Marine and Coastal Fisheries最新文献

Offshore wind development (OWD) is set to expand rapidly in the United States as a component of the nation's effort to combat climate change. Offshore wind development in the United States is slated to begin in the Greater Atlantic region, where it is expected to interact with ocean ecology, human dimensions, fisheries data collections, and fisheries management. Understanding these interactions is key to ensuring the coexistence of offshore wind energy with sustainable fisheries and a healthy marine ecosystem. These anticipated interactions compelled the authors, all fisheries scientists or managers at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries who are actively engaged in offshore wind science to identify scientific research priorities for OWD in the Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf ecosystem, specifically in support of NOAA Fisheries' role as the nation's leading steward of marine life. We extracted and analyzed OWD research needs from existing scientific documents and used this information as the basis to develop a list of priorities that align with five major OWD science themes that are of high interest to NOAA Fisheries. These NOAA Fisheries themes include supporting the regulatory process; mitigating the impacts to NOAA Fisheries' surveys; advancing science to understand interactions with NOAA Fisheries trust resources, the marine ecosystem, and fishing industries/communities; advancing the science of mitigation for NOAA Fisheries trust resources and fishing industries/communities; and advancing data management methods. The areas identified as research priorities will support the coexistence of offshore wind and sustainable fisheries and inform the development of NOAA Fisheries' science plan for offshore wind in the Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf ecosystem as well as cross-sectoral science planning efforts at the regional, national, and international levels.

In a rapidly changing environment where fires are becoming more frequent and severe, scientists and managers need information and tools to enhance understanding of the numerous ways in which fire can affect fisheries. We used Ostrom's social–ecological systems framework to structure the development and refinement of fuzzy cognitive maps with stakeholders across the Kenai River fishery in Alaska, USA. The process yielded a model characterizing the structure and function of the Kenai River fishery. The model was then used to guide interviews with stakeholders focused on the effects of the 2019 Swan Lake Fire. We identified seven direct pathways through which fire can affect the social and ecological components of a coastal fishery. We also used the model to guide a targeted literature review to further explore how fire can affect the components of the Kenai River fishery. This synthesis of information allowed us to develop a more complete understanding of the impacts of fire on the fishery—an understanding informed by input from local stakeholders (via our interviews) and relevant scientific and management literature (via our literature review). Lastly, we used the model to assess the fishery's vulnerability to fire. We discuss how early run Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha constitute a highly vulnerable component of the system and have the greatest potential to impact the fishery as a whole through a chain of negative social and ecological interactions. This final step illustrates how the model can be used to assess the vulnerability of system components to specific threats. The model of the Kenai River fishery provides an empirically grounded and easily understood visual representation of the complex dynamics affecting coastal fisheries. As such, it can be used to structure discussions among managers and stakeholders, organize our understanding of how fire affects fisheries, and assess vulnerabilities to endogenous and exogenous stressors.

Otolith chemistry is a useful natural tracer for discerning habitat-use of estuarine fishes. For Southern Flounder Paralichthys lethostigma, recent otolith chemistry studies have revealed a diversity of residency patterns across salinity gradients. However, the contribution of recruits with specific residency patterns to fisheries is poorly understood. The objectives of this study were to (1) use otolith chemistry from fishery-independent and fishery-dependent collections in Mobile Bay, Alabama, to classify lifetime residency patterns (i.e., freshwater, transient, estuarine) in Southern Flounder collected across a large estuarine salinity gradient (0–30 psu); (2) to test if Southern Flounder exhibited resident or migratory behavior by determining if lifetime residency patterns in fishery-independent samples matched expected salinity patterns in the region of collection after accounting for annual variation in river discharge; and (3) to examine which residency patterns contributed to the commercial and recreational Southern Flounder fisheries in nearby coastal waters. Age-0 residency patterns in fishery-independent samples were strongly correlated with region of collection and annual river discharge, suggesting that the majority of Southern Flounder had resided in the same region in which they spent their age-0 growth phase. Southern Flounder with a combination of freshwater and estuarine salinity signals and classified as “transient” did not appear to have conducted large-scale movements across salinity gradients, but instead resided in regions of the estuary experiencing seasonal fluctuations in salinity. The majority (57%) of commercially and recreationally harvested Southern Flounder were transients, while a minority (39%) were estuarine residents and lifetime freshwater residents (4%) were rarely harvested. Results from this study suggest that Southern Flounder settle in and remain in the certain habitats during the estuarine residency phase. Given the lack of movement across habitats, future efforts to understand how habitat-specific conditions (e.g., abiotic, biotic, fishing exploitation) affect vital rates seems warranted for a species currently experiencing population declines.