Using quantitative behavioural approaches to develop sustainable fisheries

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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.