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.

Offshore wind farms (OWFs) are rapidly developing as an alternative energy source globally and in the Greater Atlantic region of the United States. Despite the pace of development, there are still many uncertainties surrounding best practices in assessing the economic impacts of offshore wind on regional fishing industries. This work aims to provide an overview and assessment of industry perceptions, methods, results, and knowledge gaps pertaining to economic areas of concern related to interactions between OWFs and fishing industries in the region. We provide a compilation of studies focusing on industry perceptions and impacts of OWFs on the fishing industry, focusing on four key economic areas of interest: fuel expenditures; insurance costs; fishing industry revenues, income, and livelihoods; and fishing support businesses. Our findings suggest four overarching knowledge gap themes that persist across all economic areas of focus: (1) a lack of economic data or economically centered data collection efforts, (2) minimal works aiming to quantify the economic impacts of key areas of concern, (3) a lack of peer-reviewed models and methods in quantifying economic impacts, and (4) limited syntheses containing best practices or lessons learned associated with quantifying the comprehensive economic impacts posed by OWFs on fisheries. This article aims to build awareness in areas where interdisciplinary collaboration can take place as well as serve as a foundation for informing best practice guidance as it pertains to assessing economic impacts imposed by OWFs on the fishing industry.

The collapse of oyster populations and the fisheries they support has been a worldwide phenomenon, but studies of oyster demography in situ prior to and after the collapse have been rare. We used time series of stage-based counts of eastern oysters Crassostrea virginica in Apalachicola Bay, Florida, to help understand how abundance and demographic rates may have changed in the decade after the 2012 collapse relative to the period before the collapse. We relied on a Bayesian hierarchical model in which the latent stage structure of the oyster population (i.e., densities of spat, sublegal oysters, and legal oysters) was governed by a system process and where the count data represented summaries of that latent structure. Count data were sufficient to conduct this on two large oyster bars that had some of the highest precollapse oyster densities. We also examined nine other bars with less data for any temporal trends in postcollapse abundance that might be associated with recent restoration efforts. Among the 11 bars examined, oyster densities were often increasing prior to the collapse and were very low, without detectable trends, afterward. Based on our demographic analyses, mortality rates of Apalachicola Bay oysters in the decade after the collapse generally exceeded (often greatly so) those during the precollapse period for all oyster stages. On the other hand, spat settlement rates apparently were increasing prior to the collapse and remained high during the postcollapse period. Simulations of postcollapse demography suggest that without improved survival rates, further declines of the oyster population can be expected. We discuss these findings in light of ongoing restoration and management efforts and suggest ways in which rapid transitions to undesirable socio-ecological regimes might be avoided in the future.

In aquatic ecosystems around the world, gobies comprise one of the most diverse groups of fishes in estuaries. The Yangtze River estuary, the biggest estuary in the western Pacific, is a major habitat for larval gobies, with the peak spawning and breeding season occurring during late spring and summer. To investigate the adaptation mechanism of larval gobies to environmental factors, three models (a global generalized linear model, a generalized additive model, and a geographically weighted Poisson regression) were used to simulate and forecast the major habitat distributions of larval gobies based on the survey data from 2018 to 2020. Six species of gobies were studied: Rhinogobius giurinu, Odontamblyopus rubicundus, Tridentiger barbatus, Parachaeturichthys polynema, Tridentiger trigonocephalus, and Trypauchen vagina. The habitats for brackish species T. barbatus were mainly in freshwater (where, using the practical salinity scale, salinity is 0–1) of the south branch, whereas the marine species P. polynema was mainly caught in oligohaline waters (where salinity is 1–5) of the north branch. The other euryhaline species were near the exit of the north branch or dispersed throughout the surveyed region. Year, season, salinity, and sample location had significant effects (P < 0.001) on determining the habitat distributions of larval gobies. The geographically weighted Poisson regression identified that the temperature, depth, distance from the coast, and chlorophyll a had a significant effect (P < 0.001) on the local distribution of habitats. This work supplements information about the distribution of major habitats and their interactions with the environment for the ecologically important species of goby in the Yangtze estuary during the larval stage, and the conclusions provide a basis for the management of aquatic ecosystems and biological habitats.

In response to the severe decline of the European Eel Anguilla anguilla stock in recent decades, various data frameworks and research efforts toward improved management rely on the availability of site-specific biometric data. At the same time, scientists are obligated to minimize the negative effects (stress, harm, and sacrifice) of their samplings on individuals and the population without compromising data quality. In-field methods for biometric measurements must be quick, precise, and practical for the user. Essential information that is typically required in (large-scale) eel monitoring programs includes body length, mass, sex, and maturation stage. As live eels are difficult to handle, individuals are typically anesthetized or killed (and sometimes stored frozen to postpone measurements) to obtain the necessary biometrics. The primary purpose of this paper was to explore the suitability of a nonlethal method based on photography for obtaining essential biometrics and maturation stage from live European Eels A. anguilla in a timely manner. In addition, we evaluated the relative accuracy of measuring the parameters that are necessary for assessing maturation stages in eels after defrosting and examined the necessity of correcting for potential shrinkage of eyes and pectoral fin. Both procedures were compared against a standard reference of measurements from freshly killed eels. We found that the minimally invasive method using alive measurements of eels' body length and mass together with digital measurements of eyes and pectoral fin from photographs had the highest agreement for maturation stage outcome with the fresh reference. Our results further reveal the necessity of correcting for shrinkage of eyes and pectoral fins (in addition to length and mass) after freezing to maximize reliability in stage classification. Consequently, we provide specialized formulae to apply shrinkage corrections for eye diameter and pectoral fin length.

Tarpon Megalops atlanticus is a popular and economically important inshore sport fish in Puerto Rico, and the pursuit of this species by local anglers and tourists contributes to the economy. This species is managed as a no-take fishery, which aims to preserve populations by catching and releasing fish that would otherwise be subjected to harvest and removal from the population. The approach assumes minimal mortality and/or reduced fitness of released fish, yet the process of angling can produce many sublethal side effects or direct mortality. In this study, charter angling for Tarpon in the San Juan lagoon system in Puerto Rico was examined to determine postrelease mortality. Angled fish were externally tagged with acoustic transmitters and relocated periodically to determine the fate after release. Postrelease mortality was at least 4.5% (two fish observed dead) and at most 18.2% (observed dead plus classified dead based on lack of movement; confidence interval [CI] = 7.5–28.9%). Some tag loss was observed, which could have artificially elevated classified mortality estimates. Potential factors that contribute to mortality are discussed and compared to the literature. Hook type, gear action, landing procedures, and air exposure were key areas of possible improvement. Recommendations to minimize fish harm during angling include the use of heavier action gear to reduce fight time, a circle hook requirement for live bait to reduce deep hooking, maintaining fish in the water during landing and photography, and limiting air exposure to 2 min or less if fish are removed from the water.

Climate change can affect the habitat of marine species and hence their persistence and adaptation. Trends in area of occurrence and population biomass were examined for 177 fish and macroinvertebrates resident to the Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf ecosystem. Samples of these organisms were taken during a time series of research bottom trawl surveys conducted in the spring and autumn 1976–2019. The occurrence area of each taxon was modeled as the distribution of occurrence probability based on a random forest presence/absence classification model. Following, a population biomass of each taxon was modeled as a minimum swept area estimate, where the ecosystem was stratified biannually based on each taxon's spatial distribution. In both seasons, the sum of occurrence area and biomass across all modeled species increased over the study period. The summation of biomass is problematic since catchability is not known for most species; more importantly, most time series of individual species biomass trended higher. We found that the ratio of biomass to occurrence area, intended as a measure of productivity, showed no change in the autumn and had a weak increasing trend in spring. For the majority of taxa, the rate of change in biomass tracked changes in occurrence area (either positive or negative), but there were cases where the direction of change in biomass was opposite to the direction of change in occurrence area. Thermal conditions in surface waters appear to be a more important driver of occurrence area and biomass change than the change in thermal conditions near the bottom. These findings provide critical insights into the expected changes in ecosystem productivity transpiring with climate change.

The offshore wind (OSW) energy industry is rapidly developing in the United States. New federal mandates require at least 30 GW of OSW by 2030. With the largest goal in the eastern United States, the state of New York seeks to advance OSW in a way that is both environmentally and socially responsible as well as cost-effective. To achieve this, New York developed technical working groups (TWGs) in 2017 focused on critical topics relating to OSW energy development, including the Fisheries Technical Working Group and Environment Technical Working Group (F-TWG and E-TWG; collectively, “the TWGs”). The TWGs are composed of OSW developers, fishing industry (F-TWG) or environmental nongovernmental organizations (E-TWG), federal agency representatives, and state representatives from Maine to North Carolina. These groups advise the state of New York on OSW issues by emphasizing the use of science and technical expertise to inform decision making. The effectiveness of TWG collaborations is due to a variety of reasons, including the regional scale of stakeholder involvement, which allows the groups to develop guidance at an appropriate geographic scale relative to OSW and fishing activities and wildlife populations. The regional collaboration and communication fostered by the TWGs are essential for building trust among stakeholder groups and working collectively to minimize fisheries and environmental impacts as the OSW industry progresses. This paper highlights the OSW stakeholder engagement process and approach implemented by New York through the development of TWGs, as a means of identifying needs for environmental and fisheries resources to inform responsible OSW development within New York and regionally across the eastern United States. The lessons learned from the TWG process can be used to inform stakeholder engagement efforts in other locations.