Evidence for rapid avoidance of rockfish habitat under reduced quota and comprehensive at-sea monitoring in the British Columbia Pacific halibut fishery
- 1 August 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Canadian Science Publishing in Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
- Vol. 77 (8), 1409-1420
- https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2019-0444
Abstract
The British Columbia longline fishery for Pacific Halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) has experienced important recent management changes, including the introduction of comprehensive electronic catch monitoring on all vessels; an integrated transferable quota system; a reduction in Pacific Halibut quotas; and, beginning in 2016, sharp decreases in quota for Yelloweye Rockfish (Sebastes ruberrimus, an incidentally-caught species). We describe this fishery before integration, post-integration, and after the Yelloweye Rockfish quota reduction using spatial clustering methods to define discrete fishing opportunities. We calculate the relative utilization of these fishing opportunities and their overlap with areas with high encounter rates of Yelloweye Rockfish during each of the three periods. The spatial footprint (area fished) increased pre-integration, then decreased post-integration. Each period showed shifts in utilization among four large fishing areas. Immediately after the reductions in Yelloweye Rockfish quota, fishing opportunities with high encounter rates of Yelloweye Rockfish had significantly lower utilization than areas with low encounter rates, implying rapid avoidance behaviour.Keywords
This publication has 36 references indexed in Scilit:
- Adverse consequences of stock recovery: European hake, a new “choke” species under a discard ban?Fish and Fisheries, 2014
- How do individual transferable quotas affect marine ecosystems?Fish and Fisheries, 2009
- Evaluating collaborative fisheries management planning: A Canadian case studyMarine Policy, 2008
- Can Catch Shares Prevent Fisheries Collapse?Science, 2008
- Matching catches to quotas in a multispecies trawl fishery: targeting and avoidance behavior under individual transferable quotasCanadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 2008
- Replacing trip limits with individual transferable quotas: implications for discardingMarine Policy, 2006
- Escaping the tyranny of the grid: a more realistic way of defining fishing opportunitiesCanadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 2005
- Fishers' description of changes in fishing gear and fishing practices in the Australian South East Trawl FisheryMarine and Freshwater Research, 2001
- New Zealand's ITQ system: have the first eight years been a success or a failure?Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries, 1996
- A Critical Review of the Individual Quota as a Device in Fisheries ManagementLand Economics, 1986