Local permit ownership in Alaska salmon fisheries

Changes in ownership of limited entry permits by “local” residents of the region where a fishery occurs may have significant economic and social implications for fishery-dependent regions. This paper examines changes in local permit ownership in Alaska salmon fisheries, for which a long-term decline in rural local permit ownership is an important policy concern. Theoretically, permit markets allocate permits over time to the individuals who are willing to pay the most for them. Any factors that differentially affect what local and non-local residents are willing to pay for permits may affect the equilibrium share of permits held by local residents. For remote rural fisheries in particular, these may include differences between local and non-local residents with respect to access to and costs of financing permits and boats, costs of travel to the fishery, opportunity costs of participation in the fishery, and many other factors. As a fishery increases in profitability, differences between local and non-local residents in access to financing matter more while differences in costs of travel and opportunity costs matter less in the relative ranking of what local and non-local residents are willing to pay for permits. This tends to increase the share of non-local residents among buyers willing to pay the market price for permits, reducing the equilibrium share of permits held by local residents. This leads to a conflict between two important policy goals: increasing fishery profitability and maintaining rural local permit ownership. Consistent with predictions of this theory, the local share of permit ownership in Alaska salmon fisheries is negatively related to permit prices (an indicator of fishery profitability).     

More than just access to fish: The pros and cons of fisher participation in a customary marine tenure (Padu) system under pressure

The Padu system of South Asia has received growing attention as an example of customary marine tenure that has survived despite rapid development and change throughout the region’s fisheries. This paper describes the Padu system as it functions at Pulicat lagoon, India, where it has enjoyed decades of legitimacy amongst its members, and has contributed to sustainable fishing. Recently, however, the Padu system has become unstable, driven by pressures of an expanding fishing population, reduced access to fishing grounds and a growing ‘shared poverty’. In spite of this, fisher loyalty to uphold the Padu system remains strong. This raises questions about the broader social, political and cultural meanings of Padu, which extend beyond access to a lucrative fishery. The paper highlights a trade-off between the benefits received through Padu membership at a societal level through collective action, and the individual costs of partaking in ‘shared poverty’, which is inherently distributed unequally amongst fishing families. The paper concludes with a discussion on the future of the Padu system in Pulicat, drawing from evolutionary pathways of other Padu systems in the region. It is suggested that, in the Pulicat case, the high social values attributed to the Padu system, alongside complex power structures, may hinder institutional adaptation.     

Contextual factors influencing sustainable fisheries in Mexico

Sustainable fisheries take into consideration that managed fisheries ecosystems shift over time in response to evolving environmental as well as market and political factors. These contextual forces are especially valuable in understanding developing countries such as Mexico, where the unconsolidated fisheries administration faces productive marine ecosystems but unsustainable fisheries. To recognize the issues that have inhibited the consolidation of a regulatory system for sustainable fisheries, a contextual factor analysis was applied to the co-development of two current policies in the Mexican fishery regime: fisheries and environmental policies. Six historical phases have been identified in which there are few long periods of stability and frequent short periods of radical change that alternate between stable and adverse contextual situations. These short and contrasting contextual situations cause a kind of tug-of-war in Mexican fisheries policy-making. On the one hand, domestic economic, scientific, and technological forces seem to slowly lead toward the consolidation of sustainable fisheries; on the other hand, domestic policies drift from one position to another at other timing than the international fisheries and environmental policies. Although recent crises seem to highlight new periods of radical change in Mexico, they also provide an opportunity to adopt new structural plans to consolidate domestic forces as a basis for long-term strategies.     

Simulated eddy induced vertical velocities in a Gulf of Alaska model

Mesoscale eddies can distribute nutrients, heat and fresh water into the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) from the coastal margins. While many studies have investigated the physical characteristics of GOA eddies, their effects on passive-dispersive particles have not been previously simulated to investigate eddy induced upwelling. A climatologically forced Parallel Ocean Program simulation of the north Pacific Ocean with an online particle tracking scheme was used to simulate passive-dispersive particles in the Gulf of Alaska. In-eddy vertical Lagrangian velocities of the particles were calculated both inside and outside the eddies and showed upwelling rates are generally greater inside the eddies where the vertical velocities of the particles ranged from 0.2 to 0.7 m/day.     

Harvest patterns and effort dynamics of indigenous and non-indigenous commercial sectors of the eastern Torres Strait reef line fishery

The reef line fishery (RLF) in eastern Torres Strait (ETS) is unique in that it has both a commercial indigenous sector and a commercial non-indigenous sector. Recently, concerns have been expressed by all stakeholders about the long-term sustainability of the fishery. These concerns have been exacerbated by the lack of detailed catch and effort information from both sectors, which has precluded any formal assessment of the fishery. In this paper, we characterise the harvest patterns and effort dynamics of the indigenous and non-indigenous commercial sectors of the ETS RLF using a range of data sources including commercial logbooks, community freezer records, voluntary logbooks and observer surveys. We demonstrate that bycatch is a significant component of the catch for both sectors and identify substantial differences in harvest patterns and effort dynamics between the sectors. Differences between sectors were observed in species composition and spatial and temporal patterns in catch, effort and catch per unit effort. These results highlight the inherent variation in catch and effort dynamics between the two commercial sectors of the ETS RLF and provide valuable information for the development of future assessments and appropriate management strategies for the fishery. The more reliable estimates of harvest patterns and effort dynamics for both sectors obtained from observer surveys will also assist in resolving issues relating to allocation of reef fish resources in Torres Strait.     

Temporal variability in the life history and reproductive biology of female dugongs in Torres Strait: The likely role of sea grass dieback

The extensive sea grass meadows in Torres Strait enable it to be a globally important habitat for the dugong, Dugong dugon, a marine mammal of cultural and dietary significance to Torres Strait Islanders and the basis for the substantial island-based fishery in the Torres Strait Protected Zone. Torres Strait sea grass communities are subjected to episodic diebacks which are now believed to be largely natural events. Information on dugong life history was obtained from specimens obtained from female dugongs as they were butchered for food by Indigenous hunters at two major dugong hunting communities in Torres Strait: Daru (9.04°S, 143.21°E) in 1978–1982 (a time of sea grass dieback and recovery) and Mabuiag Island (9.95°S, 142.15°E) in 1997–1999 (when sea grasses were abundant). Dugongs sampled in 1997–1999 had their first calf at younger ages (minimum of 6 cf. 10 years), and more frequently (interbirth interval based on all possible pregnancies 2.6±0.4 (S.E.) yr cf. 5.8±1.0 yr) than the dugongs sampled in 1978–1982. Pregnancy rates increased monotonically during 1978–1982, coincident with sea grass recovery. The age distribution of the female dugongs collected in 1997–1999 also suggested a low birth rate between 1973 and 1983 and/or or a high level of mortality for animals born during this period. These results add to the evidence from other regions that the life history and reproductive rate of female dugongs are adversely affected by sea grass loss, the effect of which cannot be separated from a possible density-dependent response to changes in dugong population size. Many green turtles in Torres Strait were also in poor body condition coincident with the 1970s sea grass dieback. The impacts of future sea grass diebacks need to be anticipated when management options for the traditional Torres Strait fisheries for dugongs and green turtles are evaluated.     

Vulnerability and adaptation to climate-related fire impacts in rural and urban interior Alaska

This paper explores whether fundamental differences exist between urban and rural vulnerability to climate-induced changes in the fire regime of interior Alaska. We further examine how communities and fire managers have responded to these changes and what additional adaptations could be put in place. We engage a variety of social science methods, including demographic analysis, semi-structured interviews, surveys, workshops and observations of public meetings. This work is part of an interdisciplinary study of feedback and interactions between climate, vegetation, fire and human components of the Boreal forest social–ecological system of interior Alaska. We have learned that although urban and rural communities in interior Alaska face similar increased exposure to wildfire as a result of climate change, important differences exist in their sensitivity to these biophysical, climate-induced changes. In particular, reliance on wild foods, delayed suppression response, financial resources and institutional connections vary between urban and rural communities. These differences depend largely on social, economic and institutional factors, and are not necessarily related to biophysical climate impacts per se. Fire management and suppression action motivated by political, economic or other pressures can serve as unintentional or indirect adaptation to climate change. However, this indirect response alone may not sufficiently reduce vulnerability to a changing fire regime. More deliberate and strategic responses may be required, given the magnitude of the expected climate change and the likelihood of an intensification of the fire regime in interior Alaska.     

Profiles of Fecal Porphyrins in River Otters Following the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

Median levels of Coproporphyrin III (Copro III) in fecal samples of river otters (Lontra canadensis) collected from an oiled area in Prince William Sound, Alaska, USA, during 1990 were significantly higher than in samples collected from the same oiled area during 1996 (p=0.011, one way analysis of variance), a nonoiled reference area in Prince William Sound during 1996 (p=0.002) and a reference area in southeast Alaska during 1998 (p=0.004). An overall test of significance that combined probabilities from the statistical analysis of this porphyrin study with those from other biomarker studies revealed a significant difference in physiological response of river otters between oiled and nonoiled areas of the Sound for 1990 (p < 0.01). We demonstrated that changes in levels of fecal porphyrins may serve as a biomarker that may contribute to a health assessment of wild river otters.