Using quantitative behavioural approaches to develop sustainable fisheries

鱼类产品营销者和消费者对买卖可持续渔业的产品越来越感兴趣。这一运动始于1990年代，当时底层鱼类种群暴跌，因此，许多渔业目标获得了国际海洋管理理事会(MSC)的认证，该理事会为可持续捕捞做法制定了标准。因此，许多工作都集中在实现这一认证上，研究通常集中在种群动态、种群评估和渔具开发等主题上。然而，关于鱼类对渔具的行为的知识仍然匮乏。最近，相机技术的进步和成本的降低使得科学家能够回答的问题的能力有所增加。然而，在考虑渔具开发工作时，大多数情况下，视频被作为一种定性测量来处理，没有考虑决定渔具的有效性及其捕获或避免副渔获物(捕捞后被丢弃在海上的无用物种/规格)的能力的关键问题。用渔具和渔具组件量化鱼类行为的精心设计的研究就更少了，错过了明确表明哪些行为导致捕获或逃脱的机会，这是定义可持续渔业的方面。利用我的第一笔探索基金，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计划，旨在减少1)拖网和延绳钓格陵兰鲨(Somniosus Microcephalus)和2)盆栽小雪蟹(Chion Oecetes Opilio)的附带捕捞。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，并导致更可持续的新设计(即避免副渔获物)。目前，对于加拿大渔业来说，格陵兰大比目鱼渔业中的格陵兰鲨鱼副渔获物是该渔业获得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和对其行为几乎一无所知的物种中重建，这需要技术上的改进。这项研究计划将提供短期(1-3年)战略来量化行为，以告知和改进渔具设计，同时建立长期(3-10年)渔具发展战略，根据行为观察和定量分析结果进行设计。该研究计划将为学生提供培训，以获得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很受欢迎。

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.