Fisheries最新文献

Harvest regulation is one of the primary tools that natural resource managers use to manage exploited fish and wildlife populations. Unfortunately, the desired results of harvest regulations are frequently not realized. We contend that a broader and more thorough understanding of anglers could improve the success of harvest regulations. Using a case study from an interstate U.S. fishery for Walleye Sander vitreus, we demonstrate the counterintuitive responses anglers exhibited to differing Walleye harvest regulations. Three possible reasons are explored, using theories from social–science disciplines, to explain why anglers released a greater proportion of larger Walleye under a more liberalized harvest regulation: (1) harvest regulations serving as goals for anglers, (2) resolution of cognitive dissonance provided by restrictive harvest regulations, and (3) the perceived “value” assigned to specific fish or wildlife entity by harvest regulations. We conclude by discussing how taking an interdisciplinary approach (e.g., sociology, psychology, economics) to understanding angler behavior could be an exciting frontier for fisheries management and how this approach specifically holds promise for improving the success of harvest regulations.

Side-scan sonar (SSS) is a powerful tool that can be used to address many key questions in fisheries science. In principle, SSS uses dual transducers to transmit a narrow-beam, wide-angle acoustic signal as the survey vessel transits an area. The intensity of reflected sound is recorded to generate an image mosaic comprised of benthic substrates and targets in the water column, including organisms such as fish. Although SSS has been around for decades, recent advancements have opened new opportunities to leverage this technology to directly measure fish populations. In this paper, we review the current state of the science and identify opportunities to further refine SSS for fisheries applications.

The management and conservation of fisheries and aquatic resources are inherently applied activities. Therefore, when knowledge generated from research and monitoring, or knowledge that is held by practitioners and other actors (e.g., Indigenous elders, fishers), fails to inform those applied decisions, the persistent gap between knowledge and action is reinforced (i.e., the knowledge–action gap). In the healthcare realm, there has been immense growth in implementation science over the past decade or so with a goal of understanding and bridging the gap between knowledge and action and delivering on evidence-based decision making. Yet, within fisheries and aquatic sciences, the concept of implementation science has not received the same level of attention. We posit, therefore, that there is an urgent need to embrace implementation science to enhance fisheries and aquatic management and conservation. In this paper, we seek to describe what implementation science is and what it has to offer to the fisheries and aquatic science and management communities. For our context, we define implementation science as the scientific study of processes and approaches to promote the systematic uptake of research and monitoring findings and other evidence-based practices into routine practice and decision making to improve the effectiveness of fisheries management and aquatic conservation. We explore various frameworks for implementation science and consider them in the context of fisheries and aquatic science. Although there are barriers and challenges to putting implementation science into practice (e.g., lack of capacity for such work, lack of time to engage in reflection, lack of funding), there is also much in the way of opportunity and several examples of where such efforts are already underway. We conclude by highlighting the research needs related to implementation science in the fisheries and aquatic science realm that span methodological approaches, albeit a common theme is the need to involve practitioners (and other relevant actors) in the research. By introducing the concept and discipline of implementation science to the fisheries and aquatic science community, our hope is that we will inspire individuals and organizations to learn more about how implementation science can help deliver on the promise of evidence-based management and decision making and narrow the gap between research and practice.