The impact of aggregated and disaggregated fisheries production and licensed fishermen on fishing grounds footprint: A time series analysis.

This study has examined the factors of fishing grounds footprint in Malaysia during 1961-2018, which has been used as the indicator of environmental degradation. The main contribution of this paper is that we have considered the role of aggregated and disaggregated fisheries production on pollution in the fishing industry. Another contribution of this study is that the environmental impact of activities of licensed fishermen has been examined. The results suggest that the total fisheries production and its components- capture fisheries production and aquaculture production generate an increase in fishing grounds footprint in Malaysia. The results suggest that an increase in total licensed fishermen facilitate an increase in fishing grounds footprint. There is mixed evidence on the impact of local fishermen on fishing footprint. The results indicate that an increase in foreign fishermen facilitate an increase in fishing grounds footprint. The results suggest mixed evidence for Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis.

Initial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Australian fisheries production, research organisations and assessment: shocks, responses and implications for decision support and resilience.

Australia's fisheries have experience in responding individually to specific shocks to stock levels (for example, marine heatwaves, floods) and markets (for example, global financial crisis, food safety access barriers). The COVID-19 pandemic was, however, novel in triggering a series of systemic shocks and disruptions to the activities and operating conditions for all Australia's commercial fisheries sectors including those of the research agencies that provide the information needed for their sustainable management. While these disruptions have a single root cause-the public health impacts and containment responses to the COVID-19 pandemic-their transmission and effects have been varied. We examine both the impacts on Australian fisheries triggered by measures introduced by governments both internationally and domestically in response to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, and the countermeasures introduced to support continuity in fisheries and aquaculture production and supply chains. Impacts on fisheries production are identified by comparing annual and monthly catch data for Australia's commercial fisheries in 2020 with averages for the last 4-5 years. We combine this with a survey of the short-term disruption to and impacts on research organisations engaged in fisheries monitoring and assessment and the adaptive measures they deployed. The dominant impact identified was triggered by containment measures both within Australia and in export receiving countries which led to loss of export markets and domestic dine-in markets for live or fresh seafood. The most heavily impact fisheries included lobster and abalone (exported live) and specific finfishes (exported fresh or sold live domestically), which experienced short-term reductions in both production and price. At the same time, improved prices and demand for seafood sold into domestic retail channels were observed. The impacts observed were both a function of the disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the countermeasures and support programs introduced by various national and state-level governments across Australia to at least partly mitigate negative impacts on harvesting activities and supply chains. These included protecting fisheries activities from specific restrictive COVID-19 containment measures, pro-actively re-establishing freight links, supporting quota roll-overs, and introducing wage and businesses support packages. Fisheries research organisations were impacted to various degrees, largely determined by the extent to which their field monitoring activities were protected from specific restrictive COVID-19 containment measures by their state-level governments. Responses of these organisations included reducing fisheries dependent and independent data collection as required while developing strategies to continue to provide assessment services, including opportunistic innovations to harvest data from new data sources. Observed short run impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has emphasised both the vulnerability of fisheries dependent on export markets, live or fresh markets, and long supply chains and the resilience of fisheries research programs. We suggest that further and more comprehensive analysis over a longer time period of the long-run impacts of subsequent waves of variants, extended pandemic containment measures, autonomous and planned adaptive responses would be beneficial for the development of more effective counter measures for when the next major external shock affects Australian fisheries.

The contribution of fisheries and aquaculture to the global protein supply.

The contribution of aquatic animal protein to the global, animal-source protein supply and the relative importance of aquaculture to capture fisheries in supplying this protein is relevant in assessments and decisions related to the future of aquatic food production and its security. Meat of terrestrial animals, milk, and eggs resulted in 76,966 Kt crude protein compared with 13,950 Kt or 15.3% from aquatic animals in 2018.While aquaculture produced a greater tonnage of aquatic animals, capture fisheries resulted in 7,135 Kt crude protein while aquaculture yielded 6,815 Kt. Capture fisheries production has not increased in the past two decades, and aquaculture production must increase to assure the growing demand for fisheries products by a larger and more affluent population. We estimated based on status quo consumption, that aquaculture production would need to increase from 82,087 Kt in 2018 to 129,000 Kt by 2050 to meet the demand of the greater population. About two-thirds of finfish and crustacean production by aquaculture is feed-based, and feeds for these species include fishmeal and fish oil as ingredients. Aquaculture feeds require a major portion of the global supply of fishmeal and fish oil. An estimated 71.0% of fishmeal and 73.9% of fish oil are made from the catch with the rest coming from aquatic animal processing waste. The catch of small, pelagic fish from the ocean is not predicted to increase in the future. Aquaculture should reduce its fishmeal and oil use to lessen its dependency on small wild fish important to the integrity of marine food webs and food security for the poor in many coastal areas. Fishmeal and fish oil shortages for use in aquaculture feed will result in a limit on production in the future if goals to lessen their use in feeds are not met.

The value of estuarine producers to fisheries: A case study of Richmond River Estuary.

Nutrient input from estuarine producers underpins coastal fisheries production and knowing which producers are the most responsible for fish diet helps effectively protect and restore coastal ecosystems. Focussing on the Richmond River in Australia as a case study, we sampled the main estuarine producers and estimated their proportional contributions of nutritional input to seven commercially important fisheries species using Bayesian isotope mixing models. We valued the dietary input of estuarine producers to the commercial fisheries by combining dietary contribution estimates with total annual catch data from commercial fishers. A conservative estimate is that estuarine producers in the Richmond River Estuary contribute at least 82 725 kg (78%) of the total annual catch of the seven commercially important fish with an estimated annual value of $AU 450 117. Sea mullet and Mud crab contributed 95% of the total catch, and 93% of the total value assigned to estuarine producers. The two highest valued estuarine producers were tidal marsh (Juncus kraussii) $AU 82 432 and seagrass (Zostera capricorni) $AU 65 423. This study demonstrates the substantial role of estuarine producers to commercial fisheries production and the fisheries economy more broadly. With large areas of estuarine producers under threat globally from land clearing for agriculture, aquaculture and urbanisation, the results presented here provide evidence to support the value of coastal habitats and benefits of their preservation and restoration.