Fisheries Management

Question 1

What is MSY?

Answer 1

• Maximum Sustainable Yield is one of the traditional models used by fisheries managers.
• the largest average catch under existing environmental conditions

Question 2

What are the 5 critical assumptions of Maximum Sustainable Yield?

Answer 2

1. In absent harvest, fish populations grow to an equilibrium (not increasing or decreasing)
2. Fish populations can often exhibit high natural mortality rates, especially at high densities
3. If populations are below carrying capacity, then density-dependent mortality decreases, leading to an increase of population growth rates.
4. Some can be harvested without damaging pop. long term
5. There is a max - this persists sustainably

Question 3

What is the name of the graph below? What is its significance to MSY?

Answer 3

• Riker Curve
• The distance between A-B is the maximum sustainable yield
• The intercept of C is the point of un-fished equilibrium

Question 4

What are marine reserves

Answer 4

large scale areas for restricting activities to protect aspects (eg.fish) of an aquatic ecosystem.

Question 5

What happened to the Sea Scallops after the area closure of Georges Bank?

Answer 5

A significant Biomass increase

Question 6

What do BC Freshwater Angling Managers regulate?

Answer 6

The time, location, species of fish, type of gear, bait, hook sizes and types, etc.

Question 7

What are buy-back schemes?

Do they work?

Answer 7

• Government purchase of fishing rights and gear as an effort to reduce fishing effort
• No, they only eliminate competition to the fishing vessels that remain and they increase fishing effort (this is worse in fisheries with no quota)

Question 8

When did fish farm production in SW BC show rapid increases?

What year did it hit its highest salmon farm production and how many tonnes did it produce?

Answer 8

1990’s

In 2011, they produced 80,000 Tonnes

Question 9

What are some controversies with fish farms?

Answer 9

• Many stocks and species passing fish farms have shown dramatic decline (sea lice and other diseases)
• Resources to create food for fish farms are quite costly and have a heavy impact on the environment (eg. feeding fish fish meal or chicken)

Question 10

What are ITQ’s?

How are they implemented?

Answer 10

Individual Transferable Quotas

1. Regulators set TAC= Total Allowable Catch
2. Distributes Quotas
3. Quota rights can be traded or rented out
4. Some systems, buy rights to harvest as a % of the TAC

Question 11

What are some Market Based Management Solutions in fisheries?

Answer 11

• Option by the public to boycott “dirty” fisheries. -Seafood watch and Marine Stewardship Council
• Certification of seafood by independent groups (such as the MSC)

Question 12

What’s the Allocation of Salmon in order of Priority in BC?

Answer 12

1. Escapement of Spawning
2. First nations - food, societal, ceremonial
   TAC—>
3. USA treaty requirements
4. Recreational priority for chinook and coho
5. Commercial fishery

Question 13

What are some examples of information Fisheries Managers need to manage harvest fisheries?

Answer 13

1. Fishing effort
2. Fishing mortality
3. Natural mortality
4. Biomass/population estimate
5. Fecundity

Question 14

What are three variables that dominantly affect fishery populations?

Answer 14

1. Birth Rate/ Recruitment
2. Growth Rate
3. Mortality

Question 15

What are 3 agencies in BC that directly deal with fisheries management?

Answer 15

• Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO)
• The ministry of Forest, Land, and Natural Resources Operations, and Rural Development (FLNRORD)
• Pacific Salmon Commission

Question 16

What is Fisheries Management?

Answer 16

• BCIT: uses science and technology, policy, regulation and legislation, communication and education, etc, in an attempt to protect and/or manipulate fish stocks, their habitats, and their harvest, for specific societal (harvest, economic, subsistence, political) and conservation (including biodiversity)
  objectives
• The manipulation of aquatic environments and organisms and human users to produce sustained benefits for humanity - (Nielson)

Question 17

Overfishing

Answer 17

the rate of fish mortality (harvest plus bycatch) exceeds the natural rate of replacement.

Question 18

CPUE (Catch per unit effort)

How to calculate?

What is it for

Answer 18

• amount of fish caught (Number, biomass, etc) by a given amount of effort.
• Total catch fish or weight/total effort ($ usually)
• Measure of relative abundance. Changes are used to infer changes to abundance
• Decreasing CPUE indicates overexploitation.

Question 19

Why can CPUE be problematic?

Answer 19

Limitation in terms of increased efficiency of technology can skew the CPUE numbers

Question 20

Natural Mortality (M)

Answer 20

The removal of fish form the stock due to causes not associated with fishing. Disease, predation, old age, competition, pollution

Question 21

Fishing Mortality (F)

Answer 21

removal of fish from stock due to fishing activities using any fishing gear.

Question 22

By-catch

Answer 22

The capture of non-target fish or other marine animals in fishing gear, including juveniles of the target species

Question 23

Overcapacity

Answer 23

Fishing fleets are larger than necessary to harvest the allowable catch.

Question 24

Failures of MSY (4 points)

Answer 24

• Estimating population is difficult
• Assumes a curve shape that may not be correct
• Focuses on single species instead of ecosystem
• Pressure to overestimate stock and underestimate effort

Question 25

List regulatory, policy, and legislative tools to help fisheries (7)

Answer 25

• Management areas (geographic)
• Marine reserves
• Freshwater fishing regs
• buy-back
• aquaculture
• remove subsidies
• reduce bycatch

Question 26

What is the constitutional framework for fisheries management in Canada? BC?

Answer 26

The Fisheries Act empowers Fisheries and Oceans Canada (“DFO”) to conserve and protect fish and fish habitat across Canada

In BC, management of these resources can be shifted to the level of provincial managers, but still have to work under the standards of the Act.