Acronym REEF
Category
Fisheries
Title Productivity and Resilience Enhancement of Exploited Fish stocks: an experimental approach Programme National Programme
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source National Coordinator Finn-Arne Weltzien Coordinator email finn-arne.weltzien@nmbu.no
Coordinator institution
NMBU - Norwegian University of Life Sciences (Norway)
Institutions involved
NA
Start year 2016 End year 2021 Funding (€) € 906,250 Website https://prosjektbanken.forskningsradet.no/en/project/FORISS/255601?Kilde=FORISS&Kilde=EU&distribution=Soknad&chart=bar&calcType=funding&Sprak=no&sortBy=date&sortOrder=desc&resultCount=30&offset=0<P.1=LTP2+Samfunnssikkerhet+og+samh%C3%B8righet&Soknad=Forskerprosjekt Summary Worldwide, many fish stocks are in a state of serious decline or collapse. Additionally, collapsed stocks often fail to recover, even when the fishing effort is relaxed. This chronic overexploitation incurs severe economic costs and have ramifications to ecosystem function and services. For instance, it was shown in the eastern Scotian Shelf ecosystem off Nova Scotia (Canada) that collapse and failure to recover in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) induced a trophic cascade in which forage fish density increased, resulting in reduced zooplankton densities and increased algal concentrations. We argue that many of these problems arise because of an opposition between fisheries-induced selection, that targets fast-growing and large-sized individuals through the use of minimum-size limits, and natural selection that favours the same individuals. Instead, fisheries should act in concert with natural selection by selectively harvesting small-sized individuals through the use of maximum size limits. We predict that such a reverse-fishing regime should increase both the productivity and resilience of exploited stocks, and alleviate fishing-induced trophic cascades by preserving large-sized individuals that have disproportionately large predatory effects. REEF proposes to test this general hypothesis using an artificial selection against or for a large body size on medaka (Orizias latipes) in the laboratory. We will then measure the effects of this bidirectional selection mimicking classical vs. reversed fishing regimes on medaka genetic makeup, productivity and resilience under both laboratory-controlled and natural conditions. If successful, reverse fishing regulations will ultimately foster progress towards a restoration of marine ecosystems to their historical state, when top predators were larger and more numerous than today.
Keywords
Fisheries management;
Fishing mortality;
Food web;
Environmental impact;
Fish stocks;
Marine Region
76
Not associated to marine areas
0
Marine Region Map
