The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) developed the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction (ALWTR) plan to protect endangered large whales from entanglements in commercial fishing gear, which can cause injury or death. Because whales continued to die after the ALWTF plan went into effect, NMFS proposed revisions in 2005. The author of this book discusses these issues, as well as the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), which requires the NMFS to establish take reductions teams for certain marine mammals to develop measures to reduce their incidental takes. Other bills that specifically address marine mammal regulatory and management issues are examined as well. Furthermore, while some of these issues can be addressed administratively, in regulations proposed and promulgated by the National Marine Fisheries Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, or the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, others likely would require statutory change. This book lays out the range of issues likely to be raised during reauthorization debate, the reasons behind them, and possible proposals that could be offered to address these concerns. This book consists of public domain documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.

Sea cucumbers are important resources for coastal livelihoods and ecosystems. At least 60 species are fished from more than 40 countries and most of the harvests are processed then exported to Asian markets. Sea cucumbers generally appear to have slow rates of population turnover and are easily harvested in shallow waters in the tropics. With retail prices of up to USD300-500 per kg (dried), exploitation has often been indiscriminate and excessive. Overfishing in recent years has led to local extinction of high-value species in some localities and prompted closures of many national fisheries to allow stocks to recover and to allow more sustainable management plans to be established. Apart from a few developed countries, only a small number of sea cucumber fisheries are currently being managed sustainable. Sea cucumber fisheries differ greatly in the scale of the fishing activities, status of stocks and the capacity of the management agency. Consequently, some management measures will be appropriate in some fishery scenarios but not others. This document presents a logical framework to assist fishery managers in choosing an appropriate suite of regulatory measures and management actions and elaborates on the uses, limitations and ways to implement them. This document contains five main sections. The first provides an overview of the biology and ecology of sea cucumbers, the international market for beche-demer market, types of sea cucumber fisheries and their global status (i.e. population abundance). The second section summarises fisheries management principles and approaches, with an emphasis on the ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF). The third section provides the "roadmap", by way of instructions, flow diagrams and tables, to lead fishery managers along the path of choosing management measures appropriate to their fishery. The fourth and fifth sections discuss the application of each regulatory measure and management action - with Examples and lessons learned boxes to illustrate management problems and potential solutions from various fisheries. Improved management of sea cucumber fisheries is an imperative. It will be best achieved by applying an EAF, in which multiple regulatory measures and management actions are applied in full consideration of the sea cucumber stocks, the ecosystems in which they live and the socio-economic systems that drive exploitation. The commitment of governments, fishery managers and scientists to develop, apply and strictly enforce EAF will be crucial to sustaining sea cucumber populations for current and future generations.

Sea turtles are affected by a range of different factors, some natural and others caused by human activities, including fishing operation. As a result, all sea turtles species whose conservation status has been assessed are considered to be threatened or endangered. These guidelines provide assistance for the preparation of national or multilateral fisheries management measures and industry initiatives that may help to conserve sea turtles by reducing the negative impacts that fisheries may have on them. They present our best understanding of how to reduce the proportion of caught turtles that are killed as a result of interactions with marine capture fisheries. These guidelines include information about how to change fishing gear and fishing methods and how the fishing industry can adopt voluntary approaches to reduce sea turtle mortality.

These guidelines have been produced to support implementation of the International Plan of Action for Reducing Incidental Catch of Seabirds in Longline Fisheries (IPOA-Seabirds). They are addressed to decision-makers and policy-makers associated with conserving seabirds and with minimizing their interaction with fishing gears, but the Guidelines should also be of interest to fishing industries and other parties.

The Experts received a report on the Expert's Workshop on Flag State Responsibilities: Assessing Performance and Taking Action that was organized by the Government of Canada from 25 to 28 March 2008 in Vancouver. The Consultation then considered a number of papers prepared by the experts and commentaries on them including criteria for assessing the performance of flag States, possible actions against vessels flying the flag of States not meeting the criteria for flag State performance, the role of national governments in implementing criteria and actions for flag States performance, the role of regional fisheries management organizations in implementing criteria and actions for flag State performance, the role of international institutions and instruments in implementing criteria and action for flag State performance and assistance to developing countries.

These guidelines are of a voluntary nature. They are applicable to ecolabelling schemes that are designed to certify and promote labels for products from well-managed marine capture fisheries and focus on issues related to the sustainable use of fisheries resources. The guidelines refer to principle, general considerations, terms and definitions, minimum substantive requirements and criteria, and procedural and institutional aspects of ecolabelling of fish and fishery products from marine capture fisheries. - Les presentes Directives sont facultatives. Elles s'appliquent aux systemes d'etiquetage ecologique destines a certifier et a promouvoir des labels pour les produits issus de peches de capture marines gerees de maniere appropriee et portent essentiellement sur des points relatifs a l'utilisation durable des ressources halieutiques. Les directives se referent aux principes, considerations d'ordre general, termes et definitions, conditions minimales requises et criteres, et elements institutionnels et de procedure pour l'etiquetage ecologique du poisson et des produits des peches de capture marines. - Estas Directrices son facultativas. Estas se aplican a los sistemas de ecoetiquetado cuya finalidad es certificar y promover etiquetas para los productos de una pesca de captura marina bien ordenada, y se centran en las cuestiones relacionadas con la utilizacion sostenible de los recursos pesqueros. Las directives se refieren a principios, consideraciones generales, terminos y definiciones, requisitos sustantivos minimos y criterios, y aspectos de procedimiento e institucionales para el ecoetiquetado de pescado y productos pesqueros de la pesca de captura marina."

Comparative advantage analysis is a useful tool of economics that can be used to compare relative costs of production and identify species and markets with the greatest likelihood of success. Two different approaches are normally used to assess comparative advantage: the Domestic Resource Cost (DRC) and the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) methods. The DRC approach is dynamic but requires data which may be hard to obtain. The RCA method is more descriptive and has less predictive potential than the DRC approach but required data are normally available. This paper illustrates the concept of comparative advantage and some of its policy implications by presenting two case studies (on shrimp export markets and aquaculture production of freshwater finfish) using the RCA method.

This book features oyster beds as a political and environmental battleground. In ""The Oyster Question"", Christine Keiner applies perspectives of environmental, agricultural, political, and social history to examine the decline of Maryland's iconic Chesapeake Bay oyster industry. Oystermen have held on to traditional ways of life and some continue to use preindustrial methods, tonging oysters by hand from small boats. Others use more intensive tools, and thus it is commonly believed that a lack of regulation enabled oystermen to exploit the bay to the point of ruin. But Keiner offers an opposing view in which state officials, scientists, and oystermen created a regulated commons that sustained tidewater communities for decades. Not until the 1980s did a confluence of natural and unnatural disasters weaken the bay's resilience enough to endanger the oyster resource. Keiner examines conflicts that pitted scientists in favor of privatization against watermen who used their power in the statehouse to stave off the forces of rural change. Her study breaks new ground regarding the evolution of environmental politics at the state rather than federal level. ""The Oyster Question"" concludes with the impassioned ongoing debate over introducing nonnative oysters to the Chesapeake Bay and how that proposal might affect the struggling watermen and their identity as the last hunter-gatherers of the industrialized world.

Conservation and Management of Transnational Tuna Fisheries reviews and synthesizes the existing literature, focusing on rights-based management and the creation of economic incentives to manage transnational tuna fisheries. Transnational tuna fisheries are among the most important fisheries in the world, and tuna commissions are increasingly shifting toward this approach. Comprehensively covering the subject, Conservation and Management of Transnational Tuna Fisheries summarizes global experience and offers practical applications for applying rights-based management and the creation of economic incentives, addressing potential problems as well as the total level of capacity. This reference work is divided into four parts, beginning with an overview of the book, including the issues, property rights, and rights-based management. The subsequent sections address issues arising with property rights, discuss bycatch, and cover compliance, enforcement, trade measures, and politics. Written by an expert team of international authors, Conservation and Management of Transnational Tuna Fisheries will appeal to social and fisheries scientists and fishery managers in universities and research institutions, government and non-governmental organizations, fisheries management bodies, members of the fishing industry, and international institutions.

Whaling has become one of the most controversial environmental issues. It is not that all whale species are at the brink of extinction, but that whales have become important symbols to both pro- and anti-whaling factions and can easily be appropriated as the common heritage of humankind. This book, the first of its kind, is therefore not about whales and whaling per se but about how people communicate about whales and whaling. It contributes to a better understanding and discussion of controversial environmental issues: Why and how are issues selected? How is knowledge on these issues produced and distributed by organizations and activists? And why do affluent countries like Japan and Norway still support whaling, which is of insignificant economic importance? Basing his analysis on fieldwork in Japan and Norway and at the International Whaling Commission, the author argues how an image of a "superwhale" has been constructed and how this image has replaced meat and oil as the important whale commodity. He concludes that the whaling issue provides an arena where NGOs and authorities on each side can unite, swapping political legitimacy and building personal relations that can be useful on issues where relations are less harmonious.

The objective of the Workshop was to develop national capacity and promote bilateral, subregional and regional coordination so that countries would be better placed to strengthen and harmonize port State measures and, as a result, implement the relevant tools of the 2001 FAO International Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, the 2005 FAO Model Scheme on Port State Measures to Combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing and the 2009 Chairperson's draft Agreement on Port State Measures to Combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, when it enters into force. Also published in French.

This book is the culmination of 45 years of research in fisheries economics by Dr Pontecorvo, and 25 years of similar work by Dr Shrank. The authors are prominent and respected academics in their discipline and have published many papers in relevant journals including Marine Policy. They have also carried out research on behalf of NGOs such as the FAO and the Canadian and US government (see Attachment 1 for author CVs).
The potential audience for this book is very broad, though the main audience will be academics working in the area of natural resource management especially fisheries, economics, business & management, environmental policy, conservation and development. In addition, those working in fisheries management for government bodies, and NGOs such as the International Institute for Fisheries and Trade, the European Association of Fishery Economists, the FAO and the UN, will be interested in this book.

A fascinating historical study of the decline of salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest

A fishery is an area with an associated fish or aquatic population which is harvested for its value (commercial, recreational, subsistence). It can be saltwater or freshwater, wild or farmed. Examples are the salmon fishery of Alaska, the cod fishery off the Lofoten islands or the tuna fishery of the Eastern Pacific. Most fisheries are marine, rather than freshwater; most marine fisheries are based near the coast. This is not only because harvesting from relatively shallow waters is easier than in the open ocean, but also because fish are much more abundant near the coastal shelf, due to coastal upwelling and the abundance of nutrients available there. However, productive wild fisheries also exist in open oceans, particularly by seamounts, and inland in lakes and rivers. Most fisheries are wild fisheries, but increasingly fisheries are farmed. Farming can occur in coastal areas, such as with oyster farms, but more typically occur inland, in lakes, ponds, tanks and other enclosures. This book is devoted to the management, economics and perspectives of fisheries.

Highly migratory species (HMS) are fish stocks that often have trans-oceanic movements and life cycles. Tunas, billfishes, swordfish, and sharks are taxa which comprise HMS. Historically, pelagic shark population dynamics and biology have been difficult to study given their migratory nature and open-ocean habitat. Displaying large-scale migration patterns and crossing international management boundaries, pelagic sharks are susceptible to many international fisheries at various life stages. Pelagic sharks are slow-growing, late-maturing, long-lived, and produce few offspring, resulting in slower and much more reduced population recruitment than most marine species. These life history characteristics make pelagic sharks vulnerable to overexploitation by global commercial and recreational fisheries and elevate concerns of their long-term survival. While it is widely accepted that pelagic sharks are K-selected species and at-risk to overfishing throughout various life stages, domestic and international fishery managers have yet to develop effective methodologies for managing pelagic sharks. Most shark species are classified as fully fished, overexploited, already depleted, or commercially extinct. Others are poorly researched and their stock status is classified as uncertain and unknown. Despite there are no current directed pelagic shark fisheries in most parts of the world, demand for shark products (e.g., shark fins) and landings continue to increase and more countries are now reporting shark landings than at any other time. In fact, even without estimating or understanding the virgin (i.e., before commercial fishing) population, most scientific population assessments demonstrate that pelagic shark populations over the last three to four decades have declined to levels that are alarming. Compelling scientific evidence suggests that there are a number of sharks that are in danger of extinction. Some species of pelagic sharks, such as porbeagle (Lamna nasus) and shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus) sharks are already listed under the international trade regulatory regime of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Given these dramatic population declines, new scientific evidence also suggests that the loss of apex predators throughout the world's oceans has even changed trophic dynamics in certain geographical areas which is having striking impacts on unique marine ecosystems such as coral reefs. In the past, pelagic sharks have received little attention by domestic and international fishery managers considering their lower economic value in comparison to other HMS. Along with the lack of life history information, pelagic shark population modelling has been limited by small data sets, inaccurate dependent fisheries information, and the lack of independent fishery data. Today, many positive advances have been made in pelagic shark research, domestic management plans, and the implementation of various international agreements for shark conservation and management; however, additional domestic and international protection is imperative for the survival, recovery, and conservation of pelagic sharks. In addition, even with the improvement of pelagic shark life history information, better commercial fisheries data, and the development and application of advanced population assessment techniques; assessment models are problematic. Among various topics, this book reviews and discusses some of the limitations for the use of population models in pelagic shark management. This book reviews the current scientific information and finds that there are some new statistical, biological, and practical approaches to understanding the effects of fishing on pelagic shark populations. Moreover, new shark avoidance measures show promise for reducing shark by catch in commercial fisheries. Discussions and recommendations are included for most of these new conservation and management approaches which might be hopeful for improving global pelagic shark populations. Overall, this book demonstrates that even with conservative management and the use of advanced population models, most pelagic sharks can not be sustainably exploited for very long, if at all. Unlike any other previous shark book, this book was specifically intended for the use by domestic and international pelagic shark fishery managers. The book highlights a historical perspective on shark conservation, but the focus of the book is on the importance of improving current modelling applications and management approaches. Overall, the book provides a review of the past, present, and the future needs of pelagic shark conservation and management.

The Workshop was convened to review an initial draft of the International Guidelines as called for by the FAO Committee on Fisheries at its twenty-seventh session in 2007. This expert consultation was preceded by the Expert Consultation on Deep-sea Fisheries in the High Seas, held in Bangkok, in November 2006. The consultation adopted a draft of the international guidelines to be forwarded on to a technical consultation for review and adoption.

Outcomes of the meeting were the exchange among representatives of the Central Asian countries of experiences on fisheries and aquaculture development constraints and opportunities, and increased awareness on the common goals to increase sustainable development of the sector and on the need for regional collaboration in fisheries and aquaculture.

This document reports on the fifth in a series of regional workshops organized by the FAO Western Central Atlantic Fishery Commission (WECAFC) in cooperation with various regional institutions. The goal of each workshop was to build on the information based on the previous workshop. The fifth Regional Workshop comprised two meetings: the scientific meeting which reviewed and updated the status of the Caribbean spiny lobster at national, subregional and regional levels; the management meeting reviewed the conclusions and recommendations of the scientific meeting and agreed on strategies to ensure optimal and sustainable use of the resource. - Este taller fue el quinto de una serie organizada por la Comision de Pesca para el Atlantico Centro-Occidental (COPACO) de la FAO en cooperacion con varias instituciones regionales. El objetivo de cada taller era construir sobre la base de informacion del taller precedente. El quinto taller era compuesto de dos partes. La parte cientifica examino y actualizo la situacion de la langosta al nivel nacional, subregional y regional. La parte referente a la ordenacion reviso las conclusiones y recomendaciones de la parte cientifica y se acordo sobre estrategias para garantizar la utilizacion optima sostenible del recurso."

The workshop reviewed and discussed the results of an otolith exchange that had been carried out in 2006 and which included both sardine and sardinella otoliths from different locations. The final outcome of the meeting consisted in revised agreed guidelines for the preparation and interpretation of sardine and sardinella otoliths. A new otolith exchange was initiated just after the workshop to consolidate results. - L'Atelier a analyse et discute les resultats d'un echange d'otolithes qui avait ete organise en 2006 et qui comprenait des otolithes de sardine et de sardinelle en provenance de differents endroits. Le resultat final de la reunion a consiste en des directives concertees revisees pour la preparation et l'interpretation des otolithes de sardine et de sardinelle. Un nouvel echange d'otolithes a ete commence tout de suite apres L'Atelier pour consolider les resultats."

The Group assessed the status of the small pelagic resources in Northwest Africa and make projections on the development of the status of the stocks and on future effort and catch levels. As a precautionary measure, the catch level for this species should not exceed the average over the last three years of 115 000 tonnes. For bonga, the recommendation from 2006 is maintained as no new information is available on this species, and the Working Group recommended that the catch level should not exceed 42 000 tonnes. - Le Groupe a examine l'etat actuel des ressources de petits pelagiques en Afrique nord occidentale en fait des projections sur le developpement, l'effort futur et les niveaux de capture. Comme mesure de precaution, le niveau de capture pour cette espece ne devrait pas depasser la moyenne de 115 000 tonnes des trois dernieres annees. Pour l'ethmalose, la recommandation de 2006 est maintenue car aucune information nouvelle n'est disponible pour cette espece et le Groupe de travail a recommande que le niveau de capture ne depasse pas 42 000 tonnes"

This technical paper provides a comprehensive overview of feed and fertilizer use for sustainable aquaculture development in developing countries. It comprises a series of review papers, including eight country reviews from Asia, six country reviews from Africa, one case study report from Asia, three regional reviews (Asia, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa), a global synthesis as well as the final report of the FAO Expert Workshop on Use of Feed and Fertilizer for Sustainable Aquaculture Development, held in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China, in 2006. The country reviews provide an overview of the current status of aquaculture, a synthesis of the availability, accessibility and use of feed and fertilizer resources in relation to the diversity of farming systems and practices and an analysis of the nutritional, economic and social constraints of using these inputs. The regional reviews provide a synthesis of the country reviews by considering production trends and feed and fertilizer use from a wider geographic perspective and also analyse the projected expansion of the aquaculture sector in relation to the future availability of input commodities. The global synthesis provides a general overview and summarizes the future challenges facing the sector with respect to the use of feeds and fertilizers.

The global food production sector is growing and in many areas farming systems are intensifying. Although food production from all sectors has environmental impacts and environmental costs, public opinion and regulatory oversight amongst the sectors in this area is uneven. In order to understand better the place of aquaculture amidst the other food production sectors in regards to environmental costs, the first session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries' Sub-Committee on Aquaculture recommended "undertaking comparative analyses on the environmental cost of aquatic food production in relation to other terrestrial food production sectors." Comparisons can be useful for addressing local development and zoning concerns, global issues of sustainability and trade and consumer preferences for inexpensive food produced in an environmentally sustainable manner. Methods to assess environmental costs should be scientifically based, comparable across different sectors, expandable to different scales, inclusive of externalities, practical to implement and easily understood by managers and policy-makers. These proceedings include review papers describing methods for such comparisons as well as the deliberations of their authors, a group of international experts on environmental economics, energy accounting, material and environmental flows analysis, aquaculture, agriculture and international development.

The Session was attended by delegates from seven Members of the Commission and by observers from international, regional and national fishery bodies and institutions. The meeting was organized to evaluate the progress of intercessional activities relating to recommendations of earlier sessions, address regional fisheries and aquaculture issues of concern and review plans for short and medium-term activities.

The tenth Session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries Sub-Committee on Fish Trade (COFI: FT), which met from 30 May to 2 June 2006, recommended that a Technical Consultation be organized to review the draft Technical Guidelines for Responsible Fish Trade taking into account all relevant aspects of international trade in fish products. COFI: FT noted that the guidelines should further reflect the current environment of international trade in fish products and the dynamic nature of trade, requiring an approach which is forward looking and pro-active. Sustainability of fisheries, illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing (IUU), and post-harvest practices were also important factors to be considered. The purpose of this Expert Consultation was to revise these guidelines taking into account the comments made by COFI:

The goals of the workshop were to exchange experiences and good practices and identify financial and institutional support services and facilities to sustain livelihoods and micro-enterprises in coastal areas. The discussions at the workshop showed that livelihoods diversification and the improvement of income and employment opportunities in coastal fishing communities are crucial for their participation in the conservation and management of aquatic resources. Key elements of sustainable micro-enterprise development as identified by the workshop include capability building of fisherfolk organizations such as cooperatives and associations to implement livelihood projects, the preparation of feasibility studies and business plans, technical skills development, sound financial management practices, development of innovative and high quality products, access to new markets including urban and regional markets and the full participation of fisherfolk in the identification of livelihood activities and micro-enterprises.