Rapid and lasting gains from solving illegal fishing

Cabral, Reniel B., Mayorga, Juan, Clemence, Michaela, Lynham, John, Koeshendrajana, Sonny, Muawanah, Umi, Nugroho, Duto, Anna, Zuzy, Mira, Ghofar, Abdul, Zulbainarni, Nimmi, Gaines, Steven D., and Costello, Christopher (2018) Rapid and lasting gains from solving illegal fishing. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2. pp. 650-658.

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Abstract

Perhaps the greatest challenge facing global fisheries is that recovery often requires substantial short-term reductions in fishing effort, catches and profits. These costs can be onerous and are borne in the present; thus, many countries are unwilling to undertake such socially and politically unpopular actions. We argue that many nations can recover their fisheries while avoiding these short-term costs by sharply addressing illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. This can spur fishery recovery, often at little or no cost to local economies or food provision. Indonesia recently implemented aggressive policies to curtail the high levels of IUU fishing it experiences from foreign-flagged vessels. We show that Indonesia’s policies have reduced total fishing effort by at least 25%, illustrating with empirical evidence the possibility of achieving fishery reform without short-term losses to the local fishery economy. Compared with using typical management reforms that would require a 15% reduction in catch and 16% reduction in profit, the approach of curtailing IUU has the potential to generate a 14% increase in catch and a 12% increase in profit. Applying this model globally, we find that addressing IUU fishing could facilitate similar rapid, long-lasting fisheries gains in many regions of the world.

Item ID: 71133
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 2397-334X
Copyright Information: © 2018 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. All rights reserved.
Date Deposited: 15 Dec 2021 05:16
FoR Codes: 30 AGRICULTURAL, VETERINARY AND FOOD SCIENCES > 3005 Fisheries sciences > 300505 Fisheries management @ 50%
31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3103 Ecology > 310399 Ecology not elsewhere classified @ 50%
SEO Codes: 10 ANIMAL PRODUCTION AND ANIMAL PRIMARY PRODUCTS > 1003 Fisheries - wild caught > 100305 Wild caught fin fish (excl. tuna) @ 100%
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