To gauge the collateral impacts of fishing we must know where fishing boats operate and how much they fish. Although small-scale fisheries land approximately the same amount of fish for human consumption as industrial fleets globally, methods of estimating their fishing effort are comparatively poor. We present an accessible, spatial method of calculating the effort of small-scale fisheries based on two simple measures that are available, or at least easily estimated, in even the most data-poor fisheries: the number of boats and the local coastal human population. We illustrate the method using a small-scale fisheries case study from the Gulf of California, Mexico, and show that our measure of Predicted Fishing Effort (PFE), measured as the number of boats operating in a given area per day adjusted by the number of people in local coastal populations, can accurately predict fisheries landings in the Gulf. Comparing our values of PFE to commercial fishery landings throughout the Gulf also indicates that the current number of small-scale fishing boats in the Gulf is approximately double what is required to land theoretical maximum fish biomass. Our method is fishery-type independent and can be used to quantitatively evaluate the efficacy of growth in small-scale fisheries. This new method provides an important first step towards estimating the fishing effort of small-scale fleets globally.
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http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0174064 | PLOS |
PLoS One
January 2025
Department of Geography Education, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana.
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View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Agromedicine
January 2025
Department of Connectivity, Comunidad y Biodiversidad A.C., Guaymas Sonora, México.
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J Agromedicine
January 2025
ICAR, Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, FRAEED, Ernakulam, India.
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PLoS One
December 2024
Research Center for Cooperative, Corporation and People's Economy, National Research and Innovation Agency, Jakarta, Indonesia.
The livelihood of small-scale fishers is highly dependent on marine resources and coastal areas while the condition of marine waters is increasingly unpredictable due to seasonal uncertainty and extreme weather due to climate variability. This condition has a negative impact on fish catches and the income of small-scale fishermen. The study results were obtained through interviews with respondents using a structured questionnaire.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Monit Assess
December 2024
School of the Sea, Science and Technology, Universidade Do Vale Do Itajaí (Univali, Rua Uruguai, 458, Itajaí, SC, CP 360, Brazil.
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