Marine protected areas (MPAs) and freshwater protected areas (FPAs), collectively aquatic protected areas (APAs), share many commonalities in their design, establishment, and management, suggesting great potential for sharing lessons learned. However, surprisingly little has been exchanged to date, and both realms of inquiry and practice have progressed mostly independent of each other. This paper builds on a session held at the 7th World Fisheries Congress in Busan, South Korea, in May 2016, which explored crossover lessons between marine and freshwater realms, and included case studies of four MPAs and five FPAs (or clusters of FPAs) from nine countries. This review uses the case studies to explore similarities, differences, and transferrable lessons between MPAs and FPAs under five themes: (1) ecological system; (2) establishment approaches; (3) effectiveness monitoring; (4) sustaining APAs; and (5) challenges and external threats. Ecological differences between marine and freshwater environments may necessitate different approaches for collecting species and habitat data to inform APA design, establishment and monitoring, but once collected, similar spatial ecological tools can be applied in both realms. In contrast, many similarities exist in the human dimension of both MPA and FPA establishment and management, highlighting clear opportunities for exchanging lessons related to stakeholder engagement and support, and for using similar socio‐economic and governance assessment methods to address data gaps in both realms. Regions that implement MPAs and FPAs could work together to address shared challenges, such as developing mechanisms for diversified and sustained funding, and employing integrated coastal/watershed management to address system‐level threats. Collaboration across realms could facilitate conservation of diadromous species in both marine and freshwater habitats. Continued exchange and increased collaboration would benefit both realms, and may be facilitated by defining shared terminology, holding cross‐disciplinary conferences or sessions, publishing inclusive papers, and proposing joint projects.
Ainsley, S. M., Ebert, D. A., and Cailliet, G. M. 2011. Age, growth, and maturity of the whitebrow skate, Bathyraja minispinosa, from the eastern Bering Sea. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68: 1426–1434. Skates are a common bycatch in groundfish fisheries in the Bering Sea; however, their life-history characteristics are not well known. The study is the first to investigate the age, growth, and age at maturity of Bathyraja minispinosa. Ages were estimated using sectioned vertebrae and several growth models were compared. The Gompertz model was the best fit and no significant differences were detected between sexes for any model. The maximum age estimated was 37 years, and parameter estimates generated from the three-parameter von Bertalanffy model were k = 0.02 year−1 and L∞ = 146.9 cm total length (TL). Males reached their size at 50% maturity larger than females (70.1 and 67.4 cm, respectively), but no significant differences in the estimated size or age at maturity were found. Whereas B. minispinosa is smaller than many skate species in the eastern Bering Sea, it has a considerably longer estimated lifespan, indicating that size may not be a reliable method of estimating the vulnerability of a rajid species to population declines in the eastern North Pacific.
Age-structured demographic models were constructed based on empirical estimates of longevity and maturity for five deepwater Bering Sea skates to investigate how observed differences in life history parameters affect population growth rates. Monte Carlo simulations were used to incorporate parameter uncertainty. Estimated population growth rates ranged from 1.045 to 1.129 yr−1 and were lower than those reported for other Alaskan skates and most chondrichthyans. Population growth rates of these and other high-latitude skates increased with relative reproductive lifespan, but displayed no significant relationship with body size or depth distribution, suggesting that assemblage shifts may be difficult to predict for data-poor taxa. Elasticity analyses indicated that juvenile and adult survival had greater per-unit effects on population growth rates than did egg-case survival or fecundity. Population growth rate was affected more by uncertainty in age at maturity than maximum age. The results of this study indicate that if skates are deemed to be a management concern, gear modifications or depth-specific effort controls may be effective.
Abstract. Estimates of size at maturity are crucial to fisheries stock assessments and may change spatially and temporally. This study directly compares life-history characteristics of a skate species in two large marine ecosystems in a region where there is both a directed fishery and considerable skate by-catch in other fisheries. The Bering skate, Bathyraja interrupta, is one of the most common skate species in Alaskan waters, occurring in two large marine ecosystems, the eastern Bering Sea (EBS) and the Gulf of Alaska (GOA), but little is known about its life history. Skates were sampled from both regions between 2004 and 2007. In the GOA, the size at maturity was estimated to be 69 cm total length (TL) for males and 71 cm TL for females, while in the EBS size at maturity was estimated as 70 cm and 72 cm TL for males and females, respectively. Median size at maturity differed by sex but not by region. Our results indicate that B. interrupta shows late maturity, typical of most skate species, suggesting that more detailed monitoring of skate populations and precautionary management is warranted as skate fisheries expand.
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