Multi-stakeholder perspective to generate evidence and strategies for sustainable management of ropes from the fishing sector of Norway

Marine plastic pollution is a growing stressor affecting both marine and terrestrial life. Plastic polymers are widespread in oceans, including sparsely populated Nordic countries. Norway, a fishing-dominant region, faces substantial plastic pollution from fishing ropes, which often end up incinerated, landfilled, or lost in the ocean, contributing to the ghost fishing problem. This research employs a static material flow analysis (MFA) to assess plastic mass flows and the recyclability of 15 rope types used in Norway's commercial fishing sector. Findings reveal that approximately 383 tons of ropes are lost annually in Norwegian waters, endangering fish species. Furthermore, only one-third of the rope types can be efficiently recycled using available recycling technologies, highlighting the need for circularity. The MFA and inventory-based ranking approach shows significant potential as a holistic decision support tool for industry and policymakers in exercising sustainable and circular management for ropes.

Network effects in multi-species fisheries

Managing sustainable marine fisheries is one of the greatest challenges for humanity. The complexity of the issue calls for the development of socio-ecological models and the integration of our knowledge from several disciplines. Here we focus on the ecological aspects of sustainability: how can we increase the catch and, at the same time, possibly decrease negative effects on the marine ecosystem. Coexisting species live in richly interconnected interaction networks. This means that changes in their biomass are caused and may cause various direct and indirect effects on all other coexisting species in the food web. The assessment of maximum sustainable yield values is typically based on single-species analyses, poorly considering this multi-species context. If several fish species are exploited in particular combinations, their effects may not be additive and non-additivity may mean dampening. In these cases, the community response to fishing species A and B together may be smaller than the sum of fishing species A and B separately. We report on some preliminary results on how to develop a network algebra framework for better understanding food web simulation results for pairwise perturbations and their counter-intuitive effects.

Status and challenges for sustainable billfish fisheries in the Western Indian Ocean

Billfish species (families Istiophoridae and Xiphiidae) are caught in artisanal, recreational, and commercial fisheries throughout the Western Indian Ocean region. However, data and information on the interactions among these fisheries and the ecology of billfish in the WIO are not well understood. Using an in-depth analysis of peer-reviewed articles, grey literature, observation studies, and authors' insider knowledge, we summarize the current state of knowledge on billfish fisheries in 10 countries. To describe historical and current trends, we examined fisheries statistics from governmental and non-governmental agencies, sportfishing clubs' reports, diaries of sportfishing captains, and the catch and effort databases of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission. We highlight two key points. First, billfish fisheries in the Western Indian Ocean are highly diverse, comprising two distinct segments-coastal and oceanic. However, data are poor for most countries with significant gaps in information especially for sport and artisanal fisheries. Second, the evidence assembled showed that billfish species have immense social, cultural, and economic value. Swordfish are targeted by both large-scale and semi-industrial fisheries, while other billfish species, particularly marlin, are highly sought after by sport fisheries in most countries. Our paper provides a comprehensive review of billfish fisheries and available information in the context of the WIO underscoring the need to strengthen data collection and reporting, citizen science, and collaborative sustainable development and management of billfish.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11160-022-09725-8.

Sustainable small-scale fisheries markets in the Mediterranean: weaknesses and opportunities

Improved access to markets by small-scale fisheries (SSF), as called by Sustainable Development Goal 14b and other global and Mediterranean policy documents, is impeded by the existing organisation of value chains and market structures, which are typically antagonistic to the nature of SSF. This article analyses the markets in the Mediterranean to map the drivers and feedback loops that keep fisheries in an unsustainable trajectory and reviews the key innovations in support of a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable small-scale fishing sector. We show how the current market is dominated by lack of product traceability and underappreciation of the inherent value of SSF products (e.g. local production, freshness, season dependence, quantitatively and culinary varied nature). In addition, due to a lack of organisation and the capacity to act, small-scale fishers are poised to have little to no influence over the price. In what we conceptualise as a response to the negative effects of existing market structures, we identify and classify initiatives that add value to SSF products, but not exclusively. These are the shortening of the value chain, innovation in the distribution channel, diversification in the type of product offered, promotion and education regarding SSF products, label and brand development and the empowerment of SSF communities through improved leadership, ownership, cooperation and coordination. We provide examples of these activities and propose the key types of intervention at various levels of governance to accelerate and capitalise on them in order to accomplish policy goals and achieve a better status of both the oceans and the fishers.

Isolation and characterisation of 14 novel microsatellite markers through Next Generation Sequencing for the commercial Atlantic seabob shrimp Xiphopenaeus kroyeri

Assessing population genetic structure is a crucial step to support fisheries and conservation management. DNA microsatellite molecular markers are a widely used tool in population genotyping. In the present study, we characterised and developed 14 novel polymorphic microsatellite markers for a decapod crustacean, the Atlantic seabob shrimp Xiphopenaeus kroyeri (Heller, 1862), through rapid and cost-effective Illumina shotgun sequencing and a Galaxy-based bioinformatic pipeline. We genotyped 60 individuals from 2 populations with the newly developed microsatellites, resulting in the detection of 3 to 29 alleles per locus. Four loci deviated from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Cross-amplification in a cryptic congeneric species was successful for eight loci (57%). The microsatellite loci developed in this study will be highly relevant for genetic and evolutionary studies of X. kroyeri, and for the stock management of this commercially exploited species.