Fish distributions reveal discrepancies between zonal attachment and quota allocations

Paul G. Fernandes; Niall G Fallon

doi:10.1111/conl.12702

Fish distributions reveal discrepancies between zonal attachment and quota allocations

Paul G. Fernandes^*
, Niall G Fallon

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

24 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The oceans’ fisheries contribute to human wellbeing by providing essential nutrients, employment, and income. Changes in fish distribution, due to climate change or stock expansion, jeopardize conservation objectives because fishers catch more than is allocated as quota. Quotas, or catch shares, should, therefore, correspond to the share of the fish stock biomass present within a country's Exclusive Economic Zone, a concept known as Zonal Attachment. Here, we assess the Zonal Attachment of transboundary fish stocks present in northern Europe, in the waters of the United Kingdom, the European Union (without the United Kingdom), and Norway. In 12 of 14 important fish stocks, estimates of Zonal Attachment to the United Kingdom were significantly higher than current quota allocations, explaining the country's substantial discard problem. With environmental change, and stock recovery under improved fisheries conservation, scientific evidence should be used not only to set catch limits, but also to re‐examine catch shares.

Original language	English
Article number	e12702
Number of pages	6
Journal	Conservation Letters
Volume	13
Issue number	3
Early online date	27 Jan 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12702
Publication status	Published - 1 May 2020

Bibliographical note

PF and NF were funded by the Horizon 2020 European research project ClimeFish (grant No. 677039). PF also received a small grant from the Scottish Fishermen's Federation. Data are freely available at https://datras.ices.dk/Data_products/Download/Download_Data_public.aspx. EEZs shapefiles came from www.marineregions.org and bathymetry from www.bodc.ac.uk. Analysis code is available at the GitHub repository: https://github.com/niafall/zonal-attachment.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 13 Climate Action
SDG 14 Life Below Water

Keywords

Common Fisheries Policy
discards
distribution
quotas
zonal attachments
fish
zonal attachment
ATLANTIC

Access to Document

10.1111/conl.12702Licence: CC BY

Fernandes_etal_conl_Fish_distributions_VOR
© 2020 The Authors. Conservation Letters published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Final published version, 838 KBLicence: CC BY

https://github.com/niafall/zonal-attachmentLicence: Unspecified
https://datras.ices.dk/Data_products/Download/Download_Data_public.aspxLicence: Unspecified
http://www.marineregions.orgLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Fish distributions reveal discrepancies between zonal attachment and quota allocations",

abstract = "The oceans{\textquoteright} fisheries contribute to human wellbeing by providing essential nutrients, employment, and income. Changes in fish distribution, due to climate change or stock expansion, jeopardize conservation objectives because fishers catch more than is allocated as quota. Quotas, or catch shares, should, therefore, correspond to the share of the fish stock biomass present within a country's Exclusive Economic Zone, a concept known as Zonal Attachment. Here, we assess the Zonal Attachment of transboundary fish stocks present in northern Europe, in the waters of the United Kingdom, the European Union (without the United Kingdom), and Norway. In 12 of 14 important fish stocks, estimates of Zonal Attachment to the United Kingdom were significantly higher than current quota allocations, explaining the country's substantial discard problem. With environmental change, and stock recovery under improved fisheries conservation, scientific evidence should be used not only to set catch limits, but also to re‐examine catch shares.",

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author = "Fernandes, \{Paul G.\} and Fallon, \{Niall G\}",

note = "PF and NF were funded by the Horizon 2020 European research project ClimeFish (grant No. 677039). PF also received a small grant from the Scottish Fishermen's Federation. Data are freely available at https://datras.ices.dk/Data\_products/Download/Download\_Data\_public.aspx. EEZs shapefiles came from www.marineregions.org and bathymetry from www.bodc.ac.uk. Analysis code is available at the GitHub repository: https://github.com/niafall/zonal-attachment.",

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N2 - The oceans’ fisheries contribute to human wellbeing by providing essential nutrients, employment, and income. Changes in fish distribution, due to climate change or stock expansion, jeopardize conservation objectives because fishers catch more than is allocated as quota. Quotas, or catch shares, should, therefore, correspond to the share of the fish stock biomass present within a country's Exclusive Economic Zone, a concept known as Zonal Attachment. Here, we assess the Zonal Attachment of transboundary fish stocks present in northern Europe, in the waters of the United Kingdom, the European Union (without the United Kingdom), and Norway. In 12 of 14 important fish stocks, estimates of Zonal Attachment to the United Kingdom were significantly higher than current quota allocations, explaining the country's substantial discard problem. With environmental change, and stock recovery under improved fisheries conservation, scientific evidence should be used not only to set catch limits, but also to re‐examine catch shares.

AB - The oceans’ fisheries contribute to human wellbeing by providing essential nutrients, employment, and income. Changes in fish distribution, due to climate change or stock expansion, jeopardize conservation objectives because fishers catch more than is allocated as quota. Quotas, or catch shares, should, therefore, correspond to the share of the fish stock biomass present within a country's Exclusive Economic Zone, a concept known as Zonal Attachment. Here, we assess the Zonal Attachment of transboundary fish stocks present in northern Europe, in the waters of the United Kingdom, the European Union (without the United Kingdom), and Norway. In 12 of 14 important fish stocks, estimates of Zonal Attachment to the United Kingdom were significantly higher than current quota allocations, explaining the country's substantial discard problem. With environmental change, and stock recovery under improved fisheries conservation, scientific evidence should be used not only to set catch limits, but also to re‐examine catch shares.

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Fish distributions reveal discrepancies between zonal attachment and quota allocations

Abstract

Bibliographical note

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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