Spatial Heterogeneity in Fishing Creates de facto Refugia for Endangered Celtic Sea Elasmobranchs

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2012
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Abstract
The life history characteristics of some elasmobranchs make them particularly vulnerable to fishing mortality; about a third of all species are listed by the IUCN as Threatened or Near Threatened. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have been suggested as a tool for conservation of elasmobranchs, but they are likely to be effective only if such populations respond to fishing impacts at spatial-scales corresponding to MPA size. Using the example of the Celtic Sea, we modelled elasmobranch biomass (kg h−1) in fisheries-independent survey hauls as a function of environmental variables and ‘local’ (within 20 km radius) fishing effort (h y−1) recorded from Vessel Monitoring Systems data. Model selection using AIC suggested strongest support for linear mixed effects models in which the variables (i) fishing effort, (ii) geographic location and (iii) demersal fish assemblage had approximately equal importance in explaining elasmobranch biomass. In the eastern Celtic Sea, sampling sites that occurred in the lowest 10% of the observed fishing effort range recorded 10 species of elasmobranch including the critically endangered Dipturus spp. The most intensely fished 10% of sites had only three elasmobranch species, with two IUCN listed as Least Concern. Our results suggest that stable spatial heterogeneity in fishing effort creates de facto refugia for elasmobranchs in the Celtic Sea. However, changes in the present fisheries management regime could impair the refuge effect by changing fisher's behaviour and displacing effort into these areas.
Reference Key
shephard2012plosspatial Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Samuel Shephard;Hans Gerritsen;Michel J. Kaiser;David G. Reid;
Journal PloS one
Year 2012
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0049307
URL
https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0049307
Keywords
biomass fisheries marine conservation species diversity latitude marine fish elasmobranchii longitude biomass National Center for Biotechnology Information NCBI NLM MEDLINE animals pubmed abstract nih national institutes of health national library of medicine models research support non-u.s. gov't species specificity biological* ecosystem* atlantic ocean demography* fisheries / statistics & numerical data* pmid:23166635 pmc3498144 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0049307 samuel shephard hans gerritsen david g reid conservation of natural resources / methods* elasmobranchii / growth & development* endangered species*

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