The transboundary nature of the world’s exploited marine species

Abstract

Regulatory boundaries and species distributions often do not align. This is especially the case for marine species crossing multiple Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs). Such movements represent a challenge for fisheries management, as policies tend to focus at the national level, yet international collaborations are needed to maximize long-term ecological, social and economic benefits of shared marine species. Here, we combined species distributions and the spatial delineation of EEZs at the global level to identify the number of commercially exploited marine species that are shared between neighboring nations. We found that 67% of the species analyzed are transboundary (n = 633). Between 2005 and 2014, fisheries targeting these species within global-EEZs caught on average 48 million tonnes per year, equivalent to an average of USD 77 billion in annual fishing revenue. For select countries, over 90% of their catch and economic benefits were attributable to a few shared resources. Our analysis suggests that catches from transboundary species are declining more than those from non-transboundary species. Our study has direct implications for managing fisheries targeting transboundary species, highlighting the need for strengthened effective and equitable international cooperation.

Targeted, collaborative biodiversity conservation in the global ocean can benefit fisheries economies

“…Due to the partial restriction of species to pelagic habitats (28), a conservation strategy focused solely on EEZ protection is at minimum inefficient and, for purely pelagic species, ineffective. This fact reinforces the crucial need of common conservation strategies between neighboring countries that share common stocks and nonexploited species (29).…”

Timing and magnitude of climate driven range shifts in transboundary fish stocks challenge their management

“…Second, we estimated the intensity of such change. While future studies, specifically at more localized scale, will provide valuable nuance in designing effective policies, our results provide an important baseline on which to build when preparing ocean governance for shifting transboundary stocks (Palacios-Abrantes, Reygondeau, et al, 2020; Pinsky et al, 2018). Our findings emphasize recent calls for the urgent adoption of measures in support of more adaptive, flexible fisheries management and governance to support resilient fisheries and durable management systems (Oremus et al, 2020; Pinsky et al, 2018; Pinsky et al, 2020).…”

Incorporating evolutionary based tools in cephalopod fisheries management

“…That would allow recognizing the mismatches between biological stocks and assessment and management units that can cause population decline (Pita et al 2015a;Casey et al 2016;Gonçalves da Silva et al 2020;Mejía-Ruíz et al 2020;Timm et al 2020). If panmictic metapopulation is harvested differently in two or more geopolitical areas, those management practices will have interconnected effects, and new data indeed shows that catches of transboundary species decline faster (Palacios-Abrantes et al 2020). In that case, cooperative and shared management scheme between the geopolitical entities is recommended (Cardinale et al 2017).…”