By Carter Weinhofer and Nathan Weiss

In 2015, the Indonesian Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Affairs implemented a catch prohibition on crustacean fishing, specifically targeting species like spiny lobsters swimming crabs. The law would prohibit fishermen from harvesting egg-bearing and juvenile crustaceans. Despite this ban, local fishermen rarely took heed of the laws and continued to illegally fish. A 2020 study by Mardeka Agus Saputra discusses the prevailing issue in Indonesian fisheries management.

Saputra (2020) compiled surveys and observations from after the ban was put into place to investigate why the illegal fishing continued. The study relies heavily on “social practice theory,” which explains that mannerisms (social practices) are born from routines of people’s everyday lives. This was the case with the crustacean fisheries in Indonesia.

Local fisheries departments utilized educational efforts to try to encourage fishermen to embrace the catch prohibition. This included informational sessions about using gillnets over more harmful practices (e.g., trawling). The officials tried to connect with the fishermen more personally, seeing that they would be respected more if they were also seen as part of the “community.”

This issue has a broader reach than just these local communities, though. The fishery has an international reach and demonstrates how small-scale fisheries have impacts on global fisheries and vice versa. Between the illegal fishing and sales to seafood customers are intermediaries, which often take the form of local village processing shops.

Saputra (2020) found that the “illegal” fishing was rooted deep in the community. The taking of juvenile and egg-bearing crustaceans was a learned practice, passed down from generation to generation. This was also a livelihood for most people close to the fisheries. Not only were there fishermen, but a lot of the women in the villages took part in the processing of the crustaceans. Without eggs needing to be removed or other necessary processing actions, these women would lose out on jobs. This would have an extremely negative impact on the social construct of their communities, and could sometimes even lead to divorces due to familiar financial struggles.

Overall, this study shows that illegal fishing goes beyond biological and economic findings. To investigate the problems, it is necessary to find the root, which can usually be at the societal constructs. Fishermen could not simply stop their fishing practices when it was all that they knew- and the education provided by local officials was not enough to break down the barriers of centuries of culture.

Saputra, M.A. (2020) Moving within and beyond illegal crustacean fishery: why do Indonesian fishermen not comply with the crustacean catch ban rule?. Maritime Studies 19: 457–473. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40152-020-00194-y

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40152-020-00194-y#citeas

By: Ethan Chaipatanapong & Maddie Gates

Lobster fisheries have always been an essential part of the North Atlantic’s seafood industry. In 2019, commercial lobster fisheries made up 46% of the total $3.2 billion value of the region's commercial fisheries. With the already large and growing global demand for North Atlantic lobsters, more fishermen have begun to turn their focus and labor towards lobster fishing. This increase of competition in lobster fisheries is beginning to push fishermen to more extremes. Emily Reid-Musson and colleagues published a paper on January 14th, 2022 with the Maritime Studies (MAST) journal that addresses management weaknesses by examining localized and historic forms of management associated with the opening of the lobster fishing season.

Reid-Musson and her colleagues intended to examine the dynamics of timed openings of lobster fisheries across the Canadian Atlantic in order to illustrate the “complexity and diversity of fisheries governance”. The authors used 5 case studies developed from ethnographic and sociological research, all of which contain observations about the risks present on lobster setting days. They were able to compare and explore across local cases within an overarching fishery, revealing the varying differences in fishing safety. Additionally, by reviewing information from key informant interviews, the authors were able to fill gaps in their knowledge.

The authors of this article found that fisheries management has indirect impacts on fishermen's safety that are not properly taken into account while fishing. Limited numbers of available permits coupled with the increasingly large demand for lobsters can cause intense competition during the opening season that puts harvesters in unsafe positions. This can incentivize boats to go out to sea in hazardous weather, speed to fishing grounds, avoid breaks despite fatigue, and overload decks with gear in an attempt to reduce the number of trips to reach preferred grounds. Additionally, the unsafe timed opening of lobster fishing has resulted in spikes in distress calls during the start of the season. These intensified fishing pressures are due to the majority of the good catches occurring within the first few weeks.

Many community members and fishermen speculate that the high demand for shellfish will continue, and the harvesting will continue further and further offshore to new and untouched fishing grounds. Knowing this raises questions regarding how management strategies will evolve to address the safety concerns of lobster fisherman further offshore.

Understanding the complexities of how lobster fisheries are governed and how that affects open day fisheries will allow for insights that will help to assess quantitative safety incident data from the past and in the future, help fine tune lobster management to mitigate risks, and identify priorities for deployment of emergency response priorities. The designation of lobster “territories” can help to reduce the pressure of the “race”, though fishermen have found that these designations do not necessarily eliminate competitive behaviors. Lastly, recognizing and understanding how multiple governing and decision-making groups organize regionally specific practices is critical to understanding and addressing occupational hazard safety concerns.

This news piece reports on original research in:

Reid-Musson, E., Neis, B. & Finnis, J. Fishing safety and timed openings in Atlantic Canada’s lobster fisheries: the mediating role of local management systems. Maritime Studies (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40152-021-00256-9

Available here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40152-021-00256-9

Aquaculture is becoming more and more controversial in the past decade due in most part to its possible negative effects on the surrounding environment. This paper by Cottrell et al. 2021 explains why current movements in aquaculture policy regulating the aquaculture project by trophic level in an effort to create more sustainable practices are actually counterproductive and why farming at lower trophic levels does not actually equate to a more sustainable practice.

The idea that farming lower trophic level organisms like some invertebrates and seaweeds is a growing sentiment displayed by The United States 2019 Californian Ocean Resiliency Act (SB-69) which states that coastal aquaculture permits should be focused on shellfish, seaweed and other low-trophic mariculture production. This paper contradicts this sentiment by drawing from aquaculture and fish feed data to show that unlike the fish foods of the past, contemporary fish food is much more sustainable and healthy than before. This paper also shows that even using trophic levels as a marker of sustainability is flawed due to the enhancement and technological growth associated with fish feeds that have led to a decrease in mean trophic level of farmed species already. This paper is rallying for a reconsideration in how sustainable aquaculture is measured and how the term and idea of trophic levels are used in the context of aquaculture where so many variables are under our control and farmed fish are increasingly being distanced from their wild counterparts in diet and supposed mean trophic levels.

-Cottrell, R.S., Metian, M., Froehlich, H.E., Blanchard, J.L., Sand Jacobsen, N., McIntyre, P.B., Nash, K.L., Williams, D.R., Bouwman, L., Gephart, J.A., Kuempel, C.D., Moran, D.D., Troell, M. and Halpern, B.S. (2021), Time to rethink trophic levels in aquaculture policy. Rev. Aquacult., 13: 1583-1593. https://doi.org/10.1111/raq.12535

Currently, in fisheries management, there is a noticeable issue about the balance between fish populations and the amount of fish we are harvesting. To combat this problem in fishery managments around the world have come up with different factors that go into fishing regulation to help it be more balanced. Although according to Monica Salvioli there is a missing piece to these fishing regulations. That piece being the idea of evolution being considered in fisheries management as a factor. To comment on this issue she published a scientific article in the Public Library of science to talk about this issue. In her article, she compares evolutionary strategies to ecological strategies and is looking to see which is more profitable for both the fish and the fishing industry. Using variables such as harvesting rates, net size, and size of fish at maturity, she was able to format the data into different equations that would give a general idea of which would be better for each player in the fishing game. In her paper, she also touches on the idea of Stackelberg’s evolutionary game theory which states that by overfishing and fishing selectively, we are putting evolutionary pressure on the fish we catch which can have negative effects in the future and could even be irreversible if nothing is changed. In her final findings, she was able to prove using her data that evolutionary enlightened management is much more profitable than purely ecological enlightened management and is better for fishing industries and for fish populations. She was also able to prove that in overfished stocks there was a noticeable decrease in the size of fish once they reached maturity and there was a higher rate of evolution in those stocks. Thus proving that the inclusion of evolutionary enlightened strategies in fisheries management, alongside ecological strategies, can help improve the future of fisheries all around the world.

Salvioli, Monica, Johan Dubbeldam, Katerina Stankova, and Joel S. Brown. "Fisheries management as a Stackelberg Evolutionary Game: Finding an evolutionarily enlightened strategy." PLoS ONE 16, no. 1 (2021): e0245255. Gale Academic OneFile Select (accessed March 6, 2022). Available: https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A649173888/EAIM?u=eckerd&sid=bookmark-EAIM&xid=0d1ca15a.

You may know The Bahamas for it’s crystal clear waters and white sand beaches, but did you know that the lobster you get from Red Lobster is also from The Bahamas? That’s right, the Caribbean Spiny Lobster is a crucial natural resource to The Bahamas and accounts for about 85% of its total seafood exports and is the largest fishery in the country. In 2018 it received Marine Stewardship Certification (MSC) making it the only certified sustainable fishery in the Caribbean. With the high international demand for this seafood, this can take a toll on the fishery stock so it is important that proper management is maintained to preserve and sustain it.

While there are already some regulations put in place by the Bahamian government including equipment and minimum size limits, there are still some difficulties the fishery faces. The main challenge to making the spiny lobster fishery sustainable is that they use lobster condos which are big enclosures placed in the water made out of wood and metal that the lobsters crawl into. The lobsters caught in these condos are open to the public which is positive for the community, and makes it so that the big fisheries are not the only ones with control. However, this also means that they are accessible to poachers which is an occurring problem, especially in the South Bahamas. There have been suggestions to remove these condos and require fishermen to obtain permits for them. The problem with this is that there are an estimated one million condos scattered throughout the islands and removing them would be extremely difficult and would cause uproar from the communities.

Dr. Angee Doerr, an Assistant Professor at Oregon State University investigated the possibilities of other management strategies being put in place by consulting with the Bahamian Lobster fisherman and stakeholders. Doerr conducted surveys and interviews across the family islands getting their input on the current situation and if they would add any regulations on top of the ones already implemented. The results from her study “Regulating for social and environmental sustainability: A stakeholder perspective from the Bahamian spiny lobster fishery.” revealed a lot from the stakeholders perspective. People did not want required permits for condos, but some fishermen did suggest other regulations for condos such as, condo-free zones, condo limits, and regulations on the materials used to make the condos. The fishermen are also happy to participate in any other regulations that help keep poachers out so that the catch is ecologically and economically sustainable for Bahamian communities. From her results she has suggested a few proposed regulations that would be feasible to put in place, these include: lengthening the closed season into August, and prohibiting the sale of spiny lobster during closed season, requiring permits for all compressor depths, implementing a upper size limit, protection of certain habitats that are known as nursery areas. Increasing and enforcing regulations seem necessary for the longevity of the fishery and in order to keep it a sustainable fishery.

Doerr, A. N. (2021). Regulating for social and environmental sustainability: A stakeholder perspective from the Bahamian spiny lobster fishery. Marine Policy, 124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2020.104366

Recently, Frazen Tolentino-Zondervan and Niels A Zondervan published a paper in ScienceDirect regarding the management trends of the fisheries in the Philippines.

Fish stocks are declining and they are going to continue to decline unless more sustainable management of these resources is implemented. Opposite of this, global fishing effort is increasing, so you can see why that would be a problem. More effort fishing results in less fish. Fisheries management and declining fish stocks is a widespread problem that isn’t just a problem in the Philippines, it is a global problem that almost everywhere in the world faces.

Many obstacles become present once management accounts for more of our global socio-economic issues. These consist of Increasing population, climate change, increased consumer demand for sustainable seafoods, and resiliency in livelihoods and food securities of many developing nations. Everything listed can be affected by fisheries management decisions. Especially in smaller seafood reliant communities. Because of the many variables present within this issue, it is difficult to decide on a single management strategy.

The 3 pillars of fishery management; social, environmental, and economic, have to work together instead of against each other for prosperity in these pillars. Creating better opportunities for success in sustainable fishery management.

Frazen Tolentino-Zondervan and Niels A Zondervan obtained 86 articles through the use of PRISMA methodology. Identifying peer reviewed papers within google scholar that include the keywords “Sustainable” AND “Philippine” AND “fisheries”. All within the same relevant time period. Through these groupings, the current sustainability status and management implementations can be identified and evaluated within the Philippines. It is known now that most studies within the Philippines have focused on small scale fisheries, and management strategies surrounding socio-economic issues. Leaving room for improvement in large scale fisheries and future environmental goals.

There are six categories displayed in the article regarding sustainable management of fisheries. From 2000-2021. They are Marine Protected Areas (MPA’s), Integrated Coastal Management (ICM), Ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM), Market based mechanisms and value chains, Fishing effort allocation, and Climate change, resilience and vulnerability.

The conclusion of this study is that they need to utilize more than one management type and put them together for better results when managing the fisheries, and focus on large scale fishers instead. This would improve the sustainability of the fisheries in the Philippines. This study was done for one country but was done in a way so that it can be replicated universally and can be done for any other country.

This news piece reports on original research in:

Frazen Tolentino-Zondervan, Niels A. Zondervan, Sustainable fishery management

trends in Philippine fisheries, Ocean & Coastal Management, Volume 223

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2022.106149.

(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0964569122001247)

By: Megyn Kuchinski and Zoe Vasbinder

Fishery management is a long-standing topic with debate and frustrations surrounding it. It is clear that fishery management is much more complex than government agencies tend to make it out to be. With each fishery and location, different complexities arise that must be addressed and recognized. While this is certainly not entirely possible to be aware of and account for every potential factor of a fishery when designing management processes, there are ways in which we can improve our current methods. A recent study by Cynthia Grace-McCaskey, in Human Organization, examining the marine resource users’ perceptions, experiences, and responses to federal and territorial management processes in St. Croix provides a great example of these notions.

In the 20 month study, interviews with fishers and non-fishers in St Croix revealed the multi-faceted layers of fishery management. There were some extreme differences in opinions among the fishers and non-fishers. This mostly came from the major demographic differences noted about the two groups. Non-fishers had higher levels of education, grew up and were educated in the continental United States, and were primarily white. Fishers on the other hand were primarily black/West Indian or Puerto Rican, had lower levels of education, and resided in St. Croix for significantly longer than the non-fishers. There is a divide among all the stakeholders in the St. Croix fishery because they are so different and have differing connectedness to the marine resources. For fishers, they depend on the marine resources as a source of income and food and they are very in tune with the water since they have grown up there. The non-fishers depend on marine resources for other reasons. For example, dive shop owners are very concerned about fishery management because if the waters become overfished and unsustainable, they will no longer get as much business with scuba divers and travelers. However, one thing both groups have in common is the frustrations surrounding the management of the fishery.

There is a lack of enforcement and a complex council process that deters public participation. There is a huge disconnect between the Caribbean Fishery Management Council (CFMC) and the true stakeholders of the fishery which included the fishers and non-fishers. Although unrealistic and unlikely, if St. Croix had greater autonomy regarding fishery management, many of the current problems would not be so large. The real takeaway from the study is that a two-pronged approach combining case studies will greatly improve the creation of fishery management plans because it allows for users, managers, and all other stakeholders to be heard and understood better than the current systems at play. Fish is a common resource that everyone has a right to, so the process of managing and understanding regulations should be more broadly distributed among the local stakeholders.

This news piece reports on original research in:

Grace-McCaskey. (2018). Multi-Scale Fisheries Management in St. Croix, United States Virgin Islands: What Influences Participation? Human Organization, 77(2), 157–171. https://doi.org/10.17730/0018-7259-77.2.157

Recently, Frazen Tolentino-Zondervan and Niels A Zondervan published a paper in ScienceDirect regarding the management trends of the fisheries in the Philippines.

Fish stocks are declining and they are going to continue to decline unless more sustainable management of these resources is implemented. Opposite of this, global fishing effort is increasing, so you can see why that would be a problem. More effort fishing results in less fish. Fisheries management and declining fish stocks is a widespread problem that isn’t just a problem in the Philippines, it is a global problem that almost everywhere in the world faces.

Many obstacles become present once management accounts for more of our global socio-economic issues. These consist of Increasing population, climate change, increased consumer demand for sustainable seafoods, and resiliency in livelihoods and food securities of many developing nations. Everything listed can be affected by fisheries management decisions. Especially in smaller seafood reliant communities. Because of the many variables present within this issue, it is difficult to decide on a single management strategy.

The 3 pillars of fishery management; social, environmental, and economic, have to work together instead of against each other for prosperity in these pillars. Creating better opportunities for success in sustainable fishery management.

Frazen Tolentino-Zondervan and Niels A Zondervan obtained 86 articles through the use of PRISMA methodology. Identifying peer reviewed papers within google scholar that include the keywords “Sustainable” AND “Philippine” AND “fisheries”. All within the same relevant time period. Through these groupings, the current sustainability status and management implementations can be identified and evaluated within the Philippines. It is known now that most studies within the Philippines have focused on small scale fisheries, and management strategies surrounding socio-economic issues. Leaving room for improvement in large scale fisheries and future environmental goals.

There are six categories displayed in the article regarding sustainable management of

fisheries. From 2000-2021. They are Marine Protected Areas (MPA’s), Integrated Coastal Management (ICM), Ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM), Market based mechanisms and value chains, Fishing effort allocation, and Climate change, resilience and vulnerability.

The conclusion of this study is that they need to utilize more than one management type and put them together for better results when managing the fisheries, and focus on large scale fishers instead. This would improve the sustainability of the fisheries in the Philippines. This study was done for one country but was done in a way so that it can be replicated universally and can be done for any other country.

This news piece reports on original research in:

Frazen Tolentino-Zondervan, Niels A. Zondervan, Sustainable fishery management

trends in Philippine fisheries, Ocean & CoastalManagement, Volume 223, 2022, 106149

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2022.106149.

(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0964569122001247)

Small scale fishery operations have existed for thousands of years, but their goal was to serve only their local communities. However, due to the technological innovations and the globalization of the world’s economy, demand for seafood products has skyrocketed in previously unreachable markets. Small scale fisheries have found themselves exporting their catch to locations all over the world, which has brought about a slew of challenges. The Covid-19 pandemic has exemplified these existing weaknesses in the supply chain, as well as producing many unforeseen obstacles. This has forced small scale fisheries to either prove they have the ability to be agile or be left in the wake of their competitors.

In January of 2022, a research team including Hannah R. Basset, Sonia Sharan, Sharon K. Suri, Sahir Advani, and Christopher Giordano set out to monitor the resiliency of small scale fisheries across the globe to the effects of the pandemic. The team utilized 6 case studies from small scale fisheries in the United States, Canada, Peru, Indonesia, and the Philippines to understand the effects of Covid-19 on different types of small scale fisheries. The team then analyzed the data obtained from these case studies with the end goal of understanding the role that differing distribution strategies have in determining whether or not a fishery is able to adapt to the pressures placed on them by the Covid-19 pandemic. The team also sought to understand exactly what factors separated a successful small scale fishery from an unsuccessful one.

The research team identified that most of the major negative effects of the pandemic on these supply chains was not due to the health risks associated with Covid-19, but instead with the socioeconomic issues that were exemplified by the economic downturn brought upon by the pandemic as a whole. The study concluded that generally, in order to succeed through economic depressions, the fishery should hope to have increased adaptive capacity and a lack of sensitivity to global economic changes.

A small scale fishery can ensure their success despite the health of the overall world economy through tactics such as access to both local and domestic markets, low reliance on markets based around international influence, (such as tourism, sales to restaurants, and sales to international markets), along with ensuring they have access to information on the global market and the ability to communicate with different levels of the supply chain, which has been made more accessible due to modern day technological advances. Government aid to both the fishery and consumers is also a major contributing factor to reducing the sensitivity of the fishery to global markets, as it ensures income regardless of demand. The most important factor allowing for agility in shifting markets, however, is a diversification of the fishery, meaning that the fishery must have access to multiple streams of income, whether it be different products or different consumer markets.

This research is vital for those involved in small scale fisheries, as it lays out groundwork for ensuring success despite the fluctuations of the global market. By analyzing global markets, the research team was able to account for different struggles faced by different fisheries, allowing them to draw broad, general conclusions that allows fishery managers across the world to ensure their success.

Bassett, H.R., Sharan, S., Suri, S.K. et al. A comparative study of small-scale fishery supply chains’ vulnerability and resilience to COVID-19. Maritime Studies (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40152-021-00231-4

With the growing complex environmental issues and degradation to the marine environment, sustainable consumerism is often seen as a solution to these problems. In light of a growing consensus that industrial fishing has impacted fish stocks around the world with dramatic declines in large predatory fish populations, researchers wanted to connect this solution to fisheries management and consumption. Recently, there has been an increase in introducing middle-class consumers to what were once elite cultural practices, like eating shark fin soup. These practices largely have devastating impacts on marine apex predators. There has been an effort to integrate sustainability in fisheries management, but many fish stocks are not sustainably harvested and the already complex difficulties in crafting effective policies regarding fisheries has led to the stagnation of global catches despite increased fishing effort. Even though the implementation of management measures has achieved some success in sustaining stocks of important species, still in 2017, the Food and Agriculture Organization reported that 34.2% of fish stocks were being fished at biologically unsustainable levels.

A study titled “Ecolabeled seafood and sustainable consumption in the Canadian context: issues and insights from a survey of seafood consumers” led by Anthony Winson, Jin Young Choi, Devan Hunter, and Chantelle Ramsundar focused on consumer awareness in regards to their consumption of sustainable seafood among Canadian citizens and analyzed the efficacy of seafood ecolabelling systems. The research frames this topic as a responsibility of the consumer to be an ecological citizen and engage in sustainable consumption. The study utilized onsite, self-administered surveys at six study sites within the Greater Toronto area, including five supermarkets and one large, inner city farmer’s market. The sites were chosen to maximize the variety of consumers and retailers represented in the study. Based on 358 consumer survey responses, respondents’ household incomes were somewhat higher than those of the Ontario population in the Canadian census. For example, about 41% of the respondents reported household income above $100k compared to the Ontario census figure of 35%. Females were slightly over-represented in the study with 57% of the respondents being female versus the remaining 43% being males. The survey questionnaire was designed to gather information related to respondents’ seafood consumption. In this study, four general areas were looked at including awareness of the importance of protecting the marine environment and ensuring the sustainability of seafood, understanding the meaning of seafood “sustainability”, awareness of sustainable certification or ecolabels, purchasing seafood with sustainable certification or ecolabel, and perceived barriers to increasing uptake of sustainably sourced seafood.

This research is significant in understanding the consumer population’s mindset towards fisheries management and sustainable fisheries and creates a baseline as to where consumers' awareness is currently at. In order to increase sustainable and responsible consumption, it is important to understand the consumers’ awareness of environmental impacts on the products they purchase, their purchasing behavior, and the perceived barriers to the making use of these products in the marketplace. This study connects back to the basis of the book “American Catch” where the author is trying to get people to understand where their seafood is coming from, which is one of the driving forces behind eco-labeling.

This news piece reports on original research in:

Winson, A., Choi, J. Y., Hunter, D., and Ramsundar, C.. (2022). “Ecolabeled seafood and sustainable consumption in the Canadian context: issues and insights from a survey of seafood consumers.” Maritime Studies 21, (2022): 99–113.

Available: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40152-021-00245-y

The invasion of the lionfish began in 1980 when a hurricane caused many lionfish in the aquarium trade to be inadvertently released into the wild. Lionfish are an invasive species in the Atlantic and Caribbean Ocean and have caused harm to the Florida marine ecosystems. Now there are different policies and techniques in place in order to counteract the negative effects that lionfish have had on the environment. Different agencies have outlined management techniques to effectively deal with lionfish that have produced a positive impact. Once the lionfish spread to Atlantic waters, their growth was rapid due to this long lifespan as well as their reproductive traits. Females can produce 30,000 eggs every three to four days which lead to the great spike in lionfish numbers in the Florida waters.

Throughout a model conducted based on lionfish management throughout Belize, it was predicted that lionfish can become a substantial part of the fisheries involvement while still controlling their populations. A new model representing optimum yield, meaning that lionfish can be harvested in order to not only feed people, but to also be used to control their growing populations. It was discovered that as populations lower throughout Belize, the landings may lower as well, or the number of fish caught and brought ashore. While this is the case, the model also shows that due to high reproductive rates the fishery would never become overfished unless it was commercially fished for many years. This new finding has allowed Belize to increase their effectiveness in managing lionfish populations by decreasing their populations at an increasing rate of 21% over the past year. As of now, the numbers of lionfish are still on the rise; however, small management areas in the Caribbean have been successful.

Bogdanoff, A.K., Shertzer, K.W., Layman C.A., Chapman, J.K., Fruitema, M.L. (2020).

Optimum lionfish yield: a non-traditional management concept for invasive lionfish (Pterois spp.) fisheries. Biological Invasions, 23, 795-810

Here at Eckerd College there is a lot of awareness and research into shark conservation, however not many may be aware of the rising rate of shark meat consumption in Brazil. Although this may sound shocking, shark meat consumption is actually really normal in Brazil. In fact, this has been happening for years and years. So what’s the issue then? Well the growing consumption has led to the illegal importation of shark meat from other countries, specifically from Uruguay, Taiwan, and Spain where there are large finning industries. In an article titled Market incentives for shark fisheries in the Marine Policy Journal by R.B.M Pincinato et al., the authors looked into how the demand for shark meat has changed before and after the implementation of shark finning regulations in 1998. While doing research, the authors noticed that there has been little research on the seafood market dynamics in Brazil. Through this study they hope to find out the trends and impacts that have lead to this demand while also providing more information in seafood market dynamics in Brazil.

Investigating the rise in demand for shark meat in Brazil is important for many reasons. The coast of Brazil contains around 120 different shark species, and so with the increase in trading of shark meat and imports of meat in Brazil, many endangered sharks are further exposed to unsustainable fishing practices. Therefore, putting these shark species at an increased chance for overexploitation and extinction. Not only are sharks being put at risk with an even larger target on their backs now, but the health of those consuming them is also at risk due to improper/dishonest species labeling. The larger the species of shark, the higher concentration of toxins there are, which can lead to many health concerns for those consuming the shark meat. Specifically, species such as blue sharks, oceanic whitetips, and hammerheads which are widely marketed for their meat are commonly not tested for concentrations of heavy metals or other harmful chemicals when put up for sale. Therefore, there are tons of misinformed consumers in this market and their health is unknowingly being put at risk. Overall, even though the shark finning industry has weakened, the demand for shark meat is increasing which will eventually lead to over exploitation of sharks and decreased health in poorly managed fishery communities such as in Brazil.

This news piece reports on original research in:

Pincinato, R. B. M., Gasalla, M. A., Garlock, T., & Anderson, J. L. (2022). Market incentives for shark fisheries. Marine Policy, 139, 105031. Available:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X22000781