U.S. Fisheries Management and Foreign Trade Linkages: Policy Implications for Groundfish Fisheries in the North Pacific EEZ

The groundfish resources of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off Alaska, dominated by Alaska or walleye pollock, Theragra chalcogramma, Pacific cod, Gadus macrocephalus, and flatfishes, Pleuronectidae, can sustain annual commercial harvests well in excess of 2 million metric tons (t). As recently as 1979, foreign fisheries took 99 percent of the annual harvest supported by these resources. This has changed dramatically during the 1980's. The foreign fisheries have received rapidly decreasing allocations, first as joint venture fisheries expanded and, more recently, as the domestic fisheries have grown. Joint venture fisheries are fisheries in which domestic fishing vessels deliver their catch directly to foreign processing vessels in the EEZ. By 1986, the joint venture and domestic fisheries accounted for 66 percent and 8 percent, respectively, of the annual harvest. The preliminary corresponding figures for 1987 are 78 and 18 percent.

Hard days and nights: hardships at work, a lack of support at home, and little or no social security combine to create a bleak future for women fishsellers in Mangalore, India

Mangalore is a port city situated in the west coast state of Karnataka in India. The city hosts both large-scale and small-scale fisheries along its coastline. Traditionally, fishermen catch the product and sell it at a daily auction in the harbour to women vendors, who thereafter transport the goods to the market for commercial sale. The trade starts early in the morning, when the fishermen return to the harbour from their nightly fishing.

Bibliografía argentina de peces de agua dulce.

Espanol: En la presente lista bibliográfica fueron recopiladas las referencias sobre los peces continentales de la Argentina, del período comprendido entre mediados del siglo XVIII y fines del año 2005. Incluye las listas bibliográficas publicadas durante los años 1981 a 2004, y las citas no mencionadas en ellas. Se incluyeron el ISSN o ISBN según correspondiera, la abreviatura oficial y el lugar de origen de las publicaciones. En algunos casos, los ISSN, las abreviaturas de los nombres de las publicaciones o su procedencia, mencionados en los catálogos, no coinciden con los de la home page de la publicación. Una bibliografía puede ser muy rica y aún estar incompleta. Requiere de sus lectores algún interés histórico, y aún un interés profundo por su tema. Ante una bibliografía, muchos investigadores preferirían no encontrar algunas referencias, y de hecho, muchas son oportunamente olvidadas. Por no saber como hacerlo, o por menosprecio, estas listas raramente son citadas en los trabajos, aunque sobre algunos temas en particular, sería realmente difícil formarse una idea si las bibliografías no existieran. Aún desde el comienzo es complicado precisar un criterio de inclusiones. Por ejemplo, gran parte de la ictiofauna Argentina se encuentra también en Brasil. ¿Justifica esto incluir informes perdidos sobre artes de pesca en una cuenca distante? ¿Deben los clásicos, que todo el mundo conoce y el que se inicia encontrará sin dificultad, ser incluidos? Aún a un grupo que se dedicara full time a este trabajo, le sería difícil verificar la precisión de las citas antiguas, en las que fechas y autoría cambian según la investigación histórica. En una bibliografía más o menos general, la perfección atenta contra la publicación. Sin embargo, pensamos que es conveniente hacerlas. Una mirada a este volumen, muestra la enorme cantidad de desarrollos en muchos temas, y la regla que uno de nosotros ha mencionado desde hace tiempo: siempre hay más publicado sobre un tema de lo que uno cree. La sospecha de que con sólo mirar lo que está hecho, muchos subsidios podrían utilizarse para algo más útil que algunas evaluaciones repetidas de recursos o biodiversidad, es un poco pesimista y no haremos perder trabajos insistiendo en eso. Cada generación elige sus metas, su propia base epistemológica, sus trabajos preferidos y los que desecha. Aún en trabajos perdidos o de mala calidad, es posible encontrar datos valiosos. Ningún proyecto, por mejor diseñado que esté, podrá mostrar en el presente los organismos que vivían en el pasado en un lugar en el que las condiciones han cambiado, o lo hará en términos de otra disciplina. En los temas aplicados la información del pasado puede ser importantísima. Aún en una disciplina tan conservadora como la nomenclatura, los cambios pueden ser exasperantes; no pueden serlo menos en las que intrínsecamente, como la ecología, es lo que estudian. Para dar una idea más precisa del desarrollo de la ictiología en la Argentina, esta lista podría ir acompañada de una apreciación crítica. Entendemos que una tarea así exige un trabajo diferente, de cierta magnitud y con no pocos elementos históricos. Aunque tiene deficiencias, la ictiología argentina constituye una acumulación de conocimientos de considerable calidad y pertinencia para la historia natural de América del Sur. Dejamos a los lectores que cada uno haga la suya. English: For the present list, references on freshwater fishes of Argentina were compiled from the period between middle XVIII Century and the end of the year 2005. It includes previous lists published during 1981 to 2004, and references not mentioned therein. The ISSN o ISBN numbers were included, as well as the official abbreviations and the place of origin of the periodicals. In some cases, these data as quoted in catalogs, do not agree with those in the home page of the publication. A bibliography may be very rich and anyway never complete. It requires from its readers some historic interest and indeed a deep interest on his (her) subject. Browsing a bibliography, many researchers would prefer not to find some references, and in fact, sometimes they forget some of them. Not imagining how to do it, or because people do not concede importance to them, bibliographic lists are rarely quoted in papers, though some subjects would be rather difficult to understand if list of publications would not exist. Even from the beginning, it is difficult to precise a criterion of inclusions. For example, many Argentine fishes occur also in Brazil. Does this justify the inclusion of grey reports on a distant basin? Should classic works, that everybody knows and are easily found, be included? Is near impossible, even for a group dedicated full time to this work, to verify the precision of old citations, whose dates and authorship change according to authorities and historical research. In a more or less general bibliography, completeness is against publication. Nevertheless, we think that is convenient to prepare these lists. A look at this volume shows the enormous developments in many subjects, and the rule that one of us mentioned long ago: there are always more papers on any subject than one suspects. Looking at what has already been done raises the suspicion that many grants could be used for something more useful than repeated evaluations of biodiversity or resources. This is a bit pessimistic, and we do not want to erase working opportunities. Each generation chooses its targets, its own epistemological base, its preferred papers and those that rejects. Even in lost or bad quality papers, the possibility of finding valuable information exists. No project, whatever the appropriateness of its design, could show at present which organisms lived in the past in a place where environmental conditions have changed, or it will do it in terms of another discipline. In applied subjects, information from the past can be very important. Even in a conservative discipline as nomenclature, changes can be exasperating. They are not lesser in those like ecology, where change itself is studied. To provide a more precise idea of the development of ichthyology in Argentina, this list could be accompanied by a critical appreciation. We understood that such an aim requires a different work, with no few historical elements and of certain magnitude. In spite of some deficiencies, Argentine ichthyology, resulting from collaboration of both local and foreign people, constitutes a bulk of knowledge of considerable quality and pertinence for the natural history of South America. We leave each reader to make his (or her) own evaluation. (Texto en Espanol. PDF tiene cien setenta paginas.)

Technologies and Methodologies for the Detection of Harmful Algae and Their Toxins, St Petersburg, Florida, Oct 22-24 2008 : workshop proceedings

The Alliance for Coastal Technologies (ACT) Workshop "Technologies and Methodologies for the Detection of Harmful Algae and their Toxins" convened in St. Petersburg, Florida, October 22- 24, 2008 and was co-sponsored by ACT (http://act-us.info); the Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology (CICEET, http://ciceet.unh.edu); and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC, http://www.myfwc.com). Participants from various sectors, including researchers, coastal decision makers, and technology vendors, collaborated to exchange information and build consensus. They focused on the status of currently available detection technologies and methodologies for harmful algae (HA) and their toxins, provided direction for developing operational use of existing technology, and addressed requirements for future technology developments in this area. Harmful algal blooms (HABs) in marine and freshwater systems are increasingly common worldwide and are known to cause extensive ecological, economic, and human health problems. In US waters, HABs are encountered in a growing number of locations and are also increasing in duration and severity. This expansion in HABs has led to elevated incidences of poisonous seafood, toxin-contaminated drinking water, mortality of fish and other animals dependent upon aquatic resources (including protected species), public health and economic impacts in coastal and lakeside communities, losses to aquaculture enterprises, and long-term aquatic ecosystem changes. This meeting represented the fourth ACT sponsored workshop that has addressed technology developments for improved monitoring of water-born pathogens and HA species in some form. A primary motivation was to assess the need and community support for an ACT-led Performance Demonstration of Harmful Algae Detection Technologies and Methodologies in order to facilitate their integration into regional ocean observing systems operations. The workshop focused on the identification of region-specific monitoring needs and available technologies and methodologies for detection/quantification of harmful algal species and their toxins along the US marine and freshwater coasts. To address this critical environmental issue, several technologies and methodologies have been, or are being, developed to detect and quantify various harmful algae and their associated toxins in coastal marine and freshwater environments. There are many challenges to nationwide adoption of HAB detection as part of a core monitoring infrastructure: the geographic uniqueness of primary algal species of concern around the country, the variety of HAB impacts, and the need for a clear vision of the operational requirements for monitoring the various species. Nonetheless, it was a consensus of the workshop participants that ACT should support the development of HA detection technology performance demonstrations but that these would need to be tuned regionally to algal species and toxins of concern in order to promote the adoption of state of the art technologies into HAR monitoring networks. [PDF contains 36 pages]

The BACOMA cod-end. History and recent developments in BACOMA cod-end regulations and a proposal for abetter specification of the BACOMA cod-end for Baltic Sea cod fishery

To improve the cod stocks in the Baltic Sea, a number of regulations have recently been established by the International Baltic Sea Fisheries Commission (IBSFC) and the European Commission. According to these, fishermen are obliged to use nets with escape windows (BACOMA nets) with a mesh size of the escape window of 120 mm until end of September 2003. These nets however, retain only fish much larger than the legal minimum landing size would al-low. Due to the present stock structure only few of such large fish are however existent. As a consequence fishermen use a legal alternative net. This is a conventional trawl with a cod-end of 130 mm diamond-shaped meshes (IBSFC-rules of 1st April 2002), to be increased to 140 mm on 1st September 2003, according to the mentioned IBSFC-rule. Due legal alterations of the net by the fishermen (e.g. use of extra stiff net material) these nets have acquired extremely low selective properties, i. e. they catch very small fish and produce great amounts of discards. Due to the increase of the minimum landing size from 35 to 38 cm for cod in the Baltic, the amount of discards has even increased since the beginning of 2003. Experiments have now been carried out with the BACOMAnet on German and Swedish commercial and research vessels since arguments were brought forward that the BACOMA net was not yet sufficiently tested on commercial vessels. The results of all experiments conducted so far, are compiled and evaluated here. As a result of the Swedish, Danish and German initiative and research the European Commission reacted upon this in June 2003 and rejected the increase of the diamond-meshed non-BACOMA net from 130 mm to 140mm in September 2003. To protect the cod stocks in the Baltic Sea more effectively the use of traditional diamond meshed cod-ends with-out escape window are prohibited in community waters without derogation, becoming effective 1st of September 2003. To enable more effective and simplified control of the bottom trawl fishery in the Baltic Sea the principle of a ”One-Net-Rule“ is enforced. This is going to be the BACOMA net, with the meshes of the escape window being 110 mm for the time being. The description of the BACOMA net as given in the IBSFC-rules no.10 (revision of the 28th session, Berlin 2002) concentrates on the cod-end and the escape window but only to a less extent on the design and mesh-composition of the remaining parts of the net, such as belly and funnel and many details. Thus, the present description is not complete and leaves, according to fishermen, ample opportunity for manipulation. An initiative has been started in Germany with joint effort from scientists and the fishery to better describe the entire net and to produce a proposal for a more comprehensive description, leaving less space for manipulation. A proposal in this direction is given here and shall be seen as a starting point for a discussion and development towards an internationally uniform net, which is agreed amongst the fishery, scientists and politicians. The Baltic Sea fishery is invited to comment on this proposal, and recommendations for further improvement and specifications are welcomed. Once the design is agreed by the Baltic Fishermen Association, it shall be proposed to the IBSFC and European Commission via the Baltic Fishermen Association.

Report of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission for the year 1983

ENGLISH: The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission operates under the authority and direction of a convention originally entered into by the Republic of Costa Rica and the United States of America. The convention, which came into force in 1950, is open to adherence by other governments whose nationals fish for tropical tunas in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Under this provision Panama adhered in 1953, Ecuador in 1961, the United Mexican States in 1964, Canada in 1968, Japan in 1970 and France and Nicaragua in 1973. Ecuador withdrew from the Commission in 1968, Mexico in 1978, and Costa Rica in 1979. On October 19 and 20, the Commission held its 41st meeting in Ottawa, Canada. SPANISH: La Comisión Interamericana del Atún Tropical funciona bajo la autoridad y dirección de un convenio establecido originalmente por la República de Costa Rica y los Estados Unidos de América. El convenio vigente desde 1950, está abierto a la afiliación de otros gobiernos cuyos ciudadanos pescan atún en el Pacífico oriental tropical. Bajo esta estipulación, Panamá se afilió en 1953, Ecuador en 1961, los Estados Unidos Mexicanos en 1964, Canadá en 1968, Japón en 1970, Francia y Nicaragua en 1973. Ecuador se retiró de la Comisión en 1968, México en 1978 y Costa Rica en 1979. Como se informó en el informe anual de la Comisión de 1978, la XXXVI reunión de la Comisión, convocada en Tokio (Japón) del 16 al 18 de octubre de 1978, fue suspendida sin haberse adoptado ninguna acción para fijar una cuota de atún aleta amarilla en 1979. La XLI reunión de la Comisión fue convocada en Ottawa (Canadá) del 19 al 20 de octubre de 1983. (PDF contains 272 pages.)

Report of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission for the year 1984

ENGLISH: The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission operates under the authority and direction of a convention originally entered into by the Republic of Costa Rica and the United States of America. The convention, which came into force in 1950, is open to adherence by other governments whose nationals fish for tropical tunas in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Under this provision Panama adhered in 1953, Ecuador in 1961, the United Mexican States in 1964, Canada in 1968, Japan in 1970, and France and Nicaragua in 1973. Ecuador withdrew from the Commission in 1968, Mexico in 1978, Costa Rica in 1979, and Canada in 1984. On October 16,17, and 18, the Commission held its 42nd meeting in La Jolla, California. SPANISH: La Comisión Interamericana del Atún Tropical funciona bajo la autoridad y dirección de un convenio establecido originalmente por la República de Costa Rica y los Estados Unidos de América. El convenio, vigente desde 1950, está abierto a la afiliación de otros gobiernos cuyos ciudadanos pescan atún en el Pacífico oriental tropical. Bajo esta estipulación, Panamá se afilió en 1953, Ecuador en 1961, los Estados Unidos Mexicanos en 1964, Canadá en 1968, Japón en 1970, Francia y Nicaragua en 1973. Ecuador se retiró de la Comisión en 1968, México en 1978, Costa Rica en 1979 y Canadá en 1984. La XLII reunión de la Comisión fue convocada en La JoBa (California) el 16, 17 Y18 de octubre de 1984. (PDF contains 270 pages.)

Development of larval and early juvenile penpoint gunnel (Apodichthys flavidus) (family: Pholidae)

The penpoint gunnel (Apodichthys flavidus) is a member of the perciform family Pholidae. Pholids, commonly referred to as gunnels, are eel-like fishes that inhabit the rocky intertidal and subtidal regions of the northern oceans and are often associated with macroalgae, such as Fucus spp. or kelp (Watson, 1996). Gunnels are ecologically important forage fishes that form part of the diet of birds and commercially important groundfish species (Hobson and Sealy, 1985; NMFS1; Golet et al., 2000). The diet of A. flavidus and other pholids comprises primarily harpactacoid copepods, gammarid amphipods, isopods, and other crustaceans (Cross, 1981). Apodichthys flavidus ranges along the west coast of North America from southern California to the Gulf of Alaska (Mecklenburg et al., 2002). Adult A. flavidus are distinguished from other pholids by their total vertebral counts, the presence of a thick and grooved first anal spine, a preanal length that is approximately 60% standard length (SL), and a dark green to light olive coloration (Yatsu, 1981). It is one of the largest pholids (up to 46 cm) and is important in the live fish trade for both home and public aquaria (Froese and Pauly2).

Economic and Trade Strategies in World Fisheries

This special section of the Marine Fisheries Review contains the edited proceedings of a symposium held on 16 September 1987 at the annual meetings of the American Fisheries Society in Winston-Salem, N.C. The symposium was sponsored by the National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade. The aim of this session was to provide an overview of several international trade issues that affect the development of fisheries economic policy. Thus, the general areas of discussion included: The role of fisheries in the U.S. balance of trade, current negotiations on fisheries trade and tariffs, and U.S. and foreign economic trade strategies and policies.

Seafood consumption and supply sources in Hawaii, 2000-2009

Measures of consumption and supply sources of seafood can provide valuable input to research and policy planning of a viable food system. This article fills a gap in the existing literature by mapping the existing seafood supply flows from various sources (local, domestic U.S., and foreign) in Hawaii. The authors trace the seafood transshipment of foreign origin via the continental United States to Hawaii and update total and per capita consumption of seafood more accurately by including noncommercial catches into the analysis. Per capita seafood consumption in Hawaii from all commercial sources is estimated at an annual average of 29 edible pounds during the 10-year period from 2000 to 2009. This is significantly more than the 16 edible pounds for all U.S consumption in 2009. Including noncommercial catch, the same measure increases to 37 edible pounds. The eight-pound differential suggests that noncommercial fishing is an important source of seafood supply in Hawaii. Overall, fresh tuna (Thunnus spp.) is the single largest species group consumed, followed by Pacific and Atlantic salmon (Salmonidae). By edible weight, the majority of Hawaii’s commercial seafood supply comes from foreign sources (57%) vs. local sources (37%), and U.S. domestic sources (6%). The leading sources for Hawaii’s direct seafood imports from 2000 to 2009, were Taiwan, Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines, and the Marshall Islands. Local supply becomes the majority source once noncommercial catch is included with 51% of the total supply.

Investigation of polymorphism by PCR-RFLP method in Cobia fish Rachycentron canadum in the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea

Cobia is a native fish species in Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman and has a good internal and foreign market. This fish is a fast growing species and for this reason Iranian Fisheries is considering to go for it culture practices. To go for any utilization such as fishing from wild stocks or culture activities, needs a better understanding of its peculiarities and genetic characteristics of its natural resources. Therefore, this project was discribed and conducted. In this investigation, cuts 2 or 3 cm of fin tissue of  specimen of Cobia obtained from Sistan and Bluchestan, Hormozgan, Bushehr and Khuzestan water provinces, were collected. DNA was extracted by Phenol-chlorophorm method and produced PCR product in length of 1060 and 1450 base pair of two mitochondrial genes COI and NADH2. Using 13 cutting enzymes (4 enzymes were subscriber for both of genes), 205 base pair (from 2510 base pair, equal with %3.8 from gene regains) were directly investigated. But binding patterns of enzymatic digestion of PCR products of both COI and ND genes from electrophoresis were monomorph in all samples and no polymorphism was observed. This may be attributed to the unsuitable choice of COI and ND2 genes for showing of intra specific divergence. But in general non-existence of genetic diversity or noticeable decrease of that among individuals has been reported in regions were fish migration exist and they can freely move between two regions. Therefore, non-observation of polymorphism in the study area might be the case and indicates represents the area. On the other hand, some scientists believe that the distributions of populations in different regions are greatly affected by environmental and physical and ecological factors. Althoug Cobia is a migratory fish, but with regard to the fact that the environmental conditions are different (specially temperature and salinity) between east and west of Persian Gulf and Oman sea, there is a possibility that different genetic groups of this species exist in the regions. Of course It is clear that using more samples and enzymes from other genetically regions could produce better results. Since none of the two investigated genes didn’t show genetic divergence or polymorphism amongst the individuals of one region or between different regions, therefore, statistic analysis for estimating of haplotype diversity or nucleotide diversity and drawing of relationship tree among individuals using available softwares was not possible.

Issues of HIV/AIDS/ health among the fisher communities of Lake Albert and Kyoga

The fisheries resources of Lakes Albert and Kyoga present a high potential for economic growth, food, employment and foreign earnings. However, livelihoods appear to be compromised with the emergence and rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in the fisher communities of L. Albert and Kyoga. HIV/AIDS is considered a silent epidemic that is unique, posing a great challenge to the fisheries managers, health service providers, development planners and the resource users themselves. Fishers have high HIV prevalence, as well as AIDS-related illnesses and mortality rates. The high HIV prevalence rates among the fishing communities in Uganda is between 10-40% compared to the national rates which lie between 6% and 7%. This indicates that the national programmes have not adequately addressed the plight of the fishing communities of Lakes Albert, and Kyoga and the consequences have been devastating. Men and women living in fishing villages across the world have been found to be between five and ten times more vulnerable to the disease than other communities (Tarzan et al 2005, FAO, 2007). The present prevalence rates among the fishing communities stands at 10 to 40 % (LVFO, 2008). Meanwhile the same fishing communities are the essential labour for the Lakes’ fishery industry which is thriving nationally and internationally. That resource potentially can alleviate poverty and the HIV/AIDS threat. Fishing communities are the hidden victims of the disease, mixing patterns with the general population could act as a reservoir of infection that could spill over into the general population to drive the epidemic. On L. Albert, a quarter of the fisher folk were HIV-positive by 1992 compared to 4% in a nearby Agricultural village. Since then, there have been no targeted studies to address or monitor the prevalence rates eight years later, yet the multiplicity factor is high. HIV/AIDS can be linked to unsustainable fisheries, as the labour force available would not go to deep waters to fish, instead would fish in the shallow waters as a coping mechanism. A further effect is the loss to National and local economies and reduced nutritional security for the wider population. HIV/AIDS remains a significant challenge that has created a mosaic of complexity in the fishery sector. This needs to be addressed. It is, therefore, paramount that a comprehensive study was under taken to address this pandemic and the phenomenon of HIV/AIDS based on the study objectives. 1. To determine the trend in HIV/AIDS infection among fishing communities and the factors affecting it 2. To assess the impacts of HIV/AIDS on fish production and the implications for fisheries management.