Relationship between trawl selectivity and fish body size in a simulated population

Trawl is a main fishing gear in Chinese fishery,capturing large fish and letting small ones at large.However,long-term use of trawl would result in changes of phenotypic traits of the fish stocks,such as smaller size-at-age and earlier age-at-maturation.In this study,we simulated a fish population with size characteristics of trawl fishing and the population produces one generation of offspring and lives for one year,used trawl to exploit the simulated fish population,and captured individuals by body size.We evaluated the impact of the changes on selectivity parameters,such as selective range and the length at 50% retention.Under fishing pressure,we specified the selectivity parameters,and determined that smaller selection rates and greater length at 50% retention were associated with an increased tendency towards miniaturization.     

Effects of Trawl Selectivity and Genetic Parameters on Fish Body Length Under Long-Term Trawling

Long-term fishing pressure affects the biological characteristics of exploited fish stocks. The biological characteristics of hairtail(Trichiurus lepturus) in the East China Sea are unable to recover because of long-term trawling. Fishing induces evolutionary effects on the fish's biological characteristics. Evidence of these changes includes small size at age, a shift to earlier age structure, and early maturation. Natural and artificial selection usually affect the fish's life history. Selection can induce different chances of reproduction, and individual fish can give a different genetic contribution to the next generation. In this study, analysis of time-dependent probability of significance and test of sensitivity were used to explore the effects of fish exploitation rate, mesh size, and heritability with long-term trawling. Results showed that fishing parameters were important drivers to exploited fish population. However, genetic traits altered by fishing were slow, and the changes in biological characteristics were weaker than those caused by fishing selection. Exploitation rate and mesh size exhibited similar evolutionary trend tendency under long-term fishing. The time-dependent probability of significance trend showed a gradual growth and tended to be stable. Therefore, the direction of fishing-induced evolution and successful management of fish species require considerable attention to contribute to sustainable fisheries in China.     

Structure and dynamics of fisheries in Nigeria

The changes that have taken place in Nigerian fisheries are reviewed. Artisanal fishery has continued to dominate the fisheries,contributing over 85% of total fish production. The inland water and coastal seas are fully exploited and the increase in fishery production is not likely. Aquaculture potentials remain untapped as much as deep-sea fisheries. The combined potential of the fisheries resources-freshwater,marine and aquaculture can meet over 90% of the nation's demand for fish. Opportunities for invest-ments,therefore,exist in the various subsectors,especially in the areas of storage,processing and preservation for the capture fishery and fish seed multiplication for aquaculture.     

东海带鱼资源变动及其栖息地驱动因子研究进展

【目的】从栖息地角度解析东海带鱼种群变动的原因,揭示东海带鱼资源变动的主要影响因子。【方法】通过综述我国60多年的东海带鱼研究成果,从栖息地选择、种群数量年间波动、生物学变化等角度阐述东海带鱼对栖息地环境变化的适应性表现。【结果与结论】揭示东海带鱼“衰而不竭”除了与带鱼偏r-选择型的生活史特征和摄饵可塑性强的习性有关外,还与其较强的栖息地环境适应性有关,其中温度、盐度和饵料对带鱼的影响较明显。现阶段应重点从海流(温度、盐度)和关键饵料生物历史变化等角度揭示东海带鱼资源变动的原因,为东海带鱼资源保护和生境修复提供科学依据。     

Opportunistic-tended life history traits of Siniperca kneri in the Three Gorges Reservoir,China: potential responses to impoundment

Reservoir impoundment changes original fluvial habitats into lentic environments. Fish species adapted to lentic habitats may take the advantage of such habitat changes and show typical life history traits might facilitate the population increase. Siniperca kneri rarely occurred in fishery landing in the Three Gorges Reservoir(TGR) area before its impoundment in 2003, but it is now a dominant species. In this study, a total of 438 females of S. kneri were collected monthly during September 2012 through January2014 using gill nets in the TGR. The age, growth, and reproductive biology were then investigated, and compared with other S. kneri populations. The standard length at age 1 was 149.9 mm in the TGR, which is larger than the three compared populations(i.e., Sandaohe Reservoir, Xinfengjiang Reservoir, and North River), but smaller than one(the Guishi Reservoir). The youngest mature female in the TGR was age 1,which is younger than that of the two compared populations(i.e., Xinfengjiang Reservoir and the North River). The relative fecundity in the TGR was 140 eggs/g, which is higher than that of the only available compared population(Xinfengjiang Reservoir, 96 eggs/g). Our results demonstrated that S. kneri in the TGR tended to have faster growth in the first year, a younger age at first maturation, and higher reproductive ef fort.We suggest that such opportunistic-tended life history traits might facilitate rapid increase of the population.     

Study on the carry capacity of edible jellyfish fishery in Liaodong Bay

Jellyfish fishing is a special type of fishery that mainly exists in some countries of East and Southeast Asia. China has the largest jellyfish fishery yield in the world with an annual harvest of around 300 thousand tons. Liaodong Bay is the most important jellyfish fishery ground in China. However, due to the high benefits of jellyfish fishery, which leads to illegal and out-of-season jellyfish fishing occurring each year in Liaodong Bay. Illegal jellyfish fishery in Liaodong Bay is a typical example of the tragedy of the commons. The key problem is that fishermen seek to an illegally initiate jellyfish fishing as early as possible. In this paper, basing on the data of edible jellyfish’s biology and ecology, we mainly analyzed the history of jellyfish fishery in China, especially in Liaodong bay, and then we calculated the carry capacity of edible jellyfish in Liaodong Bay which is about 300 thousand tons one year. This number is equal to the recent annual yield of edible jellyfish in China. Furthermore, basing on the carry capacity and reasonable quotas price analysis, we set up a Jellyfish fishing quotas and deficit quotas buyback system which could be a suitable and effective solution for jellyfish fishery management and development in Liaodong Bay at the underlying roots. Although China is the first country with edible jellyfish aquaculture, the annual yield of jellyfish aquaculture is only one fifth of jellyfish fishing. So, there is a very bright developing prospect about edible jellyfish aquaculture in China.     

Age and Growth of Chub Mackerel （Scomberjaponicus） in the East China and Yellow Seas Using Sectioned Otolith Samples

Although chub mackerel (Scomberjaponicus) is a primary pelagic fish species,we have only limited knowledge on itskey life history processes.The present work studied the age and growth of chub mackerel in the East China and Yellow Seas.Agewas determined by interpreting and counting growth rings on the sagitta otoliths of 252 adult fish caught by the Chinese commercialpurse seine fleet during the period from November 2006 to January 2007 and 150 juveniles from bottom trawl surveys on the spawn-ing ground in May 2006.The difference between the assumed birth date of 1 st April and date of capture was used to adjust the agedetermined from counting the number of complete translucent rings.The parameters of three commonly used growth models,the vonBertalanffy,Logistic and Gompertz models,were estimated using the maximum likelihood method.Based on the Akaike InformationCriterion (AIC),the von Bertalanffy growth model was found to be the most appropriate model.The size-at-age and size-at-maturityvalues were also found to decrease greatly compared with the results achieved in the 1950s,which was caused by heavy exploitationover the last few decades.     

南太平洋长鳍金枪鱼渔场预报模型研究

长鳍金枪鱼资源是南太平洋金枪鱼渔业的重要目标种类,也是我国金枪鱼延绳钓的主要捕捞对象之一。根据2008-2009年我国海洋渔业公司在南太平洋海域的生产数据,结合表层、105 m和205 m水层温度,以及海面高度、叶绿素a浓度等海洋环境数据,运用一元非线性回归方法,按季度建立基于各环境因子的长鳍金枪鱼栖息地适应性指数,采用算术平均法获得基于多环境因子的栖息地指数综合模型,并用于中心渔场的预报。通过与实际作业渔场的比较与验证,结果表明:模型预报准确性达到70%以上,具较高渔情预报准确度。     

Evaluation of FAD-associated purse seine fishery reduction strategies for bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus) in the Indian Ocean

In the Indian Ocean, bigeye tuna supports one of the most important fisheries in the world. This fishery mainly consists of two components: longline and purse seine fisheries. Evidence of overfishing and stock depletion of bigeye tuna calls for an evaluation of alternative management strategies. Using an age-structured operating model, parameterized with the results derived in a recent stock assessment, we evaluated the effectiveness of applying constant fishing mortality (CF) and quasi-constant fishing mortality (QCF) strategies to reduce fishing effort of purse seining with fish aggregating devices (FADs) at different rates. Three different levels of productivity accounted for the uncertainty in our understanding of stock productivity. The study shows that the results of CF and QCF are similar. Average SSB and catch during simulation years would be higher if fishing mortality of FAD-associated purse seining was reduced rapidly. The banning or rapid reduction of purse seining with FAD resulted in a mean catch, and catch in the last simulation year, higher than that of the base case in which no change was made to the purse seine fishery. This could be caused by growth overfishing by purse seine fisheries with FADs according to the per-recruit analysis. These differences would be more obvious when stock productivity was low. Transferring efforts of FAD-associated purse seining to longline fisheries is also not feasible. Our study suggests that changes are necessary to improve the performance of the current management strategy.     

A preliminary study on the diversity of fish species and marine fish faunas of the South China Sea

There are 3048 species offish occurring in the China Seas (CS), of which at least 2321 species are found in the South China Sea (SCS), belonging to 35 orders, 236 families and 822 genera. The fish species diversity is analyzed in this paper based on biogeography, biostatisties, fishing methods, etc. It is found that the regional environment, especially biological factors, plays an important role in the distribution of faunas, and there are two fish faunas in the SCS, one in the north and another in the center and south. This regional division is of value for sustainable fishery production and efficient management of fishery resources.     

东海区鲳鱼资源利用现状分析

通过对东海区鲳鱼近年群体组成变化及银鲳生物学特性变化来分析目前鲳鱼资源利用状况,结果表明：一方面,虽然近年鲳鱼产量大幅增加,但其平均体重、优势叉长组成及年龄组成均出现明显下降,资源状况日益恶化;另一方面,1龄鱼已占渔获的93．68％,目前捕捞现行点开捕年龄tc=1和捕捞死亡系数F＝2．51,单位补充量繁殖力相对百分比P＜1．9％,单位补充量渔获量(Yw／R)为70g／尾,均显示已处于严重的生物学型捕捞过度．建议渔业管理部门大力削减作业渔船约50％,严格控制捕捞强度,逐步推迟开捕年龄至3龄以上,使鲳鱼资源真正能够永续利用。     

西北太平洋柔鱼资源与海洋环境的GIS空间分析

本文根据1995～2001年的西北太平洋地区(35°N～45°N,140°E～170°W)巴特柔鱼资源调查与生产的实际情况对柔鱼渔获量进行了研究,并利用同期遥感反演的海洋表层温度数据(SST)和近表层叶绿素a数据(Chlorophylla),拓展了GIS的空间分析功能,定量地研究了我国远洋柔鱼产量与水温、叶绿素等海洋要素场之间的关系,揭示西北太平洋柔鱼中心渔场的环境特征,以期为我国西北太平洋海区的鱿鱼生产服务。     

Trophic interactions, ecosystem structure and function in the southern Yellow Sea

The southern Yellow Sea is an important fishing ground, providing abundant fishery resources. However, overfishing and climate change have caused a decline in the resource and damaged the ecosystem. We developed an ecosystem model to analyze the trophic interactions and ecosystem structure and function to guide sustainable development of the ecosystem. A trophic mass-balance model of the southern Yellow Sea during 2000–2001 was constructed using Ecopath with Ecosim software. We defined 22 important functional groups and studied their diet composition. The trophic levels of fish, shrimp, crabs, and cephalopods were between 2.78 and 4.39, and the mean trophic level of the fisheries was 3.24. The trophic flows within the food web occurred primarily in the lower trophic levels. The mean trophic transfer efficiency was 8.1%, of which 7.1% was from primary producers and 9.3% was from detritus within the ecosystem. The transfer efficiency between trophic levels II to III to IV to V to >V was 5.0%, 5.7%, 18.5%, and 19.7%–20.4%, respectively. Of the total flow, phytoplankton contributed 61% and detritus contributed 39%. Fishing is defined as a top predator within the ecosystem, and has a negative impact on most commercial species. Moreover, the ecosystem had a high gross efficiency of the fishery and a high value of primary production required to sustain the fishery. Together, our data suggest there is high fishing pressure in the southern Yellow Sea. Based on analysis of Odum’s ecological parameters, this ecosystem was at an immature stage. Our results provide some insights into the structure and development of this ecosystem.     

Modeling a habitat suitability index for the eastern fall cohort of Ommastrephes bartramii in the central North Pacific Ocean

The eastern fall cohort of the neon flying squid, Ommastrephes bartramii, has been commercially exploited by the Chinese squid jigging fleet in the central North Pacific Ocean since the late 1990s. To understand and identify their optimal habitat, we have developed a habitat suitability index (HSI) model using two potential important environmental variables - sea surface temperature (SST) and sea surface height anomaly (SSHA) - and fishery data from the main fishing ground (165°-180°E) during June and July of 1999-2003. A geometric mean model (GMM), minimum model (MM) and arithmetic weighted model (AWM) with different weights were compared and the best HSI model was selected using Akaike’s information criterion (AIC). The performance of the developed HSI model was evaluated using fishery data for 2004. This study suggests that the highest catch per unit effort (CPUE) and fishing effort are closely related to SST and SSHA. The best SST- and SSHA-based suitability index (SI) regression models were SISST-based = 0.7SIeffort-SST + 0.3 SICPUE-SST, and SISSHA-based = 0.5SIeffort-SSHA + 0.5SICPUE-SSHA, respectively, showing that fishing effort is more important than CPUE in the estimation of SI. The best HSI model was the AWM, defined as HSI=0.3SISST-based+ 0.7SISSHA-based, indicating that SSHA is more important than SST in estimating the HSI of squid. In 2004, monthly HSI values greater than 0.6 coincided with the distribution of productive fishing ground and high CPUE in June and July, suggesting that the models perform well. The proposed model provides an important tool in our efforts to develop forecasting capacity of squid spatial dynamics.     

Age and growth of chub mackerel (Xcomber japonicus) in the East China and Yellow Seas using sectioned otolith samples

Although chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus) is a primary pelagic fish species, we have only limited knowledge on its key life history processes. The present work studied the age and growth of chub mackerel in the East China and Yellow Seas. Age was determined by interpreting and counting growth rings on the sagitta otoliths of 252 adult fish caught by the Chinese commercial purse seine fleet during the period from November 2006 to January 2007 and 150 juveniles from bottom trawl surveys on the spawning ground in May 2006. The difference between the assumed birth date of 1st April and date of capture was used to adjust the age determined from counting the number of complete translucent rings. The parameters of three commonly used growth models, the von Bertalanffy, Logistic and Gompertz models, were estimated using the maximum likelihood method. Based on the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), the von Bertalanffy growth model was found to be the most appropriate model. The size-at-age and size-at-maturity values were also found to decrease greatly compared with the results achieved in the 1950s, which was caused by heavy exploitation over the last few decades.     

基于渔船AIS数据的南海北部海洋渔业捕捞强度空间特征挖掘

高精度渔业捕捞强度数据是开展捕捞限额管理的前提与关键,也是海洋渔业资源可持续发展的重要保障.因此,本文以挖掘海洋渔业捕捞强度空间特征为出发点,选用2018年2、4、9和11月典型季节的中国籍6364艘渔船1.8亿条高时空粒度AIS数据.运用专家知识经验、空间统计及数据挖掘分析方法,以广西南岸北部湾渔场、广东沿岸和环海南...     

美国渔业有限介入权制度述评——兼及对构建我国渔业管理创新机制的意义

美国1892年伊利诺斯中央铁路司诉伊利诺斯州案确立了公共信托理论对限制政府处分公共信托资源之权的法律地位。借助于司法判例的解释功能,该理论扩大适用于美国渔业管理领域并形成相对稳定的基本内涵。有限介入权作为平衡公共渔业权与个人渔业权的制度工具,业已发展成为破解公地悲剧的重要手段。我国渔业权和海域使用权制度旨在特定海域赋予单位或个人有限期的捕捞权和养殖权,但不如有限介入权更能科学地界定渔业产权。有限介入权之合理性和制度价值当为我国立法所大胆借鉴,构建起我国渔业管理的创新机制。     

FVID: Fishing Vessel Type Identification Based on VMS Trajectories

Vessel Monitoring System(VMS) provides a new opportunity for quantified fishing research. Many approaches have been proposed to recognize fishing activities with VMS trajectories based on the types of fishing vessels. However, one research problem is still calling for solutions, how to identify the fishing vessel type based on only VMS trajectories. This problem is important because it requires the fishing vessel type as a preliminary to recognize fishing activities from VMS trajectories. This paper proposes fishing vessel type identification scheme(FVID) based only on VMS trajectories. FVID exploits feature engineering and machine learning schemes of XGBoost as its two key blocks and classifies fishing vessels into nine types. The dataset contains all the fishing vessel trajectories in the East China Sea in March 2017, including 10031 pre-registered fishing vessels and 1350 unregistered vessels of unknown types. In order to verify type identification accuracy, we first conduct a 4-fold cross-validation on the trajectories of registered fishing vessels. The classification accuracy is 95.42%. We then apply FVID to the unregistered fishing vessels to identify their types. After classifying the unregistered fishing vessel types, their fishing activities are further recognized based upon their types. At last, we calculate and compare the fishing density distribution in the East China Sea before and after applying the unregistered fishing vessels, confirming the importance of type identification of unregistered fishing vessels.     

Fish community diversity in the middle continental shelf of the East China Sea

The status of fishery stocks in the coastal waters of China is far from ideal, mainly due to climate change and the impacts of human activities (e.g., pollution and overfishing). Thus, the restoration and protection of fishery resources have become critical and complex. The stability and balanced structure of the fish community is a basic foundation for the protection of fishery resources. Based on data collected from bottom trawls by the R/V Beidou in continental shelf of the East China Sea in November 2006 and February 2007, changes in the composition and diversity of fish species and functional groups were analyzed. The research area was divided into offshore waters and inshore waters by the two-way indicator species analysis (TWIA). The results showed that the dominant species were different between offshore waters and inshore waters and also varied with the survey time. The most abundant family was Sciaenidae and Teraponidae in November 2006, Sciaenidae, Engraulidae and Triglidae were most abundant in February 2007. The species belonged mainly to mobile piscivores (G6), benthivores/piscivores (G4), benthivores (G3) and planktivores (G1), and the dominant species in November 2006 were commercial species (e.g. Larimichthys polyactis and Trichiurus japonicus), but small-sized species were dominant in February 2007 (e.g., Harpadon nehereus, Benthosema pterotum, Champsodon capensis, and Acropoma japonicum). The species diversity showed a similar trend as the functional group diversity. Stations with higher diversity were mainly distributed in inshore waters in February 2007, whereas higher diversity was found in offshore waters in November 2006. The highest biomass and species number were found in G6 group, followed by the G4, G5 and G1 groups. The distribution of the number of individuals of each functional group showed the opposite trend as that of the biomass distribution. In addition, the size spectra were mainly concentrated around 3–29 cm, and the individual number of fish species gradually decreased with the increase in body size, but the relative biomass showed a moderate fluctuation in each size class. These changes showed that species with faster growth rate and earlier maturity age became dominant in continental shelf of the East China Sea. So the variations in biological characteristics of fish should be fully considered in maintaining sustainable utilization of fishery resource.     

东海中部夏季鱼类群落结构及其多样性分析

根据2008年8月东海区主要渔场重要渔业资源调查资料,分析东海中部鱼类的种类组成、区系特征、多样性等群落结构特征。结果表明:共调查捕获鱼类88种,其中暖水种59种,占67.0%;暖温种29种,占33.0%。相对重要性指数(IRI)值大于500的优势种鱼类共有5种,分别为带鱼、刺鲳、小黄鱼、六斑刺鲀和鳄齿鱼;种类丰富度指数变动范围为0.10～2.31,平均为0.88;Shannon-Wiener多样度指数变动范围为0.01～1.86,平均为0.87;种类均匀度指数变动范围为0.01～0.92,平均为0.41;东海中部夏季鱼类多样性指数与往年相比有下降的趋势。