Octopus fisheries face heightened demand driven by depleted fish stocks and escalating economic value, leading to overextraction of octopus populations and magnifying threats to coastal ecosystems and the livelihoods of fishers who depend on them. Implementation of management strategies such as periodic fishing closures can offer sanctuary for octopus, providing the necessary space and time for the growth and reproduction of this rapidly proliferating species. Despite evidence of positive management outcomes, the role of periodic closures in the long-term sustainability of octopus populations remains uncertain. Here, we examine trends in octopus landings over time and the effects of periodic closures along the Mozambique Channel from Comoros to Madagascar (12°-25°S). Long-term trends in octopus landings varied across three regions: generally stable over a 6-year period in Comoros, increasing over a 4-year period in the Barren Isles and declining over a 17-year period in Atsimo Andrefana, Madagascar. We observed a significant increase in mean catch per unit effort (CPUE, kilograms/fisher-day), and mean total catch (kilograms/day) following periodic closures across villages extracting octopus from closure areas. When evaluating each region independently, we observed this positive effect across Comoros and Atsimo Andrefana, Madagascar while trends in the Barren Isles showed no effect of octopus closures. We applied generalized linear mixed models to examine the influence of 10 covariates on mean daily total catch and CPUE within 7 days and 30 days post-closure. Baseline conditions (quantified by the pre-closure CPUE and daily total catch), closure duration and start month of closure had positive, statistically significant correlations with post-closure CPUE and daily total catch. Additionally, closure duration from 13 to 16 weeks and closure size of approximately 70 hectares were qualitatively associated with net gains in CPUE. Although periodic closures yield positive outcomes for octopus fisheries, the effects may be short-lived, as observed in Atsimo Andrefana, Madagascar, where catch declined over the long-term despite temporary improvements. Our findings underscore a need for a diverse portfolio of management strategies to restore and sustain populations over the long-term.

Small-scale fisheries capture a wide marine biodiversity including highly vulnerable and endangered species. Despite global conservation efforts, at regional scale, strategies to conserve threatened species are often constrained by poor biological information and a paucity of fisheries data to understand the level of threat posed to their populations. In Myanmar, devil and manta rays (mobulids) are caught for meat consumption and export of gill plates. The impact of this exploitation is not fully understood as mobulid rays, especially in this region, have been poorly studied, catch levels are under-reported and the fishery is unregulated. An accurate knowledge of the species composition and catch levels is an important first step to inform potential management and protection strategies for these species. This study is the first to combine digital catch recording alongside genomic tools to analyze mobulid rays caught in the Tanintharyi Region of south Myanmar. Our catch data analyses indicate a sustained catch and decrease in total landings of mobulids from 2016 to 2018 in Tanintharyi. We identified five species of mobulid rays, including the first record of M. tarapacana for Myanmar. Our analyses of population genomics provided evidence of structured populations of M. thurstoni and partial admixture in M. mobular. Our findings are highly valuable 1) contributing to fill the knowledge gap for these threaten species in the region, and 2) as the first documentation of sustained fishing pressure these rays are exposed to, and the species under potential fishing threat in the Tanintharyi Region, a high priority biodiversity hotspot.

Integrated management of coral reef foods, as a highly diverse set of blue foods, can contribute to addressing the dual challenges of malnutrition and biodiversity loss. Advances in nutrition research have made it possible to understand nutritional benefits on a species by species basis, and to make comparisons with benefits derived from land-based foods. We provide a series of considerations about current understanding of nutrition from coral reef foods, including the predominance of finfish in nutritional assessments, the importance of contaminants for food safety, uncertainty stemming from climate and cumulative impacts, and the need for locally specific assessments of food systems. Next we outline how nutrition, coral reef small-scale fisheries, and communities intersect. Aspects of equity and food sovereignty are reviewed as a basis for contextualizing current scientific understanding of nutrition while acknowledging who is actually benefiting nutritionally and materially from coral reef fisheries. Given this understanding of the state of knowledge of nutrition from coral reef foods, we encourage the development of nutrition-sensitive coral reef governance. We conclude with a set of recommendations for governance institutions, fishing organizations, philanthropic foundations, funding agencies, conservation organizations, and researchers, among others. To ensure coherence, we encourage these stakeholders to work with each other and with communities for implementation of the following recommendations: prioritize coral reef foods for local nutrition; advance gender equity and social inclusion; adopt a systems approach for coral reef foods; integrate food system policies with fisheries, public health, and development; strengthen small-scale fisheries rights, access, and governance; and assess and monitor coral reef foods systems.

Socioeconomic conditions of small-scale fishing households often influence the benefits communities accrue from fisheries management interventions. Adjacent to seven newly established fisheries comanagement areas initiated in 2018, we examine the attributes of fishing households that influence perceived food, finance and job security, and compliance with fishing closures. We interviewed respondents from 1828 fishing households in 2019 and 2025 households in 2021 across the seven areas in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. A key finding was that perceived food, financial and job security outcomes increased over the two-year period and were positively related to respondents knowledge of fisheries comanagement. Relationships between both household savings and loans and with household food security highlights the need for policy and institutional support for fishing households in times of need. Household income from fisheries and trust in community leaders was also related to higher reported compliance with fishing closures, suggesting that income security and community leadership are important drivers of adoption of comanagement resource harvest rules. In contrast, women who identified as fish processors reported that they did not comply with fishing closures, as likely they were not involved in management decision making. Moreover, the positive impact of respondent's trust in their community, on food, financial and job security, implies that strong community relationships can benefit well-being of coastal communities. Our findings highlight the need for programs that strengthen community institutions, improve household financial literacy, promote access to financial services and recognize gendered roles in fishing, as integral parts of community-based fisheries management.

The volume and value of fish catches by Indonesia's small-scale fisheries have declined significantly since national government restrictions on travel and social distancing were imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a digital data collection system (OurFish), that records purchases by fish traders from smallscale fishers, data was collected across 82 coastal communities in Southeast Sulawesi. We found that the number of active fishers and traders declined by more than 90% after the onset of the pandemic and the average weight of catch per fishing trip increased across fishers. Although the average price per kilogram of fish declined after the pandemic began, fishers that were able to maintain fishing had on average higher catches and therefore daily catch value was maintained. High value fisheries that usually enter export supply chains were more negatively impacted compared with lower value species that are commonly sold to local markets. We interviewed 185 small scale fishers and fish traders across 20 of the 82 communities in Southeast Sulawesi province, recording the perceived level of impact on local fisheries and the fish trade, causes of this impact and proposed coping strategies. Over 50% of both fishers and fish traders believed low demand for fish from traders and a decline in the price received for fish were disrupting their lives. Approximately 75% of both male and female fishers are coping by continuing to fish, highlighting that there were few alternative livelihoods available at the time of the interviews. Our results provide key insights into the vulnerability of small-scale fishing communities to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The queen conch fishery in Jamaica is sustained by Pedro Bank, which is the main harvesting site located approximately 80 km south-west from Kingston. Due to its relative size, Pedro Bank has been subdivided into zones for management purposes by the Fisheries Division and the Veterinary Services Division. Understanding whether these sub-divisions reflect different sub-populations is critical for managing exploitation levels because fisheries management must demonstrate that harvesting does not endanger the future viability of the population as queen conch are on Appendix II of the Convention in Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). This determination is essential for the continued export to international markets such as the European Union. Two hundred and eight samples were collected across the entire Pedro Bank and were genetically characterized using nine polymorphic microsatellite loci. Population structure analysis for Lobatus gigas from Pedro Bank yielded low but significant values (F ST = 0.009: p = 0.006) and suggested a high magnitude of gene flow indicative of a fit and viable population throughout the bank. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) indicated a 100% variation within individual samples with little variation (0.9%) between populations. In contrast pairwise genetic comparisons identified significant differences between populations located to the south eastern and eastern region of the bank to those in the central and western locations. Bayesian clustering analysis also indicated the likelihood of two population sub-divisions (K = 2) on Pedro Bank. The results provided evidence of a weak but significant population structure which has crucial implications for the fishing industry as it suggests the use of ecosystem based management (EBM) in setting quotas to promote sustainable harvesting of L . gigas within each monitoring zone on Pedro Bank.

Flatfishes in the family Cynoglossidae are an important coastal fishery in Myanmar. Due to the overlapping morphologies of multiple tonguesole species, caught both as bycatch from trawl fisheries and targeted specifically by small scale fishers, they are all marketed under a single local name, “khwayshar”. This presents a management challenge given the potential differences in the species-specific life-histories, population dynamics, fishing vulnerability and harvest rates. This study investigated the species diversity of tonguesole landings from coastal communities of the Tanintharyi Region of southern Myanmar. DNA barcoding was used to distinguish potentially 10 different species, of which five were identified to species level and five at the genus level. Unconfirmed genetic identifications were based on external morphology. The poor efficacy of DNA barcoding for tonguesole species identification resulted from the limited DNA barcode reference sequences available for the family Cynoglossidae in public databases. An asymmetric occurrence and relative abundance of the identified species in landing sites where samples were collected suggested that the most common species was Cynoglossus oligolepis (Bleeker, 1855), a new species record for Myanmar, followed by Cynoglossus lingua Hamilton, 1822. The results of the present study provide new information to characterise the tonguesole fishery as a first step in the development of management plans for the coastal fishery in Myanmar.

The specification of user rights and the devolution of fisheries management and allocation decisions to the local fisher and community level has been found to be an effective approach to improved fisheries management. Rare's Fish Forever's policy and governance work supports and strengthens legal and functional community rights-based management and exclusive access rights to coastal fisheries through managed access with reserves (MA+R). This paper presents an analysis of the legal, regulatory and institutional pathways undertaken to establish MA+R in Brazil, Indonesia and the Philippines for local communities to secure and strengthen both legal and functional access rights to fisheries resources. The pathways used involved interpreting and adapting a mix of fisheries, marine conservation, marine protected area and government administrative and legal instruments at national and local levels. Several common pathways to establishing and implementing MA+R were identified including partnerships and engagement with leaders and community members, committed local champions and scaling up from experience.

Small-scale fisheries are an important livelihood and primary protein source for coastal communities in many of the poorest regions in the world, yet many are overfished and thus require effective and scalable management solutions. Positive ecological and socioeconomic responses to management typically lag behind immediate costs borne by fishers from fishing pressure reductions necessary for fisheries recovery. These short-term costs challenge the long-term success of these interventions. However, social marketing may increase perceptions of management benefits before ecological and socioeconomic benefits are fully realized, driving new social norms and ultimately long-term sustainable behavior change. By conducting underwater visual surveys to quantify ecological conditions and by conducting household surveys with community members to quantify their perceptions of management support and socioeconomic conditions, we assessed the impact of a standardized small-scale fisheries management intervention that was implemented across 41 sites in Brazil, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The intervention combines TURF reserves (community-based territorial use rights for fishing coupled with no-take marine reserves) with locally tailored social-marketing behavior change campaigns. Leveraging data across 22 indicators and 4 survey types, along with data from 3 control sites, we found that ecological and socioeconomic impacts varied and that communities supported the intervention and were already changing their fishing practices. These results suggest that communities were developing new social norms and fishing more sustainably before long-term ecological and socioeconomic benefits of fisheries management materialized.

Lack of access to financial services leaves fishing households and their fishing businesses with limited options to obtain financing and manage cash flow for family expenses or business investments. The lack of access is filled by informal lenders that can also be the primary buyers of fish or the owners of the boats. For rural fishing households, access to formal financial services, also known as financial inclusion, can bring increased financial resilience to the household. The paper reviews the current barriers to financial inclusion of small-scale fishing households such as limited financial capability and literacy, lack of assets for collateral, geographic distance from a financial institution and lack of formal identification. It also discusses solutions to address these barriers including financial literacy, de-risking financial institutions, financial data collection, provision of a range of financial services besides credit, and understanding the client that will enable fishing households to retain control over their earnings and savings. Financial inclusion can help reduce the different vulnerabilities of poor fishing households and rural communities and lead to improved economic resilience.

Numerous reports suggest that the volume and value of fish catches in fisheries worldwide have declined since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared. To quantify the effects of the pandemic on small scale fisheries in Indonesia we collected catch data across Southeast Sulawesi using a digital data collection system. We show that the number of active fishers and traders declined by more than 60% after the pandemic was announced. While average weight of catch per trip increased across fishers, average price of fish declined. Interviews with 185 fishers and traders revealed that low demand and a decline in price were the primary causes of disruption in their lives. Approximately 75% of fishers are coping by continuing to fish, highlighting that there were few alternative livelihoods available at the time of the interviews. Our results provide key insights into the vulnerability of small-scale fishing communities to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Declining fisheries catches are a global trend, with management failing to keep pace with growth in fishing effort and technological advances. The economic value of Honduras' catches was estimated within the industrial and artisanal sectors. Catches were found to be 2.9 times greater than the official statistics between 1950 and 2015. The merging of industrial and artisanal catch data masked the decline in industrial catches and hid the strong growth of artisanal fisheries. In 1996, annual artisanal fisheries landed catches surpassed the industrial fishery sector, and in 2000, the annual net value of artisanal fisheries eclipsed the value of the industrial fisheries. These data highlight the importance of artisanal fisheries in Honduras and challenge the long-held belief that the industrial sector contributes more to the national economy. The global paucity of fisheries data highlights the need for comprehensive strategies to collect more detailed and accurate fisheries data.

The grazing behaviour of two Caribbean parrotfish, a fished species, the stoplight parrotfish Sparisoma viride and a non-fished species, the striped parrotfish Scarus iseri, were studied in the presence (fished site) and absence (marine reserve) of chronic spearfishing activity. Diurnal feeding periodicity did not differ between the sites in either species: roving individuals had significantly higher bite rates in the afternoon, while territorial individuals foraged consistently throughout the day. Mean bite rate varied between sites in both species. Abundance, biomass and bite rates of S. viride were all significantly higher within the reserve, except for roving S. viride which had a higher mean bite rate in the afternoon outside the reserve compared with within it, attributable to maximisation of feeding in the afternoon when fishing risk was lower. Scarus iseri mean abundance and bite rate were greater outside the reserve, potentially because reduction in large territorial herbivores allowed S. iseri to feed more rapidly. By reducing the grazing potential of the remaining S. viride individuals the effect of fishing is greater than would be predicted from biomass changes alone. Less grazing by S. viride would not be compensated for by the increase in grazing by S. iseri because the latter feeds on different algae. Spearfishing of key parrotfish species reduces grazing potential directly by extraction and indirectly by changing behaviour.

The assessment of the mechanisms and patterns of larval connectivity between geographically separated populations leads to a better understanding of benthic marine population dynamics, especially in commercially valuable species. This study investigated for the first time the fine-scale temporal genetic variability of new settlers and their origins in a benthic marine organism with one of the longest pelagic larval phases, the Caribbean spiny lobster (Panulirus argus). We genotyped newly settled postlarvae in the Florida Keys and adults of spiny lobster from the Florida Keys and throughout the Caribbean Sea. We identified strong larval connectivity between Dominican Republic, Belize, Nicaragua, the Florida Keys, and West-Florida. The larval dispersal modeling suggests that Florida’s lobster population could receive recruits from within and from other areas outside its state and national maritime boundaries. The genetic analyses refine the oceanographic model indicating that the connectivity patterns described could also result from unknown parental populations sourcing adults and postlarvae in different spawning seasons to the Florida Keys. We discuss the importance of small temporal scales to identify patterns in larval export. Our findings are significant on two levels. From the larval dispersal perspective, genetic results and biophysical modeling identify patterns of gene flow enhancing persistence of local populations. From an economic and fishery perspective, P. argus is the most important commercial species in the Caribbean and our results inform how considering larval source and sink dynamics across international boundaries could improve management plans at local, national, and regional levels.

Predation on parasites is an important ecological process, but few experimental studies have examined the long-term impacts on the prey. Cleaner fish prey upon large numbers and selectively feed on the larger individuals of the ectoparasitic stage of gnathiid isopods. Removal of cleaner fish Labroides dimidiatus for 1.5–12.5 years negatively affects coral reef fishes, but the mechanism is unclear. A reduction in local parasite populations or the size of individual parasites would benefit all susceptible fishes. We tested whether cleaner presence reduces local gnathiid populations using 18 patch-reefs distributed between two sites (both at Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef) which were maintained cleaner-free or undisturbed for 12 years. Using emergence traps (1 m2), free-living gnathiid stages were sampled before and after cleaner fish were removed during the day and night, up to 11 times over the course of the experiment. There were effects of the removal in the predicted direction, driven largely by the response at one site over the other involving 200% more gnathiids, but manifested only in the daytime sampling after 4 months. There was also a main effect (36%) for the shared sample dates at both sites after 12 years. Gnathiid size occasionally differed with cleaner presence, but in no consistent way over time. Contrary to our predictions, changes in free-living gnathiid population numbers and their size structure rarely reflected the changes in fish populations and individuals observed on cleaner-free reefs. Therefore, evidence that this predator alone regulates gnathiids remains limited, suggesting other contributing processes are involved.

Resilience has become a key concept for addressing the vulnerability of small-scale fishing households in developing countries. While effort has gone into defining the concept of resilience in relation to fishing households; very little application of the concept exists in practice. An economic resiliency strategy was developed that builds resilience through improved household assets to reduce risks and vulnerabilities. A foundational conclusion of the strategy is the importance of linking household livelihood interventions to sustainable fishing behaviors. The conservation enterprise approach facilitated a mutually beneficial relationship between biodiversity conservation and livelihoods.

Fish are important for food supply, especially in developing countries. In Southeast Asia, including Myanmar, the mud crab fishery is an important livelihood that represents a valuable source of income and food to coastal communities. However, the increasing demand for mud crab in domestic and international markets and poor management has generated concern about the status of this fishery across Southeast Asia. In this region, at least four species of mud crab in the genus Scylla are recognised but their correct identification and occurrence remain to be fully explained. Relying on accurate taxonomic identification of mud crab species represents the cornerstone of the successful implementation of management plans as life history biology and relative exploitation rates may vary by species due to gear susceptibility. Toward this aim, tissue samples from mud crabs were collected from four fishing communities of the Mergui archipelago, in the Tanintharyi region of southern Myanmar. All crab samples were DNA barcoded for species identification through sequencing. This study is the first genetic characterization of the mud crab fishery in Myanmar and revealed that Scylla olivacea was the only species found in the sampled fisheries of the Tanintharyi region. The populations studied across the Mergui archipelago did not show evidence of genetic structure, but gene flow appeared to be limited among conspecifics from neighbouring countries.

1. The ability to define the spatial dynamics of fish stocks is critical to fisheries management. Combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and the regulation of area-based management through physical patrols and port side controls are growing areas of management attention. Augmenting the existing approaches to fisheries management with forensic techniques has the potential to increase compliance and enforcement success rates. 2. We tested the accuracy of three techniques (genotyping, otolith microchemistry and morphometrics) that can be used to identify geographic origin. We used fish caught from three fishing grounds, separated by a minimum of 5 km and a maximum of 60 km, to test the accuracy of these approaches at relatively small spatial scales. 3. Using nearest-neighbour analyses, morphometric analysis was the most accurate (79.5%) in assigning individual fish to their fishing ground of origin. Neither otolith microchemistry (54.0%) or genetic analyses (52.4%) had sufficient accuracy at the spatial scales we examined. 4. Synthesis and applications. The combination of accuracy and minimal resource requirements make morphometric analysis a promising tool for assessing compliance with area-based fishing restrictions at the scale of kilometres. Furthermore, this approach has promising application, in small-scale fisheries through to community-based management approaches where technical and financial resources are limited.

The Mesoamerican Reef (MAR) is an interconnected system that supports the local economies of four countries through the provision of seafood and tourism. Considerable financial, research and management effort has been invested in this priority ecoregion, whose boundaries were defined more than 18 yr ago based on best available data on oceanographic patterns, reef and watershed distribution. The long-term persistence of the MAR depends, however, on ensuring that all of its constituent parts are appropriately managed, and the current boundaries may not respond to this need. Here we assess the suitability of the current boundaries of the MAR using information on physical environments and larval connectivity of three key species. Our research indicates the boundaries of the ecoregion require an adjustment, as the exclusion of key areas in eastern Honduras might jeopardize the persistence of the entire network of connected reefs, and areas in northern Yucatan belong to a different environmental regime and may require different management strategies.