This paper presents the design and development of a coastal fisheries monitoring system that harnesses artificial intelligence technologies. Application of the system across the Pacific region promises to revolutionize coastal fisheries management. The program is built on a centralized, cloud-based monitoring system to automate data extraction and analysis processes. The system leverages YoloV4, OpenCV, and ResNet101 to extract information from images of fish and invertebrates collected as part of in-country monitoring programs overseen by national fisheries authorities. As of December 2023, the system has facilitated automated identification of over six hundred nearshore finfish species, and automated length and weight measurements of more than 80,000 specimens across the Pacific. The system integrates other key fisheries monitoring data such as catch rates, fishing locations and habitats, volumes, pricing, and market characteristics. The collection of these metrics supports much needed rapid fishery assessments. The system\'s co-development with national fisheries authorities and the geographic extent of its application enables capacity development and broader local inclusion of fishing communities in fisheries management. In doing so, the system empowers fishers to work with fisheries authorities to enable data-informed decision-making for more effective adaptive fisheries management. The system overcomes historically entrenched technical and financial barriers in fisheries management in many Pacific island communities.

While women globally make up nearly half of the fisheries workforce, their contribution to the sector has long been overlooked with implications for fisheries management. To assess women\'s participation in small-scale fisheries (SSF) management and related socio-cultural, environmental, and economic impacts, we conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed literature (n = 124 case studies). Women had no or limited participation in more than 80% of the examined case studies reporting their participation level in SSF management. Women\'s exclusion from SSF management resulted in negative outcomes, whereas their active participation was associated with various positive impacts at multiple scales. Most of the documented impacts were socio-cultural, suggesting a gap in documenting environmental impacts stemmed from women\'s participation in SSF management. Importantly, most impacts reported affected the social-ecological system scale, suggesting that gender inclusion may contribute to improving the management of SSF social-ecological systems. We conclude by highlighting the need to foster gender perspectives in data collection methods used in fisheries research, in SSF management, and in ecological research on SSF social-ecological systems.
UNASSIGNED: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11160-023-09806-2.

Although much in the lives of members of the Caiçara small-scale fishing communities of Lázaro and Saco da Ribeira in Ubatuba, southeastern Brazil would suggest hardship, that population expresses a surprising degree of satisfaction with life. In this paper, we use a social wellbeing lens as applied through an ethnographic, mixed methods approach to reflect on this overall sense that lives rooted in small-scale fishing are well worth living despite their many challenges. We see the classic maritime anthropology theme of identity at the heart of meaning and life satisfaction. Identity provides core aspects of how people engage with their realities and anchors values that are reference points in work and social relations. With reference to the relational nuances revealed by the social wellbeing perspective, however, we show that Caiçara and small-scale fishing identities are not monolithic, but reflect gender and other social positions, and personal and familial experiences. These experiences include grappling with the complex effects of economic, social, political, and environmental changes. We conclude by arguing that fisheries policy that seeks to prioritize human wellbeing would benefit by adopting a social wellbeing perspective. Fisheries policy could thereby take into account identity, values, and relational elements of social life that give meaning and a sense of belonging to small-scale fishers, while also recognizing the cross-cutting and often contradictory variations in human experience that arise from social and economic differences. This social fabric of small-scale fishers\' lives shapes their intentions and actions and is thus a necessary complication to the practice of fisheries management that its proponents need to consider.

Illegal fishing in small-scale fisheries is a contentious issue and resists a straightforward interpretation. Particularly, there is little knowledge regarding cooperative interactions between legal and illegal fishers and the potential effects on fisheries arising from these interactions. Taking the Chilean king crab (Lithodes santolla; common name centolla) fishery as a case study, our goal is twofold: (i) to model the effect of illegal-legal fishers\' interactions on the fishery and (ii) analyze how management and social behavior affect fishery\'s outcomes. We framed the analysis of this problem within game theory combined with network theory to represent the architecture of competitive interactions. The fishers\' system was set to include registered (legal) fishers and unregistered (illegal) fishers. In the presence of unregistered fishers, legal fishers may decide to cooperate (ignoring the presence of illegal fishers) or defect, which involves becoming a \"super fisher\" and whitewashing the captures of illegal fishers for a gain. The utility of both players, standard fisher and super fisher depend on the strategy chosen by each of them, as well as on the presence of illegal fishers. The nodes of the network represent the legal fishers (both standard and super fishers) and the links between nodes indicate that these fishers compete for the resource, assumed to be finite and evenly distributed across space. The decision to change (or not) the adopted strategy is modeled considering that fishers are subjected to variable levels of temptation to whitewash the illegal capture and to social pressure to stop doing so. To represent the vital dynamics of the king crab, we propose a model that includes the Allee effect and a term accounting for the crab extraction. We found that the super fisher strategy leads to the decrease of the king crab population under a critical threshold as postulated in the tragedy of the commons hypothesis when there are: (i) high net extraction rates of the network composed of non-competing standard fishers, (ii) high values of the extent of the fishing season, and (iii) high density of illegal fishers. The results suggest that even in the presence of super fishers and illegal fishers, the choice of properly distributed fishing/closure cycles or setting an extraction limit per vessel can prevent the king crab population from falling below a critical threshold. This finding, although controversial, reflects the reality of this fishery that, for decades, has operated under a dynamic in which whitewashing and super fishers have become well established within the system.

Fishing is one of the most widespread and important human activities in coastal ecosystems and it plays a fundamental role in employment and the economy of coastal communities. However, in the period 2020-2021, the global outbreak of COVID-19 negatively affected fishing economic activity. Against this background, Andalusia (South of Spain) is an important region in which the resilience of different fishing exploitation systems can be studied, but within the same social and economic framework. Therefore, the main study aim was to investigate the resilience of fishing activity to the COVID-19 pandemic in two Andalusian fishing grounds (i.e. Atlantic and Mediterranean). We analysed daily landings and the first-sale prices of fresh fish of the most caught species in both fishing grounds, while taking into account the different seasonal behaviour of the fisheries. Generalised Linear Models were used to compare the data, which were obtained during periods in which the COVID-19 severity levels differed. These levels were implemented according to political measures. The final objective was to understand how the degree of industrialisation in the fleets can hinder or help maintain the economic activity of fisheries during major crises.

This study presents a comparison between fishers\' knowledge and fiscal records about the structure of inland fisheries in the Paraná River (Argentina). First of all, we characterized the fishing population according to the main demographic and economic indicators, identifying two different fishing areas: the northern and southern sections in the lower La Plata basin. Secondly, we carried out a comparative analysis of fiscal fishery records (from two commercial sets: 1930-1984 and 2011-2019) and local fishers\' knowledge on inland commercial fisheries (frequency of occurrence and abundance). Finally, we contrasted current fishing regulations (allowed meshes and boats, fishing prohibitions, exports) to fishers\' effective practices. The study area included 52 sites located along the floodplain of the middle and lower sections of the Paraná River, in the province of Santa Fe. Socioeconomic analyses identified two different groups of fishers throughout the river corridor. Results showed that fishers have detailed knowledge on nomenclature, ecology, reproductive strategy, habitat distribution, and usefulness of commercial fish species. By contrasting fishers\' knowledge with fiscal records, we found similar and complementary information about the changes in abundance and frequency of occurrence in fisheries. These results highlight the need of including local knowledge as an outstanding source of information for well-planned management of fishing programs and sustainable policies.
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UNASSIGNED: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11160-022-09722-x.

The Gambian and Malian fisheries and fish processing value chains are predominantly artisanal and represent a key source of protein and livelihoods, yet their eco-efficiency has not been studied to date. A Life Cycle Assessment was used to estimate the associated environmental impacts of those value chains and provide information on the eco-efficiency indicators, which relate technical efficiencies to environmental impacts. The results showed that industrial Gambian fleets\' fuel use efficiency is rather low as compared with the global mean fuel use intensity (landed fish/consumed fuel) for both small pelagics and demersal fish. In Mali, the fuel use intensity of motorised artisanal fisheries is lower than the mean values for artisanal inland fisheries in developing countries, but the important increase of frozen imported fish from fish farming multiplies the estimated impacts by four. The least energy-intensive fisheries (cast nets and stow nets in Gambia and opportunistic fishers in Mali) feature better eco-efficiency scores. Based on the identified sources of inefficiencies, we suggest improvements in the landing/processing infrastructure and fishing units\' engines, coupled with technical and business training and improved processing methods, to ameliorate seafood eco-efficiency and a stronger recognition of the importance of the artisanal fisheries subsector to overcome challenges and improving resource management.

Here, we use vertebral microchemistry to investigate the habitat use patterns of the longnose stingray Hypanus guttatus in the northern and northeastern regions of Brazil, and to evaluate the existence of potential nurseries of the species. Samples were collected in Maranhão, Rio Grande do Norte and Pernambuco states between 2008 and 2019. Trace element concentrations of Ba:Ca, Mg:Ca, Mn:Ca and Sr:Ca in vertebrae were determined through laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. We used one-step permutational ANOVAs to evaluate multi and single-element differences in element:Ca ratios among life stages and sexes across and within sites. Element signatures differed among all sites for both single and multi-element settings. However, there were few differences among life stages within sites, except for Mn:Ca between life stages for Maranhão state, and between sexes for Sr:Ca for both Pernambuco and Rio Grande do Norte, and Ba:Ca for Rio Grande do Norte. Furthermore, all multi and single-element analyses across locations were significant and highlight the strong differences by sites. We also performed a nonmetric multidimensional scaling analysis, which demonstrated the strong differences for samples from Rio Grande do Norte and the other two sites. By analysing the lifetime transects of each sample, we observed that there was little variation in all element:Ca ratios within sites. Therefore, we argue that the longnose stingray likely does not display extensive habitat use shifts and fulfils much of its life cycle within each area. Finally, we obtained no evidence of nurseries for any site and suggest this is likely a pattern across the species distribution. Future studies investigating habitat use with samples from larger specimens (disc width > 90 cm, >15 years) are needed to better understand the species habitat use patterns across all size ranges.

Many global management and conservation initiatives fail to prevent overfishing either because they do not plan for local engagement, surveillance, and enforcement, and/or because they fail to include alternatives for short-term losses. Thus, these initiatives do not gain support among fishers. In this study, we interviewed fishers to investigate their stated behavior toward fisheries regulations. We assessed possible (non)compliant behavior under scenarios where fishers would face a moratorium on some of their target species. Additionally, we investigated the consequences of such a moratorium on the food web if it were to lead to fishing alternative species. Using data from two Brazilian coastal sites, we found that younger fishers and those who demonstrated a trustworthy relationship with stakeholders were inclined to comply with the rules. The level of potential compliance also varied between the studied places, probably due to unidentified local idiosyncrasies. Fishers tended to trust community actors (e.g., the leader or head of the fishing community) more than institutional actors (e.g., environmental agencies). When fishers were asked why they would choose specific replacement species in the event of a moratorium, they most often cited expected profitability and ease of capture as reasons. Fishers also tended to say that they would replace endangered species with species in the same and/or lower trophic categories. We suggest working toward stronger stakeholder engagement, given that an overall sense of trust in a community appears to be an important asset toward successful management. Higher levels of trust could promote more transparency in the decision-making process, which could facilitate information dissemination, awareness, and the need for compliance. The mixed methods approach used here could help predict responses to new and existing management policies and support adaptive fisheries management.

Seychelles has a well-developed fishing sector that is a vital part of the social and economic development of the country. Three main types of fisheries are recognised: artisanal fisheries targeting demersal and semi-pelagic species, semi-industrial fisheries targeting pelagic species, and industrial fisheries targeting species of tuna. In economic terms, the industrial fisheries are of greatest importance. The per capita consumption of fish in Seychelles is one of the highest in the world and the artisanal fisheries contribute significantly to the protein requirements of the country. Artisanal fisheries catches have remained fairly stable since comprehensive monitoring began in 1985, averaging 4568 MT per annum. A wide range of fish and invertebrate species are targeted and the general catch composition has remained stable. Landing of tuna by the purse seine fleets has grown substantially over the last 18 years, attaining a record catch of approximately 42 945 MT in 2002. The demersal stocks targeted by the artisanal fisheries are known to be over- or optimally exploited close to centres of population, and lightly exploited elsewhere, whilst the industrialised fisheries for pelagic species require a precautionary approach to management as some stocks are being exploited close to maximum sustainable yield levels. Future development in Seychelles is tightly linked to fisheries and the marine environment in general.