Unraveling the hidden truth in a poorly managed ecosystem: The case of discarded species of conservation interest in Bangladesh industrial marine fisheries

Kumar, Uttam; Helen, Afrin Mirza; Das, Jewel; Parvez, Sohel; Biswas, Sudhin Kumar; Ray, Sunuram

doi:10.1016/j.rsma.2019.100813

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 17 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For this global comparison, weighting attributes is not appropriate as the goal is to compare across all fishery types, gears, countries, etc. For example, in Bangladesh the commercial and artisanal sectors operate with different goals and budgets and in different areas (Islam et al, 2017; Kumar et al, 2019). Therefore, an attribute that may be weighted higher for assessing the commercial fisheries may not make sense to be weighted that way when assessing subsistence fisheries.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

M-Risk: A framework for assessing global fisheries management efficacy of sharks, rays, and chimaeras

Sherman

Sant

Simpfendorfer

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Fisheries management is essential to guarantee sustainable capture of target species and avoid undesirable declines of incidentally captured species. A key challenge is halting and reversing declines of shark and ray species, and specifically assessing the degree to which management is sufficient to avoid declines in relatively data-poor fisheries. While ecological risk analyses focus on intrinsic 'productivity' and extrinsic 'susceptibility', one would ideally consider the influence of 'fisheries management'. Currently, there is no single management evaluation that can be applied to a combination of fishery types at the scale of individual country or Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs). Here, we outline a management risk (M-Risk) framework for sharks, rays, and chimaeras used to evaluate species' risk to overfishing resulting from ineffective management. We illustrate our approach with application to one country (Ecuador) and RFMO (Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission) and illustrate the variation in scores among species. We found that while both management units assessed had similar overall scores, the scores for individual attributes varied. Ecuador scored higher in reporting-related attributes, while the IATTC scored higher in attributes related to data collection and use. We evaluated whether management of individual species was sufficient for their relative sensitivity by combining the management risk score for each species with their intrinsic sensitivity to determine a final M-Risk score. This framework can be applied to determine which species face the greatest risk of overfishing and be used by fisheries managers to identify effective management policies by replicating regulations from countries with lower risk scores.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

M-Risk: A framework for assessing global fisheries management efficacy of sharks, rays, and chimaeras

Sherman

Sant

Simpfendorfer

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For this global comparison, weighting attributes are not appropriate as the goal is to compare across all fishery types, gears, countries, etc. For example, in Bangladesh, the commercial and artisanal sectors operate with different goals and budgets and in different areas (Islam et al, 2017; Kumar et al, 2019). Therefore, an attribute that may be weighted higher for assessing the commercial fisheries may not make sense to be weighted that way when assessing subsistence fisheries.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

M‐Risk: A framework for assessing global fisheries management efficacy of sharks, rays and chimaeras

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Fisheries management is essential to guarantee sustainable capture of target species and avoid undesirable declines of incidentally captured species. A key challenge is halting and reversing declines of shark and ray species, and specifically assessing the degree to which management is sufficient to avoid declines in relatively data‐poor fisheries. While ecological risk analyses focus on intrinsic ‘productivity’ and extrinsic ‘susceptibility’, one would ideally consider the influence of ‘fisheries management’. Currently, there is no single management evaluation that can be applied to a combination of fishery types at the scale of individual country or Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs). Here, we outline a management‐risk (M‐Risk) framework for sharks, rays and chimaeras used to evaluate species' risk of overfishing resulting from ineffective management. We illustrate our approach with application to one country (Ecuador) and RFMO (Inter‐American Tropical Tuna Commission) and illustrate the variation in scores among species. We found that while both management units assessed had similar overall scores, the scores for individual attributes varied. Ecuador scored higher in reporting‐related attributes, while the IATTC scored higher in attributes related to data collection and use. We evaluated whether the management of individual species was sufficient for their relative sensitivity by combining the management‐risk score for each species with their intrinsic sensitivity to determine a final M‐Risk score. This framework can be applied to determine which species face the greatest risk of overfishing and be used by fisheries managers to identify effective management policies by replicating regulations from countries with lower risk scores.

show abstract

“…By inclusion of those which were previously misidentified or lacked supporting evidence and incorporating unreported deep-sea species, the report of total diversity has only increased (see annotated checklist). The previous underestimation is likely in part due to poor coverage of migratory species, deep-water species, rare species [ 93 ] and discarded individuals in the industrial catch [ 94 ]. Additionally, different fishing efforts with vessel and gear characteristics, target species, capacity and exploited diverse habitats within the artisanal fisheries, which were previously studied, may have limited preparing a complete list due to the difficulty at working in the widely distributed informal and disperse landing sites.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is substantial IUU fishing, in the form of under-reported commercial catch, discarded by-catch (e.g. sharks) [ 94 ] and subsistence catches [ 70 ], exploiting about a total of 442 species of fish and 915 species of other marine organisms which were reported from the coastal and marine waters [ 65 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating artisanal fishing of globally threatened sharks and rays in the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sharks and rays are at risk of extinction globally. This reflects low resilience to increasing fishing pressure, exacerbated by habitat loss, climate change, increasing value in a trade and inadequate information leading to limited conservation actions. Artisanal fisheries in the Bay of Bengal of Bangladesh contribute to the high levels of global fishing pressure on elasmobranchs. However, it is one of the most data-poor regions of the world, and the diversity, occurrence and conservation needs of elasmobranchs in this region have not been adequately assessed. This study evaluated elasmobranch diversity, species composition, catch and trade within the artisanal fisheries to address this critical knowledge gap. Findings show that elasmobranch diversity in Bangladesh has previously been underestimated. In this study, over 160000 individual elasmobranchs were recorded through landing site monitoring, comprising 88 species (30 sharks and 58 rays) within 20 families and 35 genera. Of these, 54 are globally threatened according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, with ten species listed as Critically Endangered and 22 species listed as Endangered. Almost 98% juvenile catch (69–99% for different species) for large species sand a decline in numbers of large individuals were documented, indicating unsustainable fisheries. Several previously common species were rarely landed, indicating potential population declines. The catch pattern showed seasonality and, in some cases, gear specificity. Overall, Bangladesh was found to be a significant contributor to shark and ray catches and trade in the Bay of Bengal region. Effective monitoring was not observed at the landing sites or processing centres, despite 29 species of elasmobranchs being protected by law, many of which were frequently landed. On this basis, a series of recommendations were provided for improving the conservation status of the elasmobranchs in this region. These include the need for improved taxonomic research, enhanced monitoring of elasmobranch stocks, and the highest protection level for threatened taxa. Alongside political will, enhancing national capacity to manage and rebuild elasmobranch stocks, coordinated regional management measures are essential.

show abstract

Unraveling the hidden truth in a poorly managed ecosystem: The case of discarded species of conservation interest in Bangladesh industrial marine fisheries

Cited by 7 publications

References 17 publications

M-Risk: A framework for assessing global fisheries management efficacy of sharks, rays, and chimaeras

M-Risk: A framework for assessing global fisheries management efficacy of sharks, rays, and chimaeras

M‐Risk: A framework for assessing global fisheries management efficacy of sharks, rays and chimaeras

Evaluating artisanal fishing of globally threatened sharks and rays in the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About