Using quantitative behavioural approaches to develop sustainable fisheries

鱼类产品营销商和消费者越来越有兴趣购买和销售来自可持续渔业的产品。这一运动始于20世纪90年代，当时底栖鱼类种群数量锐减，因此，许多渔业都希望获得国际海洋管理委员会（MSC）的认证，该委员会为可持续捕捞制定了标准。因此，在实现这一认证方面作出了许多努力，研究的重点通常是种群动态、种群评估和渔具开发。然而，关于鱼类对渔具的行为的知识仍然缺乏。最近，相机技术的进步和成本的降低使科学家能够回答的问题的能力增加。然而，在考虑渔具开发工作时，视频在大多数情况下被视为定性测量，而忽略了决定渔具有效性及其捕获或避免副捕获能力（捕获后丢弃在海上的不需要的物种/尺寸）的关键问题。能够量化鱼类对渔具和渔具部件的反应行为的精心设计的研究就更少了，而且没有机会明确显示哪些行为会导致捕捞或逃逸，而这些方面定义了可持续渔业。凭借我的第一笔发现基金，我将启动一项全面的研究计划，旨在通过量化动物对渔具的行为来发展可持续渔业。在最初的五年里，我将建立一个长期的实验项目，旨在减少拖网和延绳钓捕获的格陵兰鲨（Somniosus microcephalus）和盆栽捕获的小雪蟹（Chionoecetes opilio）。这些研究将为每种动物在捕获过程中的行为提供新的视角，为纳入MSC建议提供重要证据，并最终实现当前捕获方法的潜在可持续性，并导致更具可持续性的新设计（即避免副渔获物）。目前对加拿大渔业来说，格陵兰大比目鱼（Reinhardtius hippoglossoides）渔业中附带捕获的格陵兰鲨鱼是该渔业获得MSC认证的障碍。在加拿大的雪蟹渔业中，雪蟹种群正在从过度捕捞中重建，这需要技术改进，而且这种物种对其行为几乎一无所知。该研究项目将提供短期（1-3年）的策略来量化行为，从而为渔具设计提供信息和改进，同时建立长期（3-10年）的策略来开发渔具，其设计基于行为观察和定量分析的结果。该研究项目将为学生提供培训，使他们掌握发展可持续渔业的技能，与国际合作者合作，并获得必要的量化能力。这样的技能在加拿大和国际上都有很高的需求。

There is an increasing interest from fish product marketers and consumers to buy and sell products from sustainable fisheries. This movement began in the 1990s following groundfish stock collapses and as a result, many fisheries target certification from the International Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which sets standards for sustainable fishing practices. As such, much effort has been focused on realizing this certification with research typically focused on topics of population dynamics, stock assessment, and fishing gear development. However, there is still a dearth of knowledge on fish behaviour to fishing gear. Recently, advances in camera technology and cost reductions has enabled an increase to the capacity of questions that scientists can answer. However, when considering fishing gear development work, video for most cases is handled as a qualitative measurement and misses key questions that determine the effectiveness of fishing gears and their ability to catch or avoid bycatch (unwanted species/sizes discarded at sea after capture). Well-designed studies that quantify fish behaviour in reaction to fishing gear and fishing gear components are even fewer and miss an opportunity to show explicitly which behaviours lead to capture or escape, aspects that define sustainable fisheries. With my first Discovery Grant I will initiate a comprehensive research program aimed at developing sustainable fisheries through quantifying animal behaviour to fishing gear. In the first five years, I will establish a long-term experimental program aimed at reducing the bycatch of 1) Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus) in trawls and longlines and 2) small snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) in pots. These studies will provide novel perspectives to how each animal behaves during the capture process, providing significant evidence for the inclusion of a MSC recommendation, and ultimately realize the potential sustainability of the current capture methods, and lead to new designs that are more sustainable (i.e. avoids bycatch). Currently for Canadian fisheries, Greenland shark bycatch in the Greenland halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides) fishery is a barrier for that fishery to obtain MSC certification. In the Canadian snow crab fishery, snow crab populations are rebuilding from overfishing, necessitating technical improvements, and from a species that has almost nothing known of its behaviour. This research program will provide short-term (1-3 years) strategies to quantify behaviour to inform and improve fishing gear design, while establishing long-term (3-10 years) strategies for fishing gear development with designs based on behaviour observations and results from quantitative analyses. This research program will provide training for students to acquire skills to develop sustainable fisheries, work with international collaborators, and gain necessary quantification capabilities. Such a skill set is in high demand in Canada and internationally.