Market‐based fisheries management systems give incentives to reduce the fleet size and employment, which increases earnings and contributes to resolve the tragedy of the commons. However, the ...often‐stated expectation that economies of scale cause the disappearance of small‐scale fishery is not observed in many cases. In this study, we investigate the effects on fleet structure in the period after introducing individual fishing quotas or individual fishing days with various degrees of transferability in selected fisheries in the seven Nordic countries. Despite observing economies of scale in most cases, it is found that the market‐based fisheries management often does not reduce the small‐scale fleet more than the fleet of large vessels. This is explained partly by small vessels targeting demersal species and large vessels pelagic species, and partly by the larger need of larger than small vessels to continuously utilize their capital stocks through fast adaptation to ensure return. A more important explanation is the regulation design, with limitations in sale of fishing rights and lease between vessel groups and regions and in the share of the total quota holdings of fishing rights by individuals and vessels. This is important for countries considering the introduction of market‐based fisheries management, since the Nordic experiences show that with proper regulation design, economic gains can be achieved with small‐scale fishing surviving even under economies of scale.
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DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Small-scale fisheries (SSF) have long been overshadowed by the concerns and perceived importance of the industrial sector in fisheries science and policy. Yet in recent decades, attention to SSF is ...on the rise, marked by a proliferation of scientific publications, the emergence of new global policy tools devoted to the small-scale sector, and concerted efforts to tally the size and impacts of SSF on a global scale. Given the rising tide of interest buoying SSF, it’s pertinent to consider how the underlying definition shapes efforts to enumerate and scale up knowledge on the sector—indicating what dimensions of SSF count and consequently what gets counted. Existing studies assess how national fisheries policies define SSF, but to date, no studies systematically and empirically examine how the definition of SSF has been articulated in science, including whether and how definitions have changed over time. We systematically analyzed how SSF were defined in the peer-reviewed scientific literature drawing on a database of 1,724 articles published between 1960 and 2015. We coded a 25% random sample of articles (n=434) from our database and found that nearly one-quarter did not define SSF. Among those that did proffer a definition, harvest technologies such as fishing boats and gear were the most common characteristics used. Comparing definitions over time, we identified two notable trends over the 65-year time period studied: a decreasing proportion of articles that defined SSF and an increasing reliance on technological dimensions like boats relative to sociocultural characteristics. Our results resonate with findings from similar research on the definition of SSF in national fisheries policies that also heavily rely on boat length. We call attention to several salient issues that are obscured by an overreliance on harvest technologies in definitions of SSF, including dynamics along the wider fisheries value chain and social relations such as gender. We discuss our findings considering new policies and emerging tools that could steer scientists and practitioners toward more encompassing, consistent, and relational means of defining SSF that circumvent some of the limitations of longstanding patterns in science and policy that impinge upon sustainable and just fisheries governance.
Anthropogenic stressors such as land-use change, habitat degradation, and climate change stress inland fish populations globally. Such ecological disturbances can affect actors throughout the ...social-ecological system by contributing to uncertainty in landings, landing prices, and coastal incomes. Most literature to date on the resilience of the fishing sector has focused on fishing (production), fisheries management, and the livelihoods of fishers, whereas little attention has been paid to the post-harvest sector and the livelihoods of fish processors, logistics providers, wholesalers, and retailers. In the empirical case of the small-scale usipa ( Engraulicypris sardella ) trade in Malawi, we investigated the impacts of price volatility, a form of uncertainty, on small-scale fish retailers’ livelihood outcomes. By concentrating on fish retailers in the downstream region of the value chain, we provide new insight into how small-scale fisheries actors in the broader fish food system experience and adapt to uncertainty. We find that price volatility negatively impacts net income for retailers, and that an important adaptive strategy is spatial arbitrage. However, gender dynamics and access to capital limit retailers’ ability to employ the spatial arbitrage adaptive strategy.
In small‐scale fisheries (SSFs), where the sampling of many small boats and landing sites sometimes is not practical, fish market surveys represent an alternative way to obtain key fisheries data. ...This study analyses the diversity and characteristics of commercial Red Sea fish species landed in the Egyptian coast, including family, species‐specific abundance, biomass, size and price by surveying the largest local fish market on the Egyptian Red Sea coast, over the course of a year (July 2021–June 2022) to also reflect any seasonality of these variables. Based on 53 survey visits, a total of 131,795 fish individuals, belonging to 111 species, and 22 families, were identified, recorded and measured. The analysis focused on the 60 most abundant species (104,420 individuals, 15 families). The surveys revealed that the most abundant families were Serranidae, Lethrinidae and Scaridae. Carangidae also was one of the most important families in terms of biomass. The most abundant species were Lethrinus mahsena, Sargocentron spiniferum and Lethrinus nebulosus. About 60% of revenue comes from the four families Serranidae, Lethrinidae, Scaridae and Lutjanidae. In terms of prices, the most expensive categories were species belonging to Serranidae, Lethrinidae and Lutjanidae families, such as Plectropomus pessuliferus marisrubri, Argyrops spinifer, L. nebulosus and Variola louti. The overall mean prices were higher in spring and summer months likely due to tourism flows. The mean size of many species, including the most valuable and abundant ones, is below the length of maturity. These results provide important benchmarks for monitoring future changes and shed important insights for fisheries management. Co‐organised Dutch auctions would provide reliable data when combined with a strict monitoring effort to avoid any sale of the catch outside these official auctions. Other monitoring tools and methods are also recommended in the discussion.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Coupling dark matter to light new particles is an attractive way to combine thermal production with strong velocity-dependent self-interactions. Here we point out that in such models the dark matter ...annihilation rate is generically enhanced by the Sommerfeld effect, and we derive the resulting constraints from the cosmic microwave background and other indirect detection probes. For the frequently studied case of s-wave annihilation, these constraints exclude the entire parameter space where the self-interactions are large enough to address the small-scale problems of structure formation.
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CMK, CTK, FMFMET, IJS, NUK, PNG, UM
Over the past 20 years, there has been considerable progress in the development of research in the micro-/nanorobotics area. Through major, rapid, investment in the field and the use of, for example, ...correlation techniques, many successes have been seen in both theoretical and experimental work, which have had applications in emerging areas such as clinical medicine. As a result, this article aims to introduce and review some of the most influential and advanced research work carried out over the past few years. To do so, the approach taken has been to categorize micro-/nanorobots by their propulsion modes, analyzing their advantages and drawbacks in detail, looking at medical applications such as such as the delivery of medical supplies, medical imaging and so on. Additionally, the article looks at future directions in micro-/nanorobot development, including important areas such as biocompatibility (as well as biodegradability), autonomy and accurate operation in the complex and dynamic environment of the human body.
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•This review manages the actuation and application of micro-/nanorobots.•The most influential and advanced micro-/nanorobots carried out over the past few years have been discussed in detail.•Typical works are categorized by their propulsion modes, analyzing their advantages and drawbacks in detail, looking at medical applications.•The difficulties and future directions for the practical use of micro-/nanorobots in the biomedical fields are discussed.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Since the 1980s, there has been growing concern in the Mexican Atlantic regarding high catches of neonate and juvenile sharks in small‐scale fisheries. Fishery‐dependent data from 1993 to 1994 and ...2007 to 2017 and fishers' ecological knowledge from 2017 were used to identify nursery areas for scalloped hammerhead, Sphyrna lewini, in the southern Gulf of Mexico. Catch records and fishing areas of neonates, YOYs, juveniles and adults of S. lewini (N = 1885) were obtained from calcareous and terrigenous regions in the western Yucatan Peninsula. The results suggest that a nursery for scalloped hammerhead is found in the terrigenous region, characterized by relatively shallow and turbid waters due to rivers’ discharges. Neonates and YOYs (96% and 86% of their total records, respectively) were commonly found there over the years in May–August in multiple fishing areas identified by fishers, although mainly between isobaths 10–30 m. The enforcement of management measures is necessary because the nursery is located in a region with intense fishing effort.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Digital technologies enable small-scale farmers to reduce some constraints to participate in Agriculture Value Chains (AVCs). Small-scale farmers face significant challenges and barriers to adopting ...digital technology. This study contributes to the literature on digital development in three ways: present the economic, political, and social factors affecting digital adoption in the AVCs; highlight the implications for governance and institutional challenges;adds knowledge to the analytical value of the Choice Frameworkto study digital technology adoption. This paper after identifying more than 100 papers and articles, uses a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) aligned with Cooper's (2010). Research synthesis and meta-analysis: A step-by-step approach (5th ed.). Sage approach to examine 52 articles published from 2014 to 2019, ultimately selecting the most relevant 36 studies. The study uses the Choice Framework that operationalizes the Capabilities Approach (CA) as a theoretical window for this research. Papers were classified into four different categories: economic; political; social factors; institutional/governance. The findings show: - the role of the state in governance and institutional support is critical to facilitate the collaboration and participation of different actors;-the importance to develop a comprehensive localized developmental implementation framework that can support the adoption of digital solutions to support small-scale farmers. Limitations for this study are highlighted and areas for further research are suggested.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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