Developing and integrating enhancement strategies to improve and restore fisheries

Abstract

Fisheries enhancements are management approaches involving the use of aquaculture and habitat technologies (in the broadest sense) to enhance or restore fisheries. The technologies most commonly used include hatchery rearing and release of aquatic animals and provision of artificial structures such as artificial reefs. Both are associated with distinct fields of knowledge and communities of practice. Recent calls to expand and broaden the role of aquaculture and habitat enhancements in marine conservation and an increasingly integrated view of living marine resource management have led to an aspirational broadening of concepts in this area. The 10th William R and Lenore Mote Symposium and 6th International Symposium on Stock Enhancement and Sea Ranching aimed to advance and integrate knowledge across enhancement technologies and practices. Substantial progress was noted in multiple technical areas such as understanding the potential and limitations for rearing organisms fit for release into the wild, and the design of artificial reefs to enhance local fish abundance. Crucial higher-level goals such as effectively enhancing or restoring fish abundance and fisheries at the stock level continue to receive insufficient attention across the enhancement sciences. Integration of enhancement strategies provides opportunities and challenges including a need to recognize, cross-discover, and engage other distinct areas of knowledge and communities of practice. A quick reference guide is provided to facilitate this process.