Mollusk Fisheries Success Stories

Posted by Zihan Li in Portfolio, Presentations

Today, Sydney and I presented a comparison of two fisheries success stories from the Northern and Southern hemispheres in our ocean conservation (BIOL 420) class.

Take-home message:

Long term evaluation and stakeholder engagement is key to fisheries management success.

Though both examples were artisanal fisheries that harvested mollusks, the global south example was a nation-wide fishery management project starting in 2018, and the global north example was a small-scale regional project that kickstarted in 1993. As a result, there were some important differences between the two fisheries. On the one hand, the involvement of NGOs and the Bahamian government in the queen conch fisheries allowed the implementation of a value chain monitoring system to allow traceability in global exports. On the other hand, the community-centered Galician bivalve fishery empowered local women shellfishers (mariscadoras) to take the lead in managing the catch and improved their status and economic wellbeing. Moreover, as the Galician bivalve gathering fishery project started decades ago, we are beginning to see emerging challenges such as aging labor, lack of interest in younger generation to enter the workforce, a shift towards restocking monocultures, and the resurgence of illegal fishing. Similar long-term evaluation should be performed for the Bahamian queen conch fishery to ensure that the initial objectives are met.

However, there are also notable similarities in the two cases. Both fisheries faced an initial lack of engagement of fishers in decision-making and a lack of scientific training for the fishers. Both cases also imposed similar regulations on the individual size, type, and amount of catch, as well as surveillance protocols.

We were honored to have fisheries scientist Dr. Daniel Pauly as a guest to our tutorial to provide commentary to the presentations. Dr. Pauly pointed out that telling success stories without criticism is like “serving the soup without the spices”. No success story is perfect: for some groups to benefit, others are often harmed. He also reminded us that the definition of success story is dependent on the initial goal of the project.

In terms of the Galicia example I researched, one major issue is that it is a community-based management protocol, which is difficult to self-sustain. The continued creation of management plans are highly dependent on the biologists that are hired by the fishing guilds. As the funding from the EU to subsidize the wages of the biologists has expired in 2013, the future of this project is under jeopardy, and public support is vital to sustain the past success of the Galician bivalve fishery. We will keep Dr. Pauly’s suggestions in mind when analyzing future case studies!

Additional Resources:

Learn more about the day in the life of Galicia shellfish gatherers in this travel blog post (it’s in Spanish but has excellent photos that explain the system well) and news article.

Check out Sydney’s blog post for more information on the Bahamian queen conch fishery and more!

Watch a summary video about the FishPath Queen Conch fisheries project below:

References:

Florida Atlantic University. (2021). ‘Hail to the Queen’: Saving the Caribbean queen conch. ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210107090451.htm

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). (n.d.). Improvement of status and trends of queen conch capture. https://www.fao.org/fishery/en/16652/en

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). (n.d.). The conservation of Queen Conch is the focus of the upcoming meeting of the western central Atlantic fishery commission (WECAFC). https://www.fao.org/americas/noticias/ver/en/c/1460038/

Frangoudes, K., Marugán-Pintos, B., & Pascual-Fernández, J. J. (2008). From open access to Co-governance and conservation: The case of women shellfish collectors in Galicia (Spain). Marine Policy, 32(2), 223-232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2007.09.007

Gibbens, S. (2019). The Bahamas’ iconic conch could soon disappear. National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/conch-decline-overfishing-the-bahamas

Lomonico, S. (2020). Bahamian Queen conch: Fishers & scientists share knowledge for a sustainable fishery. Cool Green Science. https://blog.nature.org/science/2020/06/08/bahamian-queen-conch-fishers-scientists-share-knowledge-for-a-sustainable-fishery/

The Nature Conservancy. (n.d.). Protecting the Bahamian queen conch fishery. https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/caribbean/stories-in-caribbean/bahamas-queen-conch-fishery/

Southeast Regional Office. (2020). Caribbean queen conch fishery management plan. NOAA Fisheries. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/management-plan/caribbean-queen-conch-fishery-management-plan

Summary of the regional queen conch fisheries management and conservation plan: measures [Conference session]. (2014). 2nd Meeting of the CFMC/WECAFC/CITES/OSPESCA/CRFM Working Group on Queen Conch. https://cites.org/sites/default/files/eng/prog/queen_conch/docs/2014%20-%20Working%20Group%20on%20Queen%20Conch%20-%20Draft%20Summary%20of%20the%20regional%20queen%20conch%20fisheries%20management%20and%20conservation%20plan.pdf

Theile, S. (2001). Queen Conch fisheries and their management in the Caribbean. TRAFFIC Europe. http://www.trafficj.org/publication/02_Queen_Conch.pdf

Villasante, S., Tubío, A., Gianelli, I., Pita, P., & García-Allut, A. (2021). Ever changing times: Sustainability transformations of Galician small-scale fisheries. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.712819

Photo Attributes:

“Mariscadoras Rias Baixas” by David Escribano/Viajablog is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. Photo cropped.