To Adapt or Not Adapt: Assessing the Adaptive Capacity of Artisanal Fishers in the Trondheimsfjord (Norway) to Jellyfish (Periphylla periphylla) Bloom and Purse Seiners

Abstract

Worldwide increases of jellyfish has occurred during the last several decades. A dense population of a large scyphozoan jellyfish, Periphylla periphylla, has established itself as top predator in the Trondheimsfjord in Norway, impacting traditional fisheries. On this background we discuss the adaptive capacity of artisanal fishers and stakeholder involvement in environmental management. A serendipitous discovery was that fishers report that their capacity to adapt to the presence of jellyfish in fact was sufficient. What they could not adapt to, within the context of jellyfish proliferation, was top–down decisions from the national government allowing purse seiners into the fjord to harvest Sprat Sprattus sprattus and Atlantic Herring Clupea harengus rest quotas and thereby also large bycatches of the local codfishes. This harvest was perceived more detrimental to their fishery than was the jellyfish invasion. Relative to fisheries management's choice of regulatory mechanisms during times of climatic change, we argue that by involving stakeholders intimately, the resulting policy advice will be experienced bottom–up and, thus, more legitimate and serendipitous results of a critical nature are more likely to surface. Received August 21, 2014; accepted March 20, 2015

First reports of a mass mortality event across multiple life stages in a mesopelagic jellyfish in high latitude coastal waters

“…Assuming an average main basin depth of 450 m, our estimated P. periphylla abundances range from 12 to 20 ind./m 2 , which is less than in Norwegian fjords below 64°N where abundances reach mass occurrence levels and range from 20–320 ind./m 2 (Sørnes et al, ; Tiller, Mork, Liu, Borgersen, & Richards, ; Youngbluth & Båmstedt, ).…”

A Literature Review on Stakeholder Participation in Coastal and Marine Fisheries

“…We identified four publications defining the term stakeholder (Brzezinski et al 2010;Haapasaari et al 2013;Tiller et al 2015;Kinds et al 2016) (Fig. 2.2a).…”

“…Freeman (2010) defined stakeholders as any group or individual who can affect, or is affected by, the achievement of the organization's objectives (Freeman 2010). Tiller et al (2015) continued to criticize this definition as too broad; it allows the inclusion of nearly everyone as a stakeholder.…”

“…Overall the stakeholder type 'fishery' had the highest frequency of appearance within all publications, followed by 'politics', 'science' and 'eNGO' (Table 2.3). In five publications, 'fishery' was considered as the only stakeholder (Clarke et al 2002;Catedrilla et al 2012;Eveson et al 2015;Tiller et al 2015;Thiault et al 2017). Except for Catedrilla et al 2012, these publications aimed at getting information about the spatial distribution of fishing grounds.…”

Jellyfish summer distribution, diversity and impact on fish farms in a Nordic fjord

“…comm.). Known behavioral reactions in penned fish include respiratory and osmoregulatory stress, loss of ap petite, lethargy and/or increased jumping frequency, and lead to reduced biomass and/or increased mortality (Lucas et al 2014), followed by economic impacts through the loss of harvest, reduced sales and profits from low quality fish and increasing mitigation costs (Tiller et al 2015). Other problems not related to fish health are escapes of farm fish, after the weight of the jellyfish pull down the pen netting (Emelianov 2011), with subsequent risks for the wild fish populations (e.g.…”