Catch rates and income are associated with fisheries management restrictions and not an environmental disturbance, in a heavily exploited tropical fishery

Abstract

We evaluated and compared the influence of the largest temperature anomaly in recent history, the 1997−1998 El Niño−Indian Ocean Dipole anomaly that killed half of the corals in the Indian Ocean, with a nearly coincident increase in fisheries management restrictions on coral reef fisheries in southern Kenya. Seawater temperatures, benthic primary producers, and fishing effort and catch rate and income time series collected over the 1993−2012 period were evaluated using time series and variable cointegration methods. An observed decline and subsequent increase in catch rates was closely associated with the implementation of increasing fisheries restrictions and was not predictably cointegrated with the temperature or the primary producer's time series. This may have occurred because the disturbance was pulsed with a limited 6 yr impact on the primary producers and the fishery was heavily utilized and composed of fastgrowing generalist species with broad diet and habitat needs. Consequently, under these conditions, promoting fisheries restrictions is expected to attenuate the predicted declines in fish catches projected by global warming.

Effect of ENSO on the distribution and concentration of catches and reproductive activity of anchovy Engraulis ringens in northern Chile

“…All variables were tested with the Dickey–Fuller test statistic augmented for stationarity, and cointegration and error correction models were determined using trace value and maximum value statistics. Causal relationships were tested through the Granger test (McClanahan & Abunge, ); optimal lags were determined using the Varorder function. For the variables that registered cointegration and causality, cross‐correlations (CCF) were calculated.…”

Size structure and gear selectivity of target species in the multispecies multigear fishery of the Kenyan South Coast

“…This is typical for species of emperors (Lethrinidae), snappers (Lutjanidae), goatfish (Mullidae) and rabbitfish (Siganidae) (Honda et al, 2013), species which contribute significantly to the overall artisanal catch in Kenya (Kaunda-Arara et al, 2003). The dominance of lowetrophic level species in the catch such as the Siganus sutor and the Leptoscarus vaigiensis can be reflective of an overexploited fishery because of their fast life history traits, which makes them more tolerant to intense fishing (Camilo, 2015;McClanahan and Abunge, 2014).…”

Designing Climate-Resilient Marine Protected Area Networks by Combining Remotely Sensed Coral Reef Habitat with Coastal Multi-Use Maps

“…When comparing the single most cost-effective solution this overlap was higher, but still relatively low. Areas adjacent to highly populated areas were avoided by both scenarios because of the many uses and demand for fish near urban areas [47,48]. Minimizing conflicts resulted in the largest area (~29 km 2 ) of the 133 km 2 of the existing high compliance closures being selected at a high frequency, perhaps indicating a successful resource allocation decision in the current management system.…”