Interactions of cetaceans with Spanish and Portuguese fisheries in Atlantic waters : costs, benefits and implications for management

With the aim to provide new insights into operational cetacean-fishery interactions in Atlantic waters, this thesis assesses interactions of cetaceans with Spanish and Portuguese fishing vessels operating in Iberian and South West Atlantic waters. Different opportunistic research methodologies were applied, including an interview survey with fishers (mainly skippers) and onboard observations by fisheries observers and skippers, to describe different types of interactions and to identify potential hotspots for cetacean-fishery interactions and the cetacean species most involved, and to quantify the extent and the consequences of these interactions in terms of benefits and costs for cetaceans and fisheries. In addition, the suitability of different mitigation strategies was evaluated and discussed. The results of this work indicate that cetaceans interact frequently with Spanish and Portuguese fishing vessels, sometimes in a beneficial way (e.g. cetaceans indicate fish schools in purse seine fisheries), but mostly with negative consequences (depredation on catch, gear damage and cetacean bycatch). Significant economic loss and high bycatch rates are, however, only reported for certain fisheries and associated with particular cetacean species. In Galician fisheries, substantial economic loss was reported as a result of bottlenose dolphins damaging artisanal coastal gillnets, while high catch loss may arise from common dolphins scattering fish in purse seine fisheries. High cetacean bycatch mortality arises in trawl fisheries, mainly of common dolphin and particularly during trawling in water depths below 350 m, and in coastal set gillnet fisheries (mainly common and bottlenose dolphins). In large-scale bottom-set longline fisheries in South West Atlantic waters, sperm whales may significantly reduce catch rates through depredation on catch. The high diversity of cetacean-fishery interactions observed in the study area indicates that case-specific management strategies are needed to reduce negative impacts on fisheries and cetaceans. Acoustic deterrent devices (pingers) may be used to prevent small cetaceans from approaching and getting entangled in purse seines and set gillnets, although possible problems include cetacean habituation to the pinger sounds, as well as negative side effects on non-target cetaceans (habitat exclusion) and fisheries target species (reduced catch rates). For sardine and horse mackerel, target species of Iberian Atlantic fisheries, no aversive reaction to pinger sounds was detected during tank experiments conducted in the scope of this thesis. Bycatch in trawls may be reduced by the implementation of time/area restrictions of fishing activity. In addition, the avoidance of fishing areas with high cetacean abundance combined with the minimization of fishery-specific sound cues that possibly attract cetaceans, may also help to decrease interactions. In large-scale bottom-set longline fisheries, cetacean depredation on catch may be reduced by covering hooked fish with net sleeves ("umbrellas") provided that catch rates are not negatively affected by this gear modification. Trap fishing, as an alternative fishing method to bottom-set gillnetting and longlining, also has the potential to reduce cetacean bycatch and depredation, given that fish catch rates are similar to the rates obtained by bottom-set gillnets and longlines, whereas cetacean by-catch is unlikely. Economic incentives, such as the eco-certification of dolphin-safe fishing methods, should be promoted in order to create an additional source of income for fishers negatively affected by interactions with cetaceans, which, in turn, may also increase fishers’ willingness to accept and adopt mitigation measures. Although the opportunistic sampling methods applied in this work have certain restrictions concerning their reliability and precision, the results are consistent with previous studies in the same area. Moreover, they allow for the active participation of fishers that can provide important complementary ecological and technical knowledge required for cetacean management and conservation.

Management and Control of Water Supply Systems

The fast increase in the energy’s price has brought a growing concern about the highly expensive task of transporting water. By creating an hydraulic model of the Water Supply System’s (WSS) network and predicting its behaviour, it is possible to take advantage of the energy’s tariffs, reducing the total cost on pumping activities. This thesis was developed, in association with a technology transfer project called the E-Pumping. It focuses on finding a flexible supervision and control strategy, adaptable to any existent Water Supply System (WSS), as well as forecasting the water demand on a time period chosen by the end user, so that the pumping actions could be planned to an optimum schedule, that minimizes the total operational cost. The OPC protocol, associated to a MySQL database were used to develop a flexible tool of supervision and control, due to their adaptability to function with equipments from various manufacturers, being another integrated modular part of the E-Pumping project. Furthermore, in this thesis, through the study and performance tests of several statistical models based on time series, specifically applied to this problem, a forecasting tool adaptable to any station, and whose model parameters are automatically refreshed at runtime, was developed and added to the project as another module. Both the aforementioned modules were later integrated with an Graphical User Interface (GUI) and installed in a pilot application at the ADDP’s network. The implementation of this software on WSSs across the country will reduce the water supply companies’ running costs, improving their market competition and, ultimately, lowering the water price to the end costumer.

Coupling anchovy eggs and hydrodynamic model as an assessement tool for estuarine ecohydrological management

Nitrate and urban waste water directives have raised the need for a better understanding of coastal systems in European Union. The incorrect application of these directives can lead to important ecological or social penalties. In the paper this problem is addressed to Ria Formosa Coastal Lagoon. Ria Formosa hosts a Natural Park, important ports of the southern Portuguese coast and significant bivalve aquaculture activity. Four major urban waste water treatment plants discharging in the lagoon are considered in this study. Its treatment level must be selected, based on detailed information from a monitoring program and on a good knowledge of the processes determining the fate of the material discharged in the lagoon. In this paper the results of a monitoring program and simulations using a coupled hydrodynamic and water quality / ecological model, MOHID, are used to characterise the system and to understand the processes in Ria Formosa. It is shown that the water residence time in most of the lagoon is quite low, of the order of days, but it can be larger in the upper parts of the channels where land generated water is discharged. The main supply of nutrients to the lagoon comes from the open sea rather than from the urban discharges. For this reason the characteristics and behaviour of the general lagoon contrasts with the behaviour of the upper reaches of the channels where the influence of the waste water treatment plants are high. In this system the bottom mineralization was found to be an important mechanism, and the inclusion of that process in the model was essential to obtain good results.

Recreational shore fishing in southern Portugal: biological and socio-economic aspects and perspectives for management

Although overfishing is a concern for many fish stocks, it was for a long time only associated with commercial fishing exploitation, with less or no attention being given to the recreational fisheries. Recent research has shown however that the impact of recreational fishing on particular species can be considerable, and that the recreational harvest needs to be taken into account if fisheries are to be accurately assessed and effectively managed. In Portugal, the first recreational fishing regulations were only recently implemented. However, mirroring other European countries, regulations lacked scientific support, and specific knowledge of the activity was limited to a few studies with limited coverage. This thesis aimed to characterize the biological and socioeconomic aspects of the recreational shore angling activity in southern Portugal, to investigate whether the regulations in place were adequate and effective, and to provide recommendations for improved management and conservation of the inshore fisheries resources. A combined aerial-roving survey was conducted to gather data on fishing effort, catch, fishing trips and socioeconomic aspects (including anglers’ perceptions of regulations) of the recreational angling activity. The analysis of anglers’ catches suggested that compliance with daily bag limits was high, with less than 0.5% of creels exceeding the 10 kg angler-1 day-1 bag limit. Overall, 11.5% of the retained fishes were undersized, but non-compliance with minimum size limits was found to be high for some species (e.g. seabass, 73% undersized). In terms of the impact of recreational shore angling, the total estimated catches corresponded to less than 1% of the commercial landings for the same period (shared species). However, shore angling catches for white sea bream (Diplodus sargus) were found to be considerable, corresponding to 65% of the commercial landings (39.4% of total catch). In terms of anglers’ perceptions about the recreational fishing regulations in Portugal, the present study has shown that the majority of anglers accepted the existence of some kind of SRF regulations, but in general there was a partial or total disagreement with the recreational fishing restrictions recently put in place. Most anglers perceived themselves as not being involved in the decision-making process and claimed that some restrictions lacked a meaningful rationale (e.g. prohibition of fishing from piers/jetties). Fishers’ awareness with regard to specific aspects of the restrictions (such as the rationale for minimum size limits) was found to be very limited. During the same period, catches from sport fishing competitions were examined to test for differences with the recreational activity in terms of catches, and evaluate long term trends in catch and mean size of fish. Catches of the sport fishing competitions were found to be different from those observed for recreational fishing, being dominated by different species (e.g. garfish, mullets), and suggesting different fishing strategies of the the two types of anglers. High percentages of undersized fish were observed to be captured (and retained) during the competitions (in particular seabass, with 100% undersized), probably as a result of a single allowable minimum size (AMS) of 15 cm for all species in use in competitions. Lastly, catch and release fishing experiments were carried out to assess post-release mortality of three recreationally important species: two banded sea bream Diplodus vulgaris; black sea bream Spondyliosoma cantharus; and gilthead sea bream Sparus aurata. Post-release mortalities were found to be low (0-12%). The main predictor of mortality for Sparus aurata was anatomical hooking location, with 63% of the fishes that died being deeply hooked. The results support the release of fish, either from mandatory (e.g. minimum landing sizes) or voluntary practices. In summary, this thesis has demonstrated that the impact of recreational fishing for particular species is significant and needs to be taken into account for more effective management and stock assessment purposes. It has also highlighted several management issues that should be addressed in order to promote more adequate regulations in the future and prevent noncompliance issues. A periodic monitoring of the recreational fishing activity including all fishing modes (i.e. spear fishing, boat, and shore angling) would also be beneficial to ensure a timely knowledge on the global recreational fishing activity and support future management actions.

The importance of the pelagic larval phase of the wedge shell Donax trunculus (L.): implications for the management of the fishery

The wedge shell, Donax trunculus, inhabits high energy environment of exposed sandy beaches from the Atlantic coast of France to Senegal. Like all Donacidae, it is relative small, flat-shaped with elongated solid shells. It is a highly demanded and valuable species mainly in Algarve, with the dredge fleet increasing the pressure on species stocks. In 1986 the Portuguese Institute for the Ocean and Atmosphere (IPMA) initiated a bivalve survey program to evaluate the stock status of species with economical valuable but always on the adult population. Since then, several managing measures were implemented to guarantee bivalves’ sustainable exploitation. Despite the available information on the abundance and distribution of the wedge shell along the Algarve coast, no information on the larval planktonic phase is available. To fill in this gap, the present study aimed at obtaining, for the first time information on the broodstock condition and on the pelagic phase of the wedge shell in the Algarve coast.

Big data warehouse framework for smart revenue management

Revenue Management’s most cited definitions is probably “to sell the right accommodation to the right customer, at the right time and the right price, with optimal satisfaction for customers and hoteliers”. Smart Revenue Management (SRM) is a project, which aims the development of smart automatic techniques for an efficient optimization of occupancy and rates of hotel accommodations, commonly referred to, as revenue management. One of the objectives of this project is to demonstrate that the collection of Big Data, followed by an appropriate assembly of functionalities, will make possible to generate a Data Warehouse necessary to produce high quality business intelligence and analytics. This will be achieved through the collection of data extracted from a variety of sources, including from the web. This paper proposes a three stage framework to develop the Big Data Warehouse for the SRM. Namely, the compilation of all available information, in the present case, it was focus only the extraction of information from the web by a web crawler – raw data. The storing of that raw data in a primary NoSQL database, and from that data the conception of a set of functionalities, rules, principles and semantics to select, combine and store in a secondary relational database the meaningful information for the Revenue Management (Big Data Warehouse). The last stage will be the principal focus of the paper. In this context, clues will also be giving how to compile information for Business Intelligence. All these functionalities contribute to a holistic framework that, in the future, will make it possible to anticipate customers and competitor’s behavior, fundamental elements to fulfill the Revenue Management

Diatom-based characterization of iberian coastal environments at different time scales

Tese de doutoramento, Geologia (Geologia Económica e do Ambiente), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2014

The Contribution of Academic Scholarship to Management Development.

Purpose: This paper explores the impact of academic scholarship on the development and practice of experienced managers. Design / Methodology: Semi-structured interviews with experienced managers, modelled on the critical incident technique. ‘Intertextuality’ and framework analysis technique are used to examine whether the use of academic scholarship is a sub-conscious phenomenon. Findings: Experienced managers make little direct use of academic scholarship, using it only occasionally to provide retrospective confirmation of decisions or a technique they can apply. However, academic scholarship informs their practice in an indirect way, their understanding of the ‘gist’ of scholarship comprising one of many sources which they synthesise and evaluate as part of their development process. Practical implications: Managers and management development practitioners should focus upon developing skills of synthesising the ‘gist’ of academic scholarship with other sources of data, rather than upon the detailed remembering, understanding and application of specific scholarship, and upon finding / providing the time and space for that ‘gisting’ and synthesis to take place. Originality / Value: The paper addresses contemporary concerns about the appropriateness of the material delivered on management education programmes for management development. It is original in doing this from the perspective of experienced managers, and in using intertextual analysis to reveal not only the direct but also the indirect uses of they make of such scholarship. The finding of the importance of understanding the ‘gist’ rather than the detail of academic theory represents a key conceptual innovation.

Management and engineering education in the 1950s and 1960s

The career destiny of many graduate engineers is in industry. Quite how well prepared they were for that career became a matter of political importance in the late 1950s and early 1960s as the issue of Britain's relatively poor economic performance grew in salience. This article looks at this preparation with particular reference to management training. It examines the attitudes of those parties most interested in engineering education ‐ the government, industry, the engineering institutions and the educators themselves. All of these saw management training as being part of the formation of at least a portion of professional engineers at some stage in their career. But there was no general agreement between them about what this should consist of or when it should be provided. At the same time broader changes in engineering education were taking place which cut across and to some extent militated against attempts to enhance the role of management training. The result, it is argued, is that by the end of the 1960s little progress had been achieved.

How women use and experience western herbal practice for distress: implications for health care and self-management approaches.

Introduction: In the UK, common mental health disorders account for one in five of all work days lost, and cost employers £25bn each year. Herbal medicine has been shown to potentially be of use for mental distress, including conditions like anxiety. In 2008, 35% of British adults surveyed claimed to have used herbal medicine at some stage, the majority of whom were women. However, there is little research into how the users of western herbal medicine (WHM) experience the practice of herbal medicine, or how these experiences may change over time. Our research is studying women in the south-east of the UK who are suffering from distress (either as a primary complaint, or associated with another condition) who are seeking the services of a herbalist who practices WHM. Aim: To investigate the experiences of western herbal practice by women who are suffering with distress. Methods: The study is using semi-structured interviews of around thirty women, to elicit patient narratives at two time points. Thematic analysis is being used to consider how distressed women perceive and experience their distress, their reasons for using WHM, what contribution the women perceive the consultation and treatment with WHM may or may not make to their wellbeing, and whether their experiences change over time. Currently, sixteen women have been interviewed, and a preliminary thematic analysis has commenced. Results: Preliminary finding suggest that not only do women internalise their distress, but that they are surprisingly isolated in how they deal with it, whilst some also express social embarrassment about their experiences. The women perceived that their distress is not always considered seriously from their medical practitioners’ point of view. These women are drawn to herbalists not only in a search for effective treatment, but also to be given time to have their story heard, to form a collaborative relationship, and to attempt to regain some control of their life. The herbal treatment is valued due to its perceived naturalness, and reduced risk of adverse side effects. Nevertheless, WHM is just one of a number of self-care strategies that women utilise to help manage their distress. Discussion: Effective treatment is not only dependent upon the herbs, but also upon an effective therapeutic relationship. Feeling that the herbalist hears their story, provides a treatment plan that is individually tailored to the patient, and is available (even outside of the consultation) are all important in helping to establish this relationship.

Energy efficiency analysis considering the use of an intelligent systems management in a smart home

In this abstract is presented an energy management system included in a SCADA system existent in a intelligent home. The system control the home energy resources according to the players definitions (electricity consumption and comfort levels), the electricity prices variation in real time mode and the DR events proposed by the aggregators.

Real-time energy resources scheduling considering short-term and very short-term wind forecast

This paper proposes an energy resources management methodology based on three distinct time horizons: day-ahead scheduling, hour-ahead scheduling, and real-time scheduling. In each scheduling process it is necessary the update of generation and consumption operation and of the storage and electric vehicles storage status. Besides the new operation condition, it is important more accurate forecast values of wind generation and of consumption using results of in short-term and very short-term methods. A case study considering a distribution network with intensive use of distributed generation and electric vehicles is presented.

LMP triggered real time demand response events

Recent changes in power systems mainly due to the substantial increase of distributed generation and to the operation in competitive environments has created new challenges to operation and planning. In this context, Virtual Power Players (VPP) can aggregate a diversity of players, namely generators and consumers, and a diversity of energy resources, including electricity generation based on several technologies, storage and demand response. Demand response market implementation has been done in recent years. Several implementation models have been considered. An important characteristic of a demand response program is the trigger criterion. A program for which the event trigger depends on the Locational Marginal Price (LMP) used by the New England Independent System operator (ISO-NE) inspired the present paper. This paper proposes a methodology to support VPP demand response programs management. The proposed method has been computationally implemented and its application is illustrated using a 32 bus network with intensive use of distributed generation. Results concerning the evaluation of the impact of using demand response events are also presented.

Demand response in electrical energy supply: an optimal real time pricing approach

In competitive electricity markets with deep concerns for the efficiency level, demand response programs gain considerable significance. As demand response levels have decreased after the introduction of competition in the power industry, new approaches are required to take full advantage of demand response opportunities. This paper presents DemSi, a demand response simulator that allows studying demand response actions and schemes in distribution networks. It undertakes the technical validation of the solution using realistic network simulation based on PSCAD. The use of DemSi by a retailer in a situation of energy shortage, is presented. Load reduction is obtained using a consumer based price elasticity approach supported by real time pricing. Non-linear programming is used to maximize the retailer’s profit, determining the optimal solution for each envisaged load reduction. The solution determines the price variations considering two different approaches, price variations determined for each individual consumer or for each consumer type, allowing to prove that the approach used does not significantly influence the retailer’s profit. The paper presents a case study in a 33 bus distribution network with 5 distinct consumer types. The obtained results and conclusions show the adequacy of the used methodology and its importance for supporting retailers’ decision making.

A traffic differentiation add-on to the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol: implementation and experimental validation over a real-time operating system

The IEEE 802.15.4 is the most widespread used protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and it is being used as a baseline for several higher layer protocols such as ZigBee, 6LoWPAN or WirelessHART. Its MAC (Medium Access Control) supports both contention-free (CFP, based on the reservation of guaranteed time-slots GTS) and contention based (CAP, ruled by CSMA/CA) access, when operating in beacon-enabled mode. Thus, it enables the differentiation between real-time and best-effort traffic. However, some WSN applications and higher layer protocols may strongly benefit from the possibility of supporting more traffic classes. This happens, for instance, for dense WSNs used in time-sensitive industrial applications. In this context, we propose to differentiate traffic classes within the CAP, enabling lower transmission delays and higher success probability to timecritical messages, such as for event detection, GTS reservation and network management. Building upon a previously proposed methodology (TRADIF), in this paper we outline its implementation and experimental validation over a real-time operating system. Importantly, TRADIF is fully backward compatible with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, enabling to create different traffic classes just by tuning some MAC parameters.