Revenue loss due to whale entanglement mitigation and fishery closures.

Whale entanglements with fishing gear, exacerbated by changing environmental conditions, pose significant risk to whale populations. Management tools used to reduce entanglement risk, for example temporary area restrictions on fishing, can have negative economic consequences for fishing communities. Balancing whale protection with sustaining productive fisheries is therefore a challenge experienced worldwide. In the California Current Ecosystem, ecosystem indicators have been used to understand the environmental dynamics that lead to increased whale entanglement risk in a lucrative crab fishery. However, an assessment of socio-economic risk for this fishery, as in many other regions, is missing. We estimate retrospectively the losses from ex-vessel revenue experienced by commercial Dungeness crab fishers in California during two seasons subject to whale entanglement mitigation measures using a Linear-Cragg hurdle modeling approach which incorporated estimates of pre-season crab abundance. In the 2020 fishing season, our results suggest total revenues would have been $14.4 million higher in the Central Management Area of California in the absence of closures and other disturbances. In the 2019 fishing season, our results suggest ex-vessel revenues would have been $9.4 million higher in the Central Management Area and $0.3 million higher in the Northern Management Area. Our evaluation should motivate the development of strategies which maximize whale protection whilst promoting productive, sustainable and economically-viable fisheries.

I have experienced a lot of negativity about my gender.

I read with interest your news story 'Negative stereotypes prevent men from entering the profession' (August 26).

End of life care skills are essential for all students.

Further to the art&science article, 'An educational programme for end of life care in an acute setting' (August 12), I agree that modules on communication and bereavement are needed at all stages of nurse training.

The sexual scripts of Kenyan young people and HIV prevention.

The scripting of sexual encounters among young people in Kenyan is described using results of 28 focus group discussions conducted with young people attending primary school standard 7, from four different ethnic groups and living in 22 different communities. Sexual encounters were described as both mundane and inevitable and followed a predetermined scripted sequence of events and interactions in which girls and boys played complementary roles. These scripts were set within discourses of force and the exchange of gifts for sex. The gendered nature of the script and its social and cultural foundations are discussed. Potential strategies for developing HIV prevention programming are discussed from the perspective of existing sexual scripts.