dug into government records and vessel trip reports<\/a>, examining decades of data about vessel activity patterns, distributions of fish stocks, and fish landings. They compared two periods, 1996 to 2000 and 2011 to 2015, and confirmed that the fish these communities are primarily targeting, fluke and hake, had shifted northward by up to 200 kilometers.<\/p>\nThe scientists also interviewed members of these communities to find out how they were responding to their changing fishing grounds. \u201cFishers are on the water every day, so they see these changes, and they\u2019re incredibly adept at dealing with variability,\u201d says Becca Selden, a biologist at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, and a study co-lead.<\/p>\n
The team found that the majority of fishers remained in their traditional grounds, but switched to targeting different, more abundant species. \u201cMost prior work assumed that there wouldn\u2019t actually be species switching,\u201d says Selden. \u201cBut this was one of the dominant strategies that we observed.\u201d As the scientists wrote in their study, this desire for \u201cspatial stability\u201d of fishing grounds was both the preferred strategy among all fisher communities surveyed, but also the most sustainable practice for local fish stocks.<\/p>\n
But switching species comes at a cost. According to the researchers, fishers need the flexibility to catch a variety of species\u2014something that regulations often thwart. \u201cThe realities of what and where they fish are mediated by the regulatory framework,\u201d says Papaioannou by email.<\/p>\n
Federal and state management plans determine which species can be caught and which must be avoided, and these plans have grown more exacting over the years. Fishers can only harvest within the limits of the permits they purchase, and each species typically requires a separate permit. Harvesting diverse fish types then becomes expensive, and those who cannot bear the cost are constrained in what they catch.<\/p>\n
\u201cMultiple permits cost money,\u201d says Elliott Hazen, an ecologist with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u2019s Southwest Fisheries Science Center who was not involved in the research. \u201cAnd that tends to favor larger fishing vessels. Smaller vessels are probably most at risk from losing access when species move.\u201d Consequently, the researchers found that while many trawl operators were changing their fishing practices to new target species between the two time periods studied,<\/em> catch diversity actually declined.<\/p>\nWhile those with smaller trawlers usually remained in their traditional grounds, the study found that those with larger vessels (over about 20 meters) would sometimes embark on longer voyages from their home ports to follow their target fish to new waters. This was rarely the fishers\u2019 first choice, however. Such ventures are more expensive, potentially more hazardous, and keep fishers away from home for longer periods. Fishers, Papaioannou says, desire to fish their traditional grounds, where they possess a vast local knowledge. Their allegiance to their home port is key in shaping their responses to changes in the abundance and distribution of fish, she adds.<\/p>\n
The study noted that regulations may be incentivizing these long voyages. Each port has a quota for a specific fish that is based on past harvest levels, with higher catch histories resulting in higher quotas. This can mean a ready market for landing catches\u2014even if the species is no longer abundant in nearby waters. The scientists found that some captains have become itinerant in response to these incentives. Rather than returning to their home port to land their catch, they will travel to different ports along the coast where they can best exploit quota allocations.<\/p>\n
Most management policies, Selden says, are based on the assumption that fish populations are in equilibrium. But when these populations change, quota allocations don\u2019t change with them. \u201cWe\u2019re pegging quotas to biomass,\u201d she says, \u201cbut we\u2019re not addressing any directional shifts.\u201d This can benefit some ports but impair others, affecting the livelihoods of fishing industry service workers and fostering more transient fishing communities, according to the researchers.<\/p>\n
Fishing regulations could be more responsive to shifting circumstances if management agencies were equipped with more timely data, says Selden. One source of such data might even be the fishing communities themselves. \u201cThe technology on these fishing boats is incredible,\u201d says Selden. \u201cEmpowering them to collect their own data would help them trust it and to see how it integrates with other fishers into a bigger picture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fishing communities are already adapting to the consequences of climate change. The researchers say that regulatory support for these communities must adapt, too. Policies to allow more flexible species harvesting closer to home ports would do a lot to make fishing safer, more effective, and more economical in a changing world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As climate change raises the ocean\u2019s temperature, some fish species are moving poleward to cooler waters. In the United States, as elsewhere, commercial fishers are trying to adapt. But as a new study of trawler communities along the US east <\/p>\n
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