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Maria Lourdes ‘Deng’ Palomares is the Senior Scientist and Manager of the Sea Around Us Research Unit (www.seaaroundus.org) of the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada). Deng is a University of the Philippines alumna with a PhD from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure Agronomique de Toulouse (France). Deng worked with the FishBase Project (www.fishbase.org) at the International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management ICLARM, Manila, Philippines) for 10 years before joining the Sea Around Us team in 2001. She is one of the creators of SeaLifeBase (www.sealifebase.org), serves as Science Director for Quantitative Aquatics (as a member of its Board of Trustees) and as coordinator of the FishBase Consortium.
In the last decades, several targets for marine conservation were set to counter the effects of increasing fishing pressure, e.g., protecting 10% of the sea by 2020, and establishing large-scale marine protected areas (LSMPAs). Using the ‘reconstructed’ catch data for 1950 to 2018 made available by the Sea Around Us initiative, we show that the declaration of an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in 1983 by the U.S.A. and its protection by the U.S. Coast Guard had a much bigger impact on catches around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands than the subsequent creation of a LSMPA. This is similar to Pitcairn Islands, a UK territory. Trends differed sharply in the Galapagos and New Caledonia, where neither their EEZ declaration nor the LSMPA (by Ecuador in 1988 and by France in 2014) stopped local fisheries from continuous expansion. Our results also demonstrate that in the studied multizone LSMPAs continued local fishing induces a ‘fishing down’ effect wherein the mean trophic level (TL) declined, especially in the Galapagos, by 0.1 TL per decade. Stakeholders’ responses to a short questionnaire and satellite imagery lent support to these results in that they documented substantial fishing operations and ‘fishing the line’ within and around multizone LSMPAs. In the case of EEZs around less populated or unpopulated islands, banning foreign fishing may reduce catch much more than a subsequent LSMPA declaration. This confirms that EEZs are a tool for coastal countries to protect their marine biodiversity and that allowing fishing in an MPA, while politically convenient, may result in ‘paper parks’ within which fishing can cause the same deleterious effects as in wholly unprotected areas.
Veronica Relano; Maria Lourdes Deng Palomares; Daniel Pauly. Comparing the Performance of Four Very Large Marine Protected Areas with Different Levels of Protection. Sustainability 2021, 13, 9572 .
AMA StyleVeronica Relano, Maria Lourdes Deng Palomares, Daniel Pauly. Comparing the Performance of Four Very Large Marine Protected Areas with Different Levels of Protection. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (17):9572.
Chicago/Turabian StyleVeronica Relano; Maria Lourdes Deng Palomares; Daniel Pauly. 2021. "Comparing the Performance of Four Very Large Marine Protected Areas with Different Levels of Protection." Sustainability 13, no. 17: 9572.
To assess whether and how socioeconomic factors might be influencing global freshwater finfisheries, inland fishery data reported to the FAO between 1950 and 2015 were grouped by capture and culture, country human development index, plotted, and compared. We found that while capture inland finfishes have greatly increased on a global scale, this trend is being driven almost entirely by poorly developed (Tier-3) countries which also identify only 17% of their catch. In contrast, capture finfisheries have recently plateaued in moderately-developed (Tier-2) countries which are also identifying 16% of their catch but are dominated by a single country, China. In contrast, reported capture finfisheries are declining in well-developed (Tier-1) countries which identify nearly all (78%) of their fishes. Simultaneously, aquacultural activity has been increasing rapidly in both Tier-2 and Tier-3 countries, but only slowly in Tier-1 countries; remarkably, nearly all cultured species are being identified by all tier groups. These distinctly different trends suggest that socioeconomic factors influence how countries report and conduct capture finfisheries. Reported rapid increases in capture fisheries are worrisome in poorly developed countries because they cannot be explained and thus these fisheries cannot be managed meaningfully even though they depend on them for food. Our descriptive, proof-of-concept study suggests that socioeconomic factors should be considered in future, more sophisticated efforts to understand global freshwater fisheries which might include catch reconstruction.
Peter Sorensen; Maria Palomares. Global Inland Capture and Culture Finfisheries Follow Different Trends When Evaluated by the Human Development Index. Sustainability 2021, 13, 8420 .
AMA StylePeter Sorensen, Maria Palomares. Global Inland Capture and Culture Finfisheries Follow Different Trends When Evaluated by the Human Development Index. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (15):8420.
Chicago/Turabian StylePeter Sorensen; Maria Palomares. 2021. "Global Inland Capture and Culture Finfisheries Follow Different Trends When Evaluated by the Human Development Index." Sustainability 13, no. 15: 8420.
Catch-only models (COMs) have been the focus of ongoing research into data-poor stock assessment methods. Two of the most recent models that are especially promising are (i) CMSY+, the latest refined version of CMSY that has progressed from Catch-MSY, and (ii) SRA+ (Stock Reduction Analysis Plus), one of the latest developments in the field. Comparing COMs and evaluating their relative performance is essential for determining the state of regional and global fisheries that may be lacking necessary data that would be required to run traditional assessment models. In this paper we interrogate how performance of COMs can be improved by incorporating additional sources of information. We evaluate the performance of COMs on a dataset of 48 data-rich ICES (International Council for the Exploration of Seas) stock assessments. As one measure of performance, we consider the ability of the model to correctly classify stock status using FAO’s 3-tier classification that is also used for reporting on sustainable development goals to the UN. Both COMs showed notable bias when run with their inbuilt default heuristics, but as the quality of prior information increased, classification rates for the terminal year improved substantially. We conclude that although further COM refinements show some potential, most promising is the ongoing research into developing biomass or fishing effort priors for COMs in order to be able to reliably track stock status for the majority of the world’s fisheries currently lacking stock assessments.
Rishi Sharma; Henning Winker; Polina Levontin; Laurence Kell; Dan Ovando; Maria Palomares; Cecilia Pinto; Yimin Ye. Assessing the Potential of Catch-Only Models to Inform on the State of Global Fisheries and the UN’s SDGs. Sustainability 2021, 13, 6101 .
AMA StyleRishi Sharma, Henning Winker, Polina Levontin, Laurence Kell, Dan Ovando, Maria Palomares, Cecilia Pinto, Yimin Ye. Assessing the Potential of Catch-Only Models to Inform on the State of Global Fisheries and the UN’s SDGs. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (11):6101.
Chicago/Turabian StyleRishi Sharma; Henning Winker; Polina Levontin; Laurence Kell; Dan Ovando; Maria Palomares; Cecilia Pinto; Yimin Ye. 2021. "Assessing the Potential of Catch-Only Models to Inform on the State of Global Fisheries and the UN’s SDGs." Sustainability 13, no. 11: 6101.
This contribution presents time series of the ‘fishery biomass’ of fish populations, defined as the weight (whole-body, wet weight) of the in-water part of a fishable population, i.e., that part of a population (also called ‘stock’) that is exposed to a certain fishing gear. Detailed data of this type are only available for a limited number of species that are targets of the fisheries in the waters of economically developed regions, such as Europe, the USA, Canada or Australia. However, similar fishery biomass assessments are generally lacking for developing countries, even for many of their most heavily fished species. Here, an estimation of the long-term fishery biomass trends of 1320 fish and invertebrate populations for 483 species exploited by fisheries in the 232 coastal Marine Ecoregions (MEs) around the world was undertaken. Fishery biomass trends were derived using the Bayesian CMSY stock assessment method applied to the global fisheries catch database for 1950–2014 as reconstructed by the Sea Around Us for every maritime fishing country in the world. Overall, the results suggest a consistent decline in the fishery biomass of exploited populations, in virtually all climatic zones and ocean basins in the world. The only zone with currently higher fishery biomass than in 1950 is the northern Pacific polar-boreal zone, likely due to environmental changes that occurred in the region positively affecting fish populations, combined with prudent management of the fisheries. For populations in MEs that are known to have highly questionable catch statistics, the results suggested smaller declines in fishery biomass than likely occurred in reality, implying that these results do not exaggerate declining trends in fishery biomass. This study used informative Bayesian priors to improve the trend analyses in areas where systematic stock assessments were conducted. The use of these independent assessments reduced the uncertainty associated with the findings of this study.
M.L.D. Palomares; R. Froese; B. Derrick; J.J. Meeuwig; S.-L. Nöel; G. Tsui; J. Woroniak; D. Zeller; D. Pauly. Fishery biomass trends of exploited fish populations in marine ecoregions, climatic zones and ocean basins. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 2020, 243, 106896 .
AMA StyleM.L.D. Palomares, R. Froese, B. Derrick, J.J. Meeuwig, S.-L. Nöel, G. Tsui, J. Woroniak, D. Zeller, D. Pauly. Fishery biomass trends of exploited fish populations in marine ecoregions, climatic zones and ocean basins. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science. 2020; 243 ():106896.
Chicago/Turabian StyleM.L.D. Palomares; R. Froese; B. Derrick; J.J. Meeuwig; S.-L. Nöel; G. Tsui; J. Woroniak; D. Zeller; D. Pauly. 2020. "Fishery biomass trends of exploited fish populations in marine ecoregions, climatic zones and ocean basins." Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 243, no. : 106896.
Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing is widespread; it is therefore likely that illicit trade in marine fish catch is also common worldwide. We combine ecological-economic databases to estimate the magnitude of illicit trade in marine fish catch and its impacts on people. Globally, between 8 and 14 million metric tons of unreported catches are potentially traded illicitly yearly, suggesting gross revenues of US$9 to US$17 billion associated with these catches. Estimated loss in annual economic impact due to the diversion of fish from the legitimate trade system is US$26 to US$50 billion, while losses to countries’ tax revenues are between US$2 and US$4 billion. Country-by-country estimates of these losses are provided in the Supplementary Materials. We find substantial likely economic effects of illicit trade in marine fish catch, suggesting that bold policies and actions by both public and private actors are needed to curb this illicit trade.
U. R. Sumaila; D. Zeller; L. Hood; M. L. D. Palomares; Y. Li; D. Pauly. Illicit trade in marine fish catch and its effects on ecosystems and people worldwide. Science Advances 2020, 6, eaaz3801 .
AMA StyleU. R. Sumaila, D. Zeller, L. Hood, M. L. D. Palomares, Y. Li, D. Pauly. Illicit trade in marine fish catch and its effects on ecosystems and people worldwide. Science Advances. 2020; 6 (9):eaaz3801.
Chicago/Turabian StyleU. R. Sumaila; D. Zeller; L. Hood; M. L. D. Palomares; Y. Li; D. Pauly. 2020. "Illicit trade in marine fish catch and its effects on ecosystems and people worldwide." Science Advances 6, no. 9: eaaz3801.
Editorial: Historical Reconstructions of Marine Fisheries Catches: Challenges and Opportunities
Daniel Pauly; Maria Lourdes D. Palomares. Editorial: Historical Reconstructions of Marine Fisheries Catches: Challenges and Opportunities. Frontiers in Marine Science 2019, 6, 1 .
AMA StyleDaniel Pauly, Maria Lourdes D. Palomares. Editorial: Historical Reconstructions of Marine Fisheries Catches: Challenges and Opportunities. Frontiers in Marine Science. 2019; 6 ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDaniel Pauly; Maria Lourdes D. Palomares. 2019. "Editorial: Historical Reconstructions of Marine Fisheries Catches: Challenges and Opportunities." Frontiers in Marine Science 6, no. : 1.
To facilitate the wider implementation of ecosystem modeling platforms and, thereby, to help advance ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) worldwide, tools delivering a large quantity of inputs to ecosystem models are needed. We developed a web application providing OSMOSE ecosystem models with values for trophic, growth and reproduction parameters derived from data from two global information systems (FishBase and SeaLifeBase). Our web application guides the user through simple queries to extract information from FishBase and SeaLifeBase data archives, and it delivers all the configuration files necessary for running an OSMOSE model. Here, we present our web application and demonstrate it for the West Florida Shelf ecosystem. Our software architecture can serve as a basis for designing other advanced web applications using FishBase and SeaLifeBase data in support of EBFM.
Arnaud Grüss; Maria L.D. Palomares; Jorrit H. Poelen; Josephine R. Barile; Casey D. Aldemita; Shelumiel R. Ortiz; Nicolas Barrier; Yunne-Jai Shin; James Simons; Daniel Pauly. Building bridges between global information systems on marine organisms and ecosystem models. Ecological Modelling 2019, 398, 1 -19.
AMA StyleArnaud Grüss, Maria L.D. Palomares, Jorrit H. Poelen, Josephine R. Barile, Casey D. Aldemita, Shelumiel R. Ortiz, Nicolas Barrier, Yunne-Jai Shin, James Simons, Daniel Pauly. Building bridges between global information systems on marine organisms and ecosystem models. Ecological Modelling. 2019; 398 ():1-19.
Chicago/Turabian StyleArnaud Grüss; Maria L.D. Palomares; Jorrit H. Poelen; Josephine R. Barile; Casey D. Aldemita; Shelumiel R. Ortiz; Nicolas Barrier; Yunne-Jai Shin; James Simons; Daniel Pauly. 2019. "Building bridges between global information systems on marine organisms and ecosystem models." Ecological Modelling 398, no. : 1-19.
Palomares, M. L. D., and D. Pauly. 2019. On the creeping increase of vessels’ fishing power. Ecology and Society 24(3):31. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11136-240331
Maria L. D. Palomares; Daniel Pauly. On the creeping increase of vessels’ fishing power. Ecology and Society 2019, 24, 1 .
AMA StyleMaria L. D. Palomares, Daniel Pauly. On the creeping increase of vessels’ fishing power. Ecology and Society. 2019; 24 (3):1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMaria L. D. Palomares; Daniel Pauly. 2019. "On the creeping increase of vessels’ fishing power." Ecology and Society 24, no. 3: 1.
Postwar growth of industrial fisheries catch to its peak in 1996 was driven by increasing fleet capacity and geographical expansion. An investigation of the latter, using spatially allocated reconstructed catch data to quantify “mean distance to fishing grounds,” found global trends to be dominated by the expansion histories of a small number of distant-water fishing countries. While most countries fished largely in local waters, Taiwan, South Korea, Spain, and China rapidly increased their mean distance to fishing grounds by 2000 to 4000 km between 1950 and 2014. Others, including Japan and the former USSR, expanded in the postwar decades but then retrenched from the mid-1970s, as access to other countries’ waters became increasingly restricted with the advent of exclusive economic zones formalized in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Since 1950, heavily subsidized fleets have increased the total fished area from 60% to more than 90% of the world’s oceans, doubling the average distance traveled from home ports but catching only one-third of the historical amount per kilometer traveled. Catch per unit area has declined by 22% since the mid-1990s, as fleets approach the limits of geographical expansion. Allowing these trends to continue threatens the bioeconomic sustainability of fisheries globally.
David Tickler; Jessica J. Meeuwig; Maria-Lourdes Palomares; Daniel Pauly; Dirk Zeller. Far from home: Distance patterns of global fishing fleets. Science Advances 2018, 4, eaar3279 .
AMA StyleDavid Tickler, Jessica J. Meeuwig, Maria-Lourdes Palomares, Daniel Pauly, Dirk Zeller. Far from home: Distance patterns of global fishing fleets. Science Advances. 2018; 4 (8):eaar3279.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDavid Tickler; Jessica J. Meeuwig; Maria-Lourdes Palomares; Daniel Pauly; Dirk Zeller. 2018. "Far from home: Distance patterns of global fishing fleets." Science Advances 4, no. 8: eaar3279.
While the ecological impacts of fishing the waters beyond national jurisdiction (the “high seas”) have been widely studied, the economic rationale is more difficult to ascertain because of scarce data on the costs and revenues of the fleets that fish there. Newly compiled satellite data and machine learning now allow us to track individual fishing vessels on the high seas in near real time. These technological advances help us quantify high-seas fishing effort, costs, and benefits, and assess whether, where, and when high-seas fishing makes economic sense. We characterize the global high-seas fishing fleet and report the economic benefits of fishing the high seas globally, nationally, and at the scale of individual fleets. Our results suggest that fishing at the current scale is enabled by large government subsidies, without which as much as 54% of the present high-seas fishing grounds would be unprofitable at current fishing rates. The patterns of fishing profitability vary widely between countries, types of fishing, and distance to port. Deep-sea bottom trawling often produces net economic benefits only thanks to subsidies, and much fishing by the world’s largest fishing fleets would largely be unprofitable without subsidies and low labor costs. These results support recent calls for subsidy and fishery management reforms on the high seas.
Enric Sala; Juan Mayorga; Christopher Costello; David Kroodsma; Maria L. D. Palomares; Daniel Pauly; U. Rashid Sumaila; Dirk Zeller. The economics of fishing the high seas. Science Advances 2018, 4, eaat2504 .
AMA StyleEnric Sala, Juan Mayorga, Christopher Costello, David Kroodsma, Maria L. D. Palomares, Daniel Pauly, U. Rashid Sumaila, Dirk Zeller. The economics of fishing the high seas. Science Advances. 2018; 4 (6):eaat2504.
Chicago/Turabian StyleEnric Sala; Juan Mayorga; Christopher Costello; David Kroodsma; Maria L. D. Palomares; Daniel Pauly; U. Rashid Sumaila; Dirk Zeller. 2018. "The economics of fishing the high seas." Science Advances 4, no. 6: eaat2504.