Indigenous People, Stories, and Local Community-led Fisheries Management

Indigenous people and local communities have lived with and developed relationships with other species/beings (e.g. water, fishes), in some cases, for thousands of years. During this time, lessons were learned, stories were told, songs were sung, norms developed that shaped how these people used, respected, and cared for these other beings.

This session elevates the contribution of Indigenous people and local communities (IPLCs) in global fisheries as users, managers and leaders in defining and driving conservation and sustainable fisheries management.

Indigenous people and local communities comprise most fishers globally by numbers, often participating in mixed activities for nutrition and livelihood. In doing so, they also act as resource managers and stewards through formal and informal rules. Integrating the vision and existing governance of these fishery actors, through community-based and co-management approaches, is challenging yet necessary.

A global range of presentations are invited to highlight the diverse roles and contributions of IPLCs in fisheries and explore pathways increasing their critical contribution to fish conservation and fisheries management. Topics that explore how indigenous knowledge can be incorporated into relationship/management plans to build social-ecological resilience and adaptation to a changing environment are highly encouraged.

Organizers:

Tracking Progress Towards Global Fisheries Sustainability

Global leaders set a target to end overfishing and restore fish stocks to sustainable levels of abundance by 2020 as part of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG target 14.4). Yet information about the state of the world’s fisheries is still limited and global studies report that many fish stocks remain overfished, leaving most countries far from achieving the target.

In this session, we are looking at bringing together efforts to track progress towards global fisheries sustainability and, more specifically, to track countries’ progress to SDG 14.4. Alternative methods to assess the state of national fisheries, such as the use of indicators, are needed to fill the knowledge gap in global fisheries. We are interested in methods used to assess stock sustainability based on different data or knowledge types, and methods to evaluate the governance capacity of countries to end overfishing and restore fish stocks in their national waters.

Organizers:

Chris Wilcox, Minderoo Foundation, [email protected]
Jemma Thévenau, Minderoo Foundation
Julia Santana-Garcon, Minderoo Foundation
Jessica Spijkers, Minderoo Foundation

Thiamine Deficiency in Fishes: A Symptom of Dysfunctional Aquatic Ecosystems

Thiamine (vitamin B1) availability influences community structure and dynamics across scales from microbes to fisheries. This essential coenzyme is required by all living organisms where it functions to catalyze key steps in central carbon metabolism. Despite its universal importance, dissolved concentrations in aquatic systems are frequently in the fempto-pico molar range. Deficiencies in thiamine have been reported in various wildlife in ecosystems across the northern hemisphere. Thiamine deficiency can cause crippling morbidities, neurological problems, and has been linked to early life-stage mortality and large population declines of predatory fishes. Chronic thiamine deficiency has been found in fish species in the Baltic Sea and Laurentian Great Lakes for decades, and more recently was identified as an emerging threat to salmonids from California to Alaska. This session addresses the breadth of thiamine’s impacts with the goal of bringing together investigators from diverse disciplines and geographies to solve pressing thiamine-related challenges.

Organizers:

Freya Rowland, USGS, [email protected]
Samuel Hylander, Linnaeus University
Nathan Mantua, NOAA/NMFS Southwest Fisheries Science Center
Christie Nichols, US Fish and Wildlife Service
Rachel Johnson, NOAA Fisheries – UC Davis
David Walters, USGS
Christopher Suffridge, Oregon State University
Cody Pinger, NOAA/NMFS Alaska Fisheries Science Center

The Potential of Digitalization of the Whole Value Chain of the Fishing Sector Towards Sustainability, Quality and Safety

Digitization and advanced tools applied to fisheries, like Electronic Monitoring (EM) or Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM), artificial intelligence, machine and deep learning, data from different sensors or blockchain technologies, have enormous potential to optimize fishing operations, to improve our ability of gathering and analysing fisheries dependant and independent data and to guarantee the sustainability, safety and quality of fish production to satisfy the demands of consumers, stakeholders of the food chain and regulators/policymakers.

The main objective of the of the proposed session is to share the knowledge, expertise and use of digital solutions for extended Monitoring, Control and Surveillance (MCS) along the whole fishing value chain (from cradle to gate) and for collection of scientifically and commercially important data in the whole seafood value chains to promote sustainable utilisation of fisheries resources and optimise seafood sourcing.

Organizer:

Luis T. Antelo, Marine Research Institute (IIM-CSIC), [email protected]

Technologies, Guidelines, and Policies: An Open Discussion about Recreational Fishing Impacts and Solutions

This session aims to bring together a diverse and vibrant group of speakers from across the globe and create an environment for open discussions about the impacts of recreational fisheries, existing and emerging technologies and solutions, guidelines and policies contributing to management strategies. The impacts of the recreational fisheries industry have been overlooked, with many knowledge gaps identified creating challenges to the development and implementation of management and mitigation measures. With this session, we would like to create an opportunity for different groups to network and engage in discussions aimed at co-creating solutions and actions to secure the sustainability of recreational fisheries worldwide.

Organizers:

Luiz G. M. Silva, ETH-Zurich, [email protected]
Steven Cooke, Carleton University
Jamie Madden, Carleton University
Sascha Danylchuk, Keep Fish Wet

Sustainable Fisheries Management through Innovative Seafood Traceability Solutions

In the fight to ensure that our seafood is safe, legally caught, and accurately labelled, traceability is a critical tool. However, to facilitate broad adoption, seafood traceability solutions must be easily replicable and affordable for fisheries management. In this context, we invite examples from around the world, where seafood traceability methods are supporting sustainable management of fisheries, particularly cephalopod fisheries.  Case-studies focused on innovative traceability approaches such as blockchain-based traceability, geochemical, biochemical, and molecular tools are welcome contributions.

Organizers:

Ian Gleadall, AiCeph LLC, [email protected]
Hassan Moustahfid, NOAA
Warwick Sauer, Rhodes University

Shark Depredation: Managing a Wicked Problem

This session will explore the challenging issue of shark depredation and current research directions involving researchers and resource managers from around the world. Key focus topics will be identifying the impacts of depredation, data collection methods for quantifying depredation, education approaches for increasing public awareness about the issue and tools for managing and mitigating depredation.

Organizers:

Jonathan Mitchell, Queensland Government, Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, [email protected]
Gary Jackson, Western Australia Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development
Marcus Drymon, Coastal Research and Extension Center, Mississippi State University

Rockfishes, Marine Protected Areas, and Anglers

Rockfishes are vulnerable species to overfishing and in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, a series of Marine Protected Areas across North America’s west coast were implemented in an effort to protect these species (among others) from overharvest. However anglers can play an important role in protecting these species through citizen science monitoring initiatives, improved awareness of the challenges these species face, better methods of avoiding them as bycatch, and through the use of descending devices when releasing them. This symposium focuses on the intersection of these three areas, and we are seeking presentations that explore: (i) how rockfish populations have changed due to these MPA’s; (ii) how anglers are playing a role in supporting these protected areas through citizen science; and (iii) what we have learned about best practices to encourage the long term sustainability of  these species.

The citizen science approach used in this session can greatly expand the diversity of those involved in fisheries science by demonstrating how anglers can be included in the scientific process. These new participants can strengthen the bond between fisheries professionals and the angling public in two important ways. First by expanding the capacity to collect data on a wide range of fisheries science questions, and second by tapping into the diverse experiences of these anglers, from people who are actively involved in their fishery. Integrating these under-represented groups (anglers) into the field of fisheries science, this approach has the potential to vastly expand this emerging field of science.

Organizer:

Pathways for a Sustainable Co-existence of Offshore Energy, Fisheries and Marine Conservation: From Local Empirical Evidence to Global Perspectives

Offshore wind development is central to planning for renewable energy worldwide and reduction of carbon emissions. Existing, proposed, and planned offshore development overlaps with diverse marine ecosystems, and the effects on those ecosystems largely remain unclear and unknown. Potential effects to fish populations and fisheries are varied and could result in increases or decreases in abundance, biomass, and distribution. Offshore wind is at all stages of development globally from planning to decommissioning, so a global gathering of fisheries and conservation expertise offers a unique opportunity for researchers from East Asia, North America, Europe, and elsewhere to share their knowledge and research on co-existence of fish, fishing and offshore wind. This session will broadly address effects of offshore wind on fish, and fisheries, including both commercial and recreational fisheries. Presentations may address but are not limited to: emerging ecological and socio-economic research, innovative methods for assessment, scale considerations, and current regulatory processes.

Organizers:

Mike Pol, Responsible Offshore Science Alliance, [email protected]
Vanessa Stelzenmüller, Thünen Institute of Sea Fisheries

Participatory Modelling and Stakeholder Engagement for Ecosystem-based Fisheries Management

Ecosystem-based fisheries management requires a profound understanding of the dynamics and feedbacks that occur within ecological systems, the human systems, and at the social-ecological interface.

A number of different quantitative modelling approaches have been applied to enhance this understanding, such as ecosystem models, bioeconomic models, social-ecological network models, and others.

Involving stakeholders at various steps of the modelling process can greatly improve the level of realism and applicability of the resulting models, while simultaneously facilitating discussions about underlying model assumptions and uncertainties. All of this can help to increase the legitimacy and effectiveness of modelling efforts in fisheries management, especially in the context of (often data-limited) small-scale fisheries.

This session will focus on approaches, challenges, best practices and case study examples that highlight how stakeholder needs, perceptions and knowledge systems can be successfully integrated into the modelling process to promote an effective and sustainable management of fisheries and associated systems.

Organizers:

Giovanni Romagnoni, Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Research, [email protected]
Matthias Wolff, Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Research
Kelly Ortega Cisneros, University of Cape Town
Michael Kriegl, Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT Bremen) & Center for Ocean and Society (CeOS Kiel)
Lotta Clara Kluger, Center for Ocean and Society, Christian Albrecht University
Pault Tuda, Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Research