An Overview Of Our Solution
$500 Stock Assessment
Who is this solution impacting?
Ecosystem
Océanos/Costas
Community Type
Suburbano
Additional Information
- Population Impacted:
- Continent: Oceanía
Problem
Describe the problem
This solution is a new cheap generic form of assessing small-scale and data-poor fisheries globally. Requiring only size of maturity and size composition data, the solution can be used cheaply by fishing communities to scientifically set size limits that conserve safe levels of breeding stock and ensure high catch rates of valuable big fish. In an unselective fishery it can be used to set size targets for a stock. Fishing communities can make their own assessments adjusting fishing pressure by whatever method/s they have, lower when the stock’s size composition is smaller than the target, relax fishing restrictions when size targets are exceeded; until size structure and catches stabilize. No more need for biological studies, time series data, and complex models.
Biodiversity Impact
Globally overfishing is a key threatening process for marine biodiversity, its greatest impact are on coastal marine ecosystems. In the race to fish, fishers adopt more powerful, less selective and more impactful practices, and jeopardizing food security, and driving fishing’s ecological impact. Secure exclusive access rights motivate communities to stop the ‘race to fish’ and manage locally. However, even if communities want to stop and improve management, the cost and technicality of fisheries assessment becomes an impediment. FAO estimates more than 90% of global fisheries are too small or data-poor for assessment with existing assessment techniques. This solution involves size-based stock assessment and simple decision-making frameworks for village scale application globally. Communicated in terms of target size compositions required for sustainable breeding stocks and optimal catch rates, the need to reduce fishing pressure when catch compositions become too small is obvious. Communities can now make their own assessments and locally agree how to adjust fishing pressure until size structures and catches stabilize. Almost every fish stock on the planet can now be scientifically assessed, managed and certified. Experience to date shows fishing communities with secure exclusive access rights find this solution empowering, readily adopting it to develop innovative local management plans. This solution can make fisheries sustainable globally, reducing impacts on marine ecosystem, and ensuring seafood security for >200 million people.
Solution
Many of the impacts of fishing on ecosystems are symptomatic of the underlying global problem of overfishing ƒ?? a key threatening process for global marine bio-diversity. Seeking any edge in the ƒ??race to fishƒ?? fishers adopt less selective, more powerful, and damaging fishing practices, and encroach further into less impacted habitats, eroding local biodiversity, and fishing down food webs faster and faster. This solution makes it possible for fishing communities around the world to scientifically assess and manage local resources. Used within the context of our solution will enable Fishing communities with secure access rights are motivated to self-management. This solution empowers fishing them to stop racing and to start scientifically managing local stocks towards higher abundances, conserving safe levels of spawning, and profitably high catch rates of bigger more valuable fish. Experience with the Chilean Caleta system shows local self-interest can drive a self-organizing process which incrementally stops and reverses over-fishing, at least in coastal regions claimed by fishing communities. Reversing the race to fish, will take away the main driver for most fishery related ecosystem and habitat impacts. The rate of all impacts will slow, giving us time to stop chasing the current fire-storm, to prioritise and focus. Well managed local fishing communities, will want and be capable of addressing residual impacts of fishing, because they will want to certify their products for market. This is the solution they need! // In final form, this solution has been developed theoretically over the last 2yrs through meta-analysis and harvest strategy evaluation and has not been fully implemented. Elements of the solution have been in use at regional scales for 10yrs. Generic size-based reference points have been used by abalone divers in Victoria and New South Wales, Australia (900,000ha) to visually assess stocks, and agree reef scale catch/size limits, openings/closings. The size-based incremental SPR harvest control rule was implemented into the Eastern Australian Tuna fishery (980,000,000 ha) in 2010. In November 2011 Prince travels to Palau (62,900,000ha) on behalf of The Nature Conservancy and Palauƒ??s House of Reps to scope out the potential for implementation in Palau. A contract to develop a manual and a course ƒ??Training the Trainersƒ?? is being developed for the USAID - IMACS Indonesian fisheries project (270,000,000 ha), amid high discussion with government and academics, of ƒ??chile-likeƒ?? changes so that local communities can legally claim exclusive local fishing and management rights. Globally, a future project with Marine Stewardship Council will complete, developing and publishing the new approach, and evaluate it for incorporation into MSC assessment protocols. A second phase with a wider group of partners will implement the solution with fisheries involved in some way with MSC in Africa, Indonesia, California, Alaska, and possibly Latin America. Prize money from this Search would be used to self-fund parallel application at St Croix with the US Caribbean Fisheries Council.
Replicability
How many years has your solution been applied? 10 years// Have others reproduced your solution elsewhere? Yes // With this solution motivated fishing communities can start scientifically assessing and managing local fisheries. The international literature provides the basis for generic reference points and management targets across broad species grouping for rates of spawning; Spawning per recruit - SPR. This solution allows SPR in a local stocks to be assessed against Reference Points. Taught target size compositions, communities can assess their own stocks from size in their own catches. Comparing current and target size compositions fishers can make their own assessments and develop local remedies for adjusting fishing pressure until size targets are achieved. Learning from the success of the Chinese barefoot doctor program during the 1950-60s, and the self-organizing ability shown by local fishers in Japan and Chile; where community assessment and management occurs within systems of exclusive access rights. Prince (2010) advocates mid-level community fisheries technicians; Barefoot Ecologists with generic assessment tools, empowering fishing communities motivated by exclusive access rights facilitating data collection, assessments and community management. National governments, Aid Agencies and NGOs are uniting behind the need to extend secure access rights globally to fisheries. This solution will empower communities to self assess and manage, allowing a global grassroots driven process of change to flourish wherever Chilean style reforms are initiated. Replicated virally this solution could rapidly relieve a major global driver of degradation in coastal ecosystems.
Human Well Being and Livelihood Impact
This solution rescales the costs and technicality of assessment to village scales. Motivated communities can assess and manage themselves with minimal technical assistance. Elements have been used since 2002 by Australian abalone divers, directly impacting 200 divers and dive-tenders. In the Western Zone Victorian abalone fishery where development began, the fishery management plan set regional TACs for ITQ management, with reef scale assessments by divers and open workshops, rather than the problematic regionally scaled models formerly used. Fishers set and enforce voluntary reef scale catch/size limits, openings/closings. Government enforcement officers report >95% compliance. Regional catches are proving more conservative than zonal model estimates. In 2010 aspects of the approach were implemented to Australia’s East Coast Tuna Fishery impacting 500 fishers. Plans are being made to implement the approach in Palau (7,000 fishers), and also Indonesia with the blue swimmer crab fishery (65,000 fishers and 13,000 crab meat pickers) and coastal reef fisheries (1+ million fishers?) with IMACs project. According to FAO 38 million fishers depend directly, and 100 million indirectly on fisheries to small or value-less to assess. Where governance arrangements provide local incentives, this solution empowers fishing communities to scientifically manage their way to big fish caught at profitably high catch rates and seafood security. Coastal marine ecosystems will all benefit globally as well, as a primary driver of marine and coastal degradation declines. // Secure exclusive access rights are a necessary condition for motivating fishing communities to assess and manage resources. Access rights can take various forms; territorial, catch shares or shares of limited gear and time units etc. Exclusivity is needed to motivate fishers to make short-term sacrifices for long-term gain. Secure exclusive access rights require a level of functional governance and rule of law. Countries like Australia, New Zealand and Chile already have strong legal frameworks providing secure excusive access rights, and this solution has developed in response to demand from Australian fishing communities for cheap assessment techniques they can use. In some countries like the Pacific nations, and Indonesia, there is a tradition of Customary Marine Tenure (CMT) but their exclusivity and strength have been eroded over time. In these countries governance frameworks may need to strengthened and harmonize national and provincial laws. Still requiring a level of effective governance to secure exclusive access rights, empowering fishing communities to assess and manage themselves will reduce their dependence on government for technical support and decision-making. Our experience is that empowering local fishing communities in this way enhances their capacity and commitment to self enforce agreed management plans, further reducing reliance on government services, and higher levels of governance.