Uruguayan fisheries under an increasingly globalized scenario: Long-term landings and bioeconomic trends

Abstract

The systematic dwindling over time of many commercially important fish stocks in developed countries and the increasing demand of international markets provided a window of opportunity for fishery sector development in many developing countries. Science-based assessments of how market forces impact on fisheries trends are particularly limited in developing countries. This study assessed long-term trends (1960-2013) of the Uruguayan industrial fishery sector, including: (i) landings discriminated by species and resource type; (ii) variations in nominal effort and fleet capacity; (iii) bioeconomic patterns for most important species; and (iv) export and import volumes at the Uruguayan seafood market. Results indicate the sector underwent four phases that depict long-term patterns: development, expansion, stabilization-diversification and declining yields and market contraction. The development of the sector was mainly due to the Argentine hake fishery, which was characterized by a sustained increase in landings, nominal effort and fleet capacity

Evidence of ocean warming in Uruguay’s fisheries landings: the mean temperature of the catch approach

“…The removal of dominant species from the analysis showed a marked influence of Argentine hake (coolwater affinity) and whitemouth croaker (warm-water affinity) landings in modulating MTC trends. Reduced catch per unit effort (Lorenzo & Defeo 2015) and landings levels (Gianelli & Defeo 2017) in Argentine hake for the past 25 yr have been largely attributed to a failure in the management system. However, climate change could be partially responsible for exacerbating the observed trends.…”

“…More than 50 species are caught by the Uruguayan industrial fishing fleet. However, landings of Argentine hake Merluccius hubbsi, whitemouth croaker Micropogonias furnieri and stripped weakfish Cynoscion guatucupa historically represented more than 85% of total landings (Gianelli & Defeo 2017). Landings have drastically fluctuated in the longterm following the phases described by Gianelli & Defeo (2017): development, expansion, stabilization-diversification and a last phase of declining yields and market contraction.…”

“…This dynamic oceanographic setting, with a high degree of seasonal and interannual variations, determines a complex horizontal and vertical structure that provides favorable environmental conditions for high primary productivity and also for spawning and breeding of fish and invertebrate populations (Ciotti et al 1995, Acha et al 2004, Jaureguizar et al 2016. Several studies at a global scale have projected significant mid-and long-term catch losses in the SAO (Cheung et al 2009, seriously threatening an al ready weakened Uruguayan and Argentinean indus trial fishery sector (Villasante et al 2016, Gianelli & Defeo 2017. The uncertainty of these global model projections at the regional scale is aggravated by the rapid changes in oceanographic conditions occurring in this hotspot.…”

Climate change impacts on the atmospheric circulation, ocean, and fisheries in the southwest South Atlantic Ocean: a review

“…The analysis also showed that landings of Argentine hake Merluccius hubbsi strongly modulate the MTC trends. Merluccius hubbsi represented the most important fishery in Uruguay during the past 60 years, and declines in catch per unit of effort (Lorenzo and Defeo 2015), and landings (Gianelli and Defeo 2017) were observed in the past 25 years. M. hubbsi is a cold-water affinity species, and therefore, the systematic increase in SST reported during the past 30 years over the Uruguayan shelf (Ortega et al 2012(Ortega et al , 2016 implies a trend towards unfavorable thermal conditions for the species.…”

From Past to Present: Construction of a Dataset Documenting Mother-of-Pearl Exports From a Pacific Island Nation, Papua New Guinea

“…Inter-generational loss of information relating to marine resource exploitation leads to shifting baselines (Pauly, 1995;Pinnegar and Engelhard, 2007), which have direct consequences for fisheries management and livelihoods opportunities. Historical data provide a means of regaining that information (Jackson et al, 2011;Cardinale et al, 2015;Fortibuoni et al, 2017) and are increasingly incorporated into assessments of change (Lotze and Milewski, 2004;Eddy et al, 2010;Gianelli and Defeo, 2017). Through improved knowledge of past environmental states and resource use dynamics, there is demonstrable evidence that historical data brings value to modern marine policy and management in both national and regional contexts (Jackson et al, 2011;Engelhard et al, 2016;Fortibuoni et al, 2017).…”