TY - JOUR
T1 - Fish distributions reveal discrepancies between zonal attachment and quota allocations
AU - Fernandes, Paul G.
AU - Fallon, Niall G.
N1 - Funding Information:
PF and NF were funded by the Horizon 2020 European research project ClimeFish (grant No. 677039). PF also received a small grant from the Scottish Fishermen's Federation. Data are freely available at https://datras.ices.dk/Data_products/Download/Download_Data_public.aspx. EEZs shapefiles came from www.marineregions.org and bathymetry from www.bodc.ac.uk. Analysis code is available at the GitHub repository: https://github.com/niafall/zonal-attachment.
Funding Information:
PF and NF were funded by the Horizon 2020 European research project ClimeFish (grant No. 677039). PF also received a small grant from the Scottish Fishermen's Federation. Data are freely available at https://datras.ices.dk/Data_products/Download/Download_Data_public.aspx . EEZs shapefiles came from www.marineregions.org and bathymetry from www.bodc.ac.uk . Analysis code is available at the GitHub repository: https://github.com/niafall/zonal-attachment .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Authors. Conservation Letters published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
PY - 2020/5
Y1 - 2020/5
N2 - The oceans’ fisheries contribute to human wellbeing by providing essential nutrients, employment, and income. Changes in fish distribution, due to climate change or stock expansion, jeopardize conservation objectives because fishers catch more than is allocated as quota. Quotas, or catch shares, should, therefore, correspond to the share of the fish stock biomass present within a country's Exclusive Economic Zone, a concept known as Zonal Attachment. Here, we assess the Zonal Attachment of transboundary fish stocks present in northern Europe, in the waters of the United Kingdom, the European Union (without the United Kingdom), and Norway. In 12 of 14 important fish stocks, estimates of Zonal Attachment to the United Kingdom were significantly higher than current quota allocations, explaining the country's substantial discard problem. With environmental change, and stock recovery under improved fisheries conservation, scientific evidence should be used not only to set catch limits, but also to re-examine catch shares.
AB - The oceans’ fisheries contribute to human wellbeing by providing essential nutrients, employment, and income. Changes in fish distribution, due to climate change or stock expansion, jeopardize conservation objectives because fishers catch more than is allocated as quota. Quotas, or catch shares, should, therefore, correspond to the share of the fish stock biomass present within a country's Exclusive Economic Zone, a concept known as Zonal Attachment. Here, we assess the Zonal Attachment of transboundary fish stocks present in northern Europe, in the waters of the United Kingdom, the European Union (without the United Kingdom), and Norway. In 12 of 14 important fish stocks, estimates of Zonal Attachment to the United Kingdom were significantly higher than current quota allocations, explaining the country's substantial discard problem. With environmental change, and stock recovery under improved fisheries conservation, scientific evidence should be used not only to set catch limits, but also to re-examine catch shares.
KW - Common Fisheries Policy
KW - discards
KW - distribution
KW - fish
KW - quotas
KW - zonal attachment
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85078670995&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/conl.12702
DO - 10.1111/conl.12702
M3 - Letter
AN - SCOPUS:85078670995
SN - 1755-263X
VL - 13
JO - Conservation Letters
JF - Conservation Letters
IS - 3
M1 - e12702
ER -
