Bycatch mitigation requires livelihood solutions, not just fishing bans: A case study of the trammel-net fishery in the northern Beibu Gulf, China

Self Cite

In coastal delphinid conservation, dolphin watching (DW) is frequently proposed for artisanal fishers as a community‐based marine ecotourism (CBME) plan to reduce fishing effort and delphinid bycatch. Questions including whether DW profitability is sufficient to replace fishing and whether fishers can conduct DW sustainably, however, are rarely examined. In the present study, questionnaire targeting tourists was implemented to investigate DW profitability in Sanniang Bay, China where DW‐based CBME has been operated by local fishers since 2004. CBME sustainability was evaluated by comparing DW profitability with household income with reference to local poverty, and rural and economically comfortable families in China. Out of 1046 tourists interviewed, 40 (3.82%) tourists knew there is DW in Sanniang Bay, while 292 (27.9%) tourists were lured to attend DW with low pricing. The fisher earned 110RMB (ca. 16.0$USD) per DW trip and required two, four, and nine trips per day to earn household income higher than poverty, rural and economically comfortable lines. Raising ticket fee and maximizing per‐trip number of tourists can substantially improve DW profitability, which facilitates CBME sustainability and poses minimal impacts on target animals. CBME in rural areas could be trapped into low popularity–low pricing–low profitability embarrassments because of primitive tour facilities, insufficient ecological education value, poor hospitality skills and lacking marketing access. The sustainable CBME should incorporate ecologically friendly conducts, direct indigenous profits with minimal transaction costs, venture and service diversification, and marketing with indigenous cultural characteristics. DW history in Sanniang Bay further indicates profit distribution of tourism ventures directly influence CBME sustainability. Accordingly, indigenous rights, economic equity and social justice should be centrally placed in CBME policying with the minimal intervention from non‐indigenous capitals and commercialized manipulations.

Section: Coordinated and Adaptive Multi-stakeholder Campaignsmentioning

confidence: 52%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Replacing artisanal fisheries with dolphin watching: Strategy for conservation and sustainable community‐based marine ecotourism

Wu,

Luo,

Huang

et al. 2024

Self Cite

“…Industrialized fishing must be banned in the LCHs of these species. Artisanal fisheries, particularly those associated with household livelihoods, need to be regulated and restricted to minimize the level of activity in the LCHs (Di Tullio, Fruet & Secchi, 2015; Wu et al, 2022), along with livelihood diversification and organizing community‐based conservation campaigns (Wu et al, 2022). The LCHs of the Indo‐Pacific finless porpoise and Indian Ocean humpback dolphin should be designated as ‘no‐go’ areas for maritime engineering projects, such as wind farm developments (Huang, 2022) and oil extraction.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suitable habitats of two coastal cetaceans along the northern Arabian Sea: Important marine mammal areas susceptible to conservation gaps

Kiani

Siddiqui

Gore³

et al. 2023

1. Coastal cetaceans are often selected as a biodiversity surrogate in ecosystembased conservation planning. In the northern Arabian Sea there is insufficient information on suitable habitats for the Indo-Pacific finless porpoise and Indian Ocean humpback dolphin for planning protection.2. Suitable habitats for the Indo-Pacific finless porpoise and Indian Ocean humpback dolphin were projected using the MaxEnt model in the present study. The variable contributions in MaxEnt exercises and characteristics of the major habitats were used to represent the ecological niches of these two cetaceans.3. Along coastal waters of the northern Arabian Sea, bathymetry was the most significant variable that influenced the distribution of the Indian Ocean humpback dolphin, which prefers water 2-5 m deep. The Indo-Pacific finless porpoise prefers 6-20 m deep water and its distribution was influenced by bathymetry, sea-surface temperature and chlorophyll-a concentration.4. Suitable habitats identified by this study provide a baseline from which to evaluate the impact of anthropogenic activities in coastal and estuarine waters, assist marine development planning and guide marine protected area (MPA) designations. Effective MPA designation would include ca. 30% of major habitats to accommodate viable populations and sufficient biodiversity richness to maintain a functioning ecosystem. Data used in the present study may be subject to sampling heterogeneity and thus coastal waters not included as suitable habitats would require further investigation for possible omission bias. Actions necessary for conservation of the Indo-Pacific finless porpoise and IndianOcean humpback dolphin include designating no-take zones or MPAs, banning industrial fishing while restricting artisanal fishery activity and mobilizing community-based conservation campaigns for major habitat protection. As such, further data on distribution, density and environmental variables related to cetaceans are needed to inform any conservation efforts.

“…Guangdong‐Hong Kong‐Macao Greater Bay Area; Karczmarski et al, 2016), the Indus River Delta (Kiani & Van Waerebeek, 2015; Sutaria et al, 2015), the Gulf of Thailand (Jutapruet et al, 2015) and the Bay of Bengal coast (Amaral et al, 2020), where human activities pose increased disturbances and pressures to marine megafauna. Consequently, humpback dolphins are extremely vulnerable to a variety of human‐caused survival threats, such as fishery bycatch (Atkins, Cliff & Pillay, 2013; Liu et al, 2017a; Wang et al, 2018; Wu et al, 2022), habitat loss/degradation (Karczmarski et al, 2017; Wang et al, 2017; Wu et al, 2017; Huang et al, 2022) and maritime traffic (Li et al, 2015; Liu et al, 2017b; Li et al, 2018; Lin et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population distribution, connectivity and differentiation of Indo‐Pacific humpback dolphins in Chinese waters: Key baselines for improving conservation management

Liu

Lin

2023

1. Humpback dolphins (Sousa spp.), throughout their distribution ranges, are often designated as flagship species for coastal ecosystem conservation. Most of the early research on humpback dolphins was carried out in Chinese waters, and in the last two decades, numerous studies have provided abundant conservationvaluable findings.2. In this study, a systematic review was conducted to gain a comprehensive understanding of the distributional ecology of humpback dolphins in Chinese waters, to establish an updated national knowledge base about key conservation baselines on this flagship species. 3. Currently, there are at least eight main distribution areas of humpback dolphins along the coast of southern China, representing a clear picture of place-based conservation units. However, the overall biogeographical distribution pattern is discontinuous, and existing marine protected areas are far from sufficient to protect these key areas for the survival of humpback dolphins. 4. Based on the photo-identification technique, cross-matching of humpback dolphin individuals revealed extremely low inter-population connectivity among most of the known populations. Genetic studies suggested that several examined populations have low haplotype diversity levels, with limited inter-population gene flow. Morphological and behavioural evidence also supports population differentiation among geographical locations.5. These findings provide key baselines for the promotion of conservation management initiatives for humpback dolphins in Chinese waters. All recognizable geographical populations, together with each key habitat, should be considered as independent conservation units. With small distribution areas, low genetic diversity and unfavourable geographical isolation, several populations may be at a high risk of regional extinction. 6. A country-led scheme with cross-regional collaboration is required for sciencebased, action-focused and timely conservation efforts. Future conservation management initiatives should aim to increase or at least maintain key habitats, inter-population connectivity, population-level genetic diversity and effective population size.