatch is the unintended capture of nontarget species during fishing operations. Discards are the practice of returning undesirable, generally dead, fish or other marine creatures to the sea, often due to legislative constraints or because the species is not the intended catch. Bycatch and discards contribute to the waste of marine resources, impact biodiversity, and can cause population decreases in nontarget species. A solution to this will be with high-grading fishing selection, where only targeted species are caught in the net, leaving out the undesired species that can escape in the net. Case study (the effect of beam-trawling disturbance on infauna communities in different habitats by Kaiser, 1996) This is a case study of beam trawling for fishing and its impact on infauna communities (Benthic communities). The site for this experiment was the northeast coast of Anglesey, Liverpool Bay. The survey and fishing operation were undertaken with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF). The following results were obtained from the survey to show the effect of beam trawling disturbance on the ecosystem. Beam trawling was found to be a source of physical disturbance of the natural marine environment in areas less than 50m deep. The chains attached to the trawls were the source of the damage to the sediments. “In some areas, beam trawling may be frequent and intense, leading to speculation that it may generate long-term changes in the local benthic fauna.” (“TRAWLING AS A MAJOR THREAT TO MEDITERRANEAN MAERL BEDS - ResearchGate”) (Kaiser et al., 1996) Trawling was observed to decrease the mean abundance of some taxa by 58% and the mean number of species per sample by 50% (Kaiser et al., 1996). Although fished and unfished area differences were not displayed, they were identified as a significant conflict in the fishing stock. Unlike the Mediterranean landing of fish observed in the '90s, with an abundance of crustaceans and cephalopods to about one million tons due to vessels' increment and fishing activities over the years, it declined to about 700,000 tons in 2013 (Colloca et al., 2017). This indicates that overfishing and fishing activities for an extended time could severely impact the decrease in biodiversity or fish. In conclusion, a maximum sustainable yield (MSY) fish stock tends to be the only solution for fisheries in our ecosystem or marine environment. Our ecosystem is under pressure due to fishing activities, and the number of vessels in the marine environment needs to be regulated. In making sure of protecting and conserving the seas, the cooperation of international laws and treaties needs to be significantly considered; treaties like the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and Agreement to Promote Compliance with International Conservation and Management Measures by Fishing Vessels on the High Seas. With the help of regulatory bodies, Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) are the regulators to measure the conservation and sustainable management of highly migratory or straddling fish species through regulations like Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated fishing (IUU). One of the successful RFMOs is the International Commission for Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, which has successfully developed conservation and management measures for tuna and \tuna-like species in the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas. .” (Review And Analysis of International Legal and Policy Instruments Related to Deep-Sea Fisheries and Biodiversity Conservation in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, n.d.) Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) play a vital role in protecting marine resources that are not yet damaged and ensuring that the future exploitation of marine resources can be sustainable when managed well. Total Allowed Catch and Proper use of gear in the marine environment will help keep the ecosystem safe and conserved for the next generation (Sustainable Fisheries: Management & International Law, n.d.). For example, the Phoenix Island protected area in Kiribati has about 400,000 square kilometers of protected marine area, the world's largest marine protected area. It condemns and prohibits fishing activities within its boundaries to conserve fish stocks and biodiversity. Download 114.03 Kb. Share with your friends:
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