This research explores how small-scale fisheries contribute to the provision of diverse marine cultural ecosystem services through their influence on the lifestyles and worldviews of coastal communities historically connected to fishing. This research focuses on cultural ecosystem services linked to small-scale fisheries, encompassing a broad range of heritage elements. We provide an economic monetary valuation of nonexplicitly marketed use and nonuse values (existence and bequest) for six small-scale fisheries heritage sites estimated using contingent valuation based on 3039 surveys conducted across the European Atlantic Area. We also implement econometric models to examine the factors influencing willingness to pay (WTP) and protest responses. 40% of respondents expressed a positive WTP, being use values ranging between 14 & euro; and 15 & euro; per person per visit. Moreover, the long-term bequest value associated to small-scale fisheries is substantial and its estimated annual value exceeds 71.7 million & euro;. Being gender and nationality significantly influence WTP in specific regions, although other influential factors include age, visits during the COVID19 pandemic, employment status, education, and social connections to the fishing sector. These novel estimations support better-informed decision-making and investments in natural and also, small-scale fisheries heritage preservation and conservation.
Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs), introduced by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), refer to areas outside formal protected-area networks that deliver effective and enduring in situ biodiversity conservation. This scoping review systematically examined global approaches to identifying and evaluating potential OECMs. Analysing 99 studies covering 694 case studies and 237 000 potential sites, we found that potential OECMs are widespread, particularly in Asia and terrestrial environments, with most initiatives led by the environmental sector. Assessments relied largely on qualitative expert knowledge, with limited application of analytical methods. Although CBD criteria were commonly applied, contributions of related to ecosystem services and socio-cultural values were often overlooked. Effectiveness evaluations showed considerable uncertainty, with over one-third of case studies reporting inadequate evidence of conservation outcomes. The review emphasises the need for standardised assessment methodologies, improved decision-support tools, and socio-cultural integration to enhance OECM recognition, particularly under the 30 × 30 conservation biodiversity target.
The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), established in 1983, is the European Union’s policy for sustainable management of European fishing fleets and conservation of fish stocks. In 2002, the CFP was reformed with the objective of improving its legitimacy towards fisheries management. This involved the introduction of ‘Regionalisation’, establishing Advisory Councils (ACs) for each European sea basin. Regionalisation advanced in 2013 by setting up Member States Groups (MSGs), facilitating more tailor-made management proposals at decentralised levels. We examine whether these reforms have reached their objectives of improving the CFP’s legitimacy and effectiveness, using the concepts of input and throughput legitimacy. Results from interviews, an online survey and focus groups show that Regionalisation is considered necessary and has fulfilled most expectations (to a certain extent). European and national policy-makers were more positive than ACs. Regionalisation increased legitimacy of the CFP by giving diverse stakeholders direct access to the policy-making process. Yet, in practice stakeholders (unevenly) struggle with different aspects of participation, and clarity about the extent to which AC advice is taken on board is lacking. Improving these aspects of input and throughput legitimacy are therefore required to arrive at a truly legitimate fisheries policy. The ACs and MSGs developed under Regionalisation provide structured procedures of cooperation and dialogue. ACs have demonstrated to be crucial boundary organisations where consensus is built and mediated, information is shared, capacity is built, and knowledge is co-produced. This is crucial considering increasingly wicked problems associated with the blue economy agenda and climate change.
Fisheries bycatch is an important source of direct human-induced mortality for marine mammals worldwide. Despite its significance, monitoring and quantifying bycatch mortality remains challenging. The examination of stranded animals can provide key information to assess the importance of bycatch mortality, contributing to understanding its impact on populations, and identifying the fisheries responsible. However, the utility of data from strandings remains underexplored. Based on an expert consultation using a questionnaire carried out under the auspices of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea Working Group on Marine Mammal Ecology, this study assessed the potential of stranding networks in Western Europe to support the assessment of marine mammal population status and impacts of stressors. The present paper (the second of two) focuses on information on bycatch collected from strandings, and its utility for monitoring and assessing bycatch mortality. Responses from 45 organizations in 19 countries indicated that extensive information on marine mammal bycatch mortality is collected and can sometimes be used to identify the species or populations most affected by bycatch, reveal spatio-temporal trends in bycatch mortality, and determine the fisheries and/or fishing gear involved. However, the survey identified several limitations that hinder the contribution of stranding data to bycatch impact monitoring and assessment. There is a need to strengthen data collection and reporting, especially for certain taxa and regions, and for wider adoption and harmonization of best practise protocols for diagnosing causes of mortality and understanding its context, e.g. by determining health status, estimating demographic parameters, helping to identify the fishing gears responsible for bycatch mortality, and appropriately communicating the degree of uncertainty associated with interpretations. Carcass drift models could enable stranding data to be used to estimate total bycatch mortality and contribute to assessing the impact on populations. The need for adequate baseline funding for stranding networks to carry out their activities and for streamlined data reporting was widely recognized. Achieving coordinated, harmonized, large-scale and long-term data and samples collection following best practices will be essential to ensure that data from strandings on bycatch mortality can be integrated into bycatch impact assessments to inform management.
Metabarcoding of bulk community samples is a powerful tool to characterize marine softbottom macrofaunal communities, but high-quality taxonomic assignment is dependent on adequate sequence coverage in taxonomic databases. Here, our main aim was to advance metabarcoding as a complement to benthic morphological taxonomy in biodiversity inventories on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). We used morphological taxonomy, barcoding, and metabarcoding for two objectives, namely to (1) increase macrofauna barcode coverage for a selection of species, and (2) provide an in-depth comparison of morphology and metabarcoding data from mock bulk samples of softbottom macrofauna. We used morphological taxonomy to identify 257 morphotaxa from 32 sieved grab sampling stations at eight areas on the NCS. For the first objective (barcoding), 45 species (95 specimens) were selected from these 32 stations based on incomplete sequence coverage in online repositories, obtaining barcodes for 25 (cytochrome oxidase subunit 1, COI), 35 (18S rDNA), and 24 (28S rDNA) species. Results typically showed an increase in taxonomic assignment of 4-5 ranks in the subsequent metabarcoding data for these particular species. For the second objective (metabarcoding), mock bulk samples with a known taxonomic composition including Annelida, Arthropoda, Mollusca and a single brachiopod, were sequenced using the COI and 18S rDNA V1-V2 partitions from a subset of eight stations from three of the areas. COI Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD) and MIDORI2 assignment with some additional manual sequence curation recovered 100 distinct species-rank taxa compared to 120 species-rank taxa (152 taxa total) from morphology based taxonomic identification. Assignment of 18S rDNA using SILVA recovered 29 unique species including 13 not found in the COI data. Annelida, Arthropoda, and Mollusca were all well-represented in metabarcoding data, and abundance biases were associated with disparate species in a range of clades. Taxonomic congruence was high at high rank, but in some cases species assignments resolved as genus only or sibling species to those identified by morphological taxonomy even when present in one of the databases used. Potential explanations include species genotype variation, putative species complexes and remnant sequencing artifacts. The study findings show the potential of metabarcoding in an area with relatively high taxonomic database coverage. Integrating metabarcoding datasets can increase biodiversity inventory pace and uncover hidden biodiversity, but performance is dependent on database coverage, highlighting the importance of barcoding efforts in biodiversity studies, and metabarcoding-based inventories need to be critically examined by taxonomic expertise.
