Towards a Fishing Pressure Prediction System for a Western Pacific EEZ

Abstract

Fisheries management faces numerous monitoring and enforcement challenges that are becoming more complex as fish stocks are depleted; and illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing becomes more sophisticated. For remote island nations, the challenges are compounded by a loosely understood association of pelagic stocks to the ocean environment, and the tyranny of distance in monitoring and surveilling large exclusive economic zones (EEZ). An approach to ocean conservation is establishing protected areas, with the Pacific island nation of Palau as a leader with the recently established National Marine Sanctuary, which closes 80% of their EEZ to commercial fishing in 2020. Here we present an EEZ-wide analysis of Palau commercial fishing over a 6-year period (2011–2016), and develop a system for predicting fishing activity accounting for oceanic variables, climate indices, and vessel flag. Linking pelagic habitat to fishing activity provides high-resolution decision aids for management, highlighting the need for EEZ-specific analyses in addressing fisheries.

FLEAT: A Multiscale Observational and Modeling Program to Understand How Topography Affects Flows in the Western North Pacific

“…These stations provide marine weather monitoring, and they documented the passage of Super Typhoons Bopha and Haiyan (Merrifield et al b). FLEAT also solidified the basis for assessing the future of pelagic (mostly tuna) fishing by spurring the development of management products such as a predictive model for future fishing effort (Cimino et al, 2019). Ongoing programs, such as the HF radar measurements of surface currents, will continue to benefit Palau after the FLEAT initiative has ended.…”

Tropical Western Pacific Thermal Structure and its Relationship to Ocean Surface Variables: A Numerical State Estimate and Forereef Temperature Records

“…Enhancing predictability can aid in the direction of pre-and post-bleaching event surveys aimed toward better understanding of the role of oceanographic structure on coral ecosystem health. Additionally, thermocline depth and sea surface height have been shown to be predictors of where successful fishing for pelagic species occurs in Palau's Economic Exclusion Zone (Cimino et al, 2019). This analysis has helped better explain the spatial structure of the expected skill of those variables, which can contribute to the development of future fisheries enforcement techniques.…”

“…Fox et al, 2018;Williams et al, 2018). Farther off shore, sea surface height (SSH) as well as other prox ies for thermocline depth have been shown to have predictability in relating ocean variability to the locations of fish ing vessels (Cimino et al, 2019). Better predictability of thermocline displacements in the tropical Pacific and around islands could help inform the biological oceanography community on these emerging problems in ecosystem health.…”

Threats of illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing to biodiversity and food security in the Republic of the Congo

“…Tackling IUU fishing is therefore recognised as a top priorty to protect marine biodiversity and ensure the sustainable use of fisheries resources, as well as maritime, economic and food security (Laffoley et al, 2019). However, in order to combat IUU fishing and facilitate more effective fisheries management strategies (Cimino, Anderson, Schramek, Merrifield, & Terrill, 2019), it is essential to This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.…”

“…However, to combat IUU fishing and facilitate more effective fisheries management strategies (Cimino et al. 2019), it is essential to have detailed information on fisher behavior and spatial patterns of activity and effort (McCauley et al. 2016).…”