Marine Fish Population Collapses: Consequences for Recovery and Extinction Risk

Hutchings, Jeffrey A.; Reynolds, John D.

doi:10.1641/0006-3568(2004)054[0297:mfpccf]2.0.co;2

Cited by 579 publications

(530 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…pollution levels). The trend could also be measured over a certain time period, such as the past 10 or 50 years, or since the implementation of an important management measure [20].…”

Section: Simple Increasementioning

confidence: 99%

“…has not yet resulted in significant recovery [20]. In the Southern California Bight, a ban of gill nets in 1994 resulted in the slow recovery of strongly depleted white sea bass Atractoscion nobilis and other predatory fishes (Figure 2d) [48].…”

Section: Fishesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Among 232 fish stocks that experienced strong population declines, only 12% had fully recovered 15 years after collapse, whereas 40% showed no recovery [20]. Even among 74 USA fish stocks requiring recovery under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, only half showed some increase from 1996 to 2004 and just three (5%) had reached their recovery target [8].…”

Section: Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Interestingly, larger population declines were related to smaller recoveries. Similarly, fish stocks that experienced >90% declines showed less recovery than those with >70% decline, and only 12% fully recovered to former levels 15 years after their collapse [20]. Assessing quantitative recovery trends is not always easy and strongly depends on the amount and quality of available data, which are missing in the large proportion of species classified as data deficient by the IUCN [12] and for most marine habitats, including shallow ones [4].…”

Section: Magnitude Of Recoverymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, the review largely dealt with recovery from shorter-term impacts, such as eutrophication and oil spills, rather than long-term impacts, such as exploitation or habitat loss. Other studies showed that recovery often depends on intrinsic factors, such as life-history characteristics and genetic diversity [20], extrinsic factors, such as the type and magnitude of disturbance [21][22][23], and the conservation and management measures applied to reduce human impacts [3,8,9]. Thus, a broader and more nuanced treatment of marine recovery patterns and drivers is warranted.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Recovery of marine animal populations and ecosystems

Lotze¹,

Coll²,

Magera³

et al. 2011

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

358

316

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Many marine populations and ecosystems have experienced strong historical depletions, yet reports of recoveries are increasing. Here, we review the growing research on marine recoveries to reveal how common recovery is, its magnitude, timescale and major drivers. Overall, 10-50% of depleted populations and ecosystems show some recovery, but rarely to former levels of abundance. In addition, recovery can take many decades for long-lived species and complex ecosystems. Major drivers of recovery include the reduction of human impacts, especially exploitation, habitat loss and pollution, combined with favorable life-history and environmental conditions. Awareness, legal protection and enforcement of management plans are also crucial. Learning from historical recovery successes and failures is essential for implementing realistic conservation goals and promising management strategies.A new focus on recovery An increasing number of studies have reported strong declines in marine animal populations and the degradation of ocean ecosystems over past decades and centuries around the world [1][2][3][4][5][6][7], leading to a widespread perception of empty oceans and polluted waters. Yet, throughout history, humans have responded to declining resource abundance and ecosystem degradation by implementing management and conservation measures. Some of these have been successful and resulted in recovery, whereas others have failed [3,8,9].Therefore, an important question to science and management is: how common is recovery among depleted populations and degraded ecosystems in the ocean? Today, many marine mammal, bird, reptile and fish populations are at low abundance, and several species are endangered or extinct on regional or global scales [5,[10][11][12]. However, despite long periods of intense human impacts, most marine species persist and some populations do show signs of recovery [3,8,9]. Similarly, many coastal habitats, including wetlands, seagrass beds, mangrove and kelp forests, and oyster and coral reefs, have been severely reduced or degraded [2][3][4]6], yet partial recovery has been achieved in some regions in response to protection and pollution controls [3,13]. Restoration attempts at an ecosystem level have often been followed by the return and recovery of former species assemblages and ecosystem functions [13][14][15][16][17], but some ecosystems have remained in an altered state [18]. Such successes could serve as important guides for efforts to prevent further biodiversity loss and enhance future recoveries.Despite a growing number of case studies on the recovery of specific populations or ecosystems, an overview of the general patterns and drivers of marine recoveries over historical timescales is lacking. A recent review on the recovery of damaged ecosystems found that many terrestrial and marine ecosystems can recover on timescales of a few years to a few decades after major perturbations [19]. However, most case studies in the review, especially among marine and brackish examples, included small, short-...

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“…pollution levels). The trend could also be measured over a certain time period, such as the past 10 or 50 years, or since the implementation of an important management measure [20].…”

Section: Simple Increasementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Fishesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Magnitude Of Recoverymentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Recovery of marine animal populations and ecosystems

Lotze¹,

Coll²,

Magera³

et al. 2011

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

358

316

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Collapse and recovery of forage fish populations prior to commercial exploitation

McClatchie

Hendy

Thompson

et al. 2017

Geophysical Research Letters

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We use a new, well‐calibrated 500 year paleorecord off southern California to determine collapse frequency, cross correlation, persistence, and return times of exploited forage fish populations. The paleorecord shows that “collapse” (defined as <10% of the mean peak biomass) is a normal state repeatedly experienced by northern anchovy, Pacific hake, and Pacific sardine which were collapsed 29–40% of the time, prior to commercial fishing exploitation. Mean (± SD) persistence of “fishable biomass” (defined as one third mean peak biomass from the paleorecord) was 19 ± 18, 15 ± 17, and 12 ± 7 years for anchovy, hake, and sardine. Mean return times to the same biomass was 8 years for anchovy but 22 years for sardine and hake. Further, we find that sardine and anchovy are positively correlated over 400 years, consistent with coherent declines of both species off California. Persistence and return times combined with positive sardine‐anchovy correlation indicate that on average 1–2 decades of fishable biomass will be followed by 1–2 decades of low forage. Forage populations are resilient on the 500 year time scale, but their collapse and recovery cycle (based on the paleorecord) are suited to alternating periods of high fishing mortality and periods of little or no fishing.

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