Three pillars of sustainability in fisheries Asche, Frank; Garlock, Taryn M.; Anderson, James L. ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
10/2018, Volume:
115, Issue:
44
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Sustainability of global fisheries is a growing concern. The United Nations has identified three pillars of sustainability: economic development, social development, and environmental protection. The ...fisheries literature suggests that there are two key trade-offs among these pillars of sustainability. First, poor ecological health of a fishery reduces economic profits for fishers, and second, economic profitability of individual fishers undermines the social objectives of fishing communities. Although recent research has shown that management can reconcile ecological and economic objectives, there are lingering concerns about achieving positive social outcomes. We examined trade-offs among the three pillars of sustainability by analyzing the Fishery Performance Indicators, a unique dataset that scores 121 distinct fishery systems worldwide on 68 metrics categorized by social, economic, or ecological outcomes. For each of the 121 fishery systems, we averaged the outcome measures to create overall scores for economic, ecological, and social performance. We analyzed the scores and found that they were positively associated in the full sample. We divided the data into subsamples that correspond to fisheries management systems with three categories of access—open access, access rights, and harvest rights—and performed a similar analysis. Our results show that economic, social, and ecological objectives are at worst independent and are mutually reinforcing in both types of managed fisheries. The implication is that rights-based management systems should not be rejected on the basis of potentially negative social outcomes; instead, social considerations should be addressed in the design of these systems.
China's seafood imports-Not for domestic consumption? Asche, Frank; Yang, Bixuan; Gephart, Jessica A ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
01/2022, Volume:
375, Issue:
6579
Journal Article
Abstract Aquaculture is a rapidly growing food production technology, but there are significant concerns related to its environmental impact and adverse social effects. We examine aquaculture ...outcomes in a three pillars of sustainability framework by analyzing data collected using the Aquaculture Performance Indicators. Using this approach, comparable data has been collected for 57 aquaculture systems worldwide on 88 metrics that measure social, economic, or environmental outcomes. We first examine the relationships among the three pillars of sustainability and then analyze performance in the three pillars by technology and species. The results show that economic, social, and environmental outcomes are, on average, mutually reinforced in global aquaculture systems. However, the analysis also shows significant variation in the degree of sustainability in different aquaculture systems, and weak performance of some production systems in some dimensions provides opportunity for innovative policy measures and investment to further align sustainability objectives.
Food loss and waste (FLW) is a major challenge to food system sustainability, including aquatic foods. We investigated aquatic FLW in the food supply of the United States, the largest importer of ...aquatic food globally, using primary and secondary data and life cycle methodology. We show that there are significant differences in FLW among species, production technology, origin and stage of supply chain. We estimate total aquatic FLW was 22.7%, which is 43-55% lower than earlier estimates reported in the literature, illustrating the importance of applying a disaggregated approach. Production losses associated with imported food contribute over a quarter of total FLW, and addressing these losses requires multinational efforts to implement interventions along the supply chain. These findings inform prioritization of solutions-including areas of need for innovations, government incentives, policy change, infrastructure and equity.
Introduction
The food-energy-water (FEW) nexus highlights the interdependencies between the systems that people rely on for these essential resources. For example, globally, over two thirds of ...freshwater withdrawals are used to produce food, and another 10% is used during energy generation. In addition, the food system uses one eighth of global net energy. Seafood is a nutritionally important food, and it is critical to use freshwater and energy resources efficiently throughout seafood supply chains to safeguard future supplies and to reduce environmental impacts. Diverse seafood production methods result in highly variable resource use across supply chains, which may contribute to siloed efforts within supply chains to improve efficiency, instead of larger efforts that involve multiple seafood supply chains. Additionally, efforts to develop and implement efficiency strategies must be informed by fishers, aquaculturists, processors, and other seafood supply chain actors to avoid investing time and resources into strategies that will have low uptake. A significant proportion of seafood is imported into the U.S., so engaging with industry and stakeholders in the U.S. and abroad is critical for understanding and improving the FEW nexus associated with seafood consumed by Americans.
Methods
To understand how resources are being used, current and potential strategies to improve resource use, and relevant motivations and barriers, we conducted 47 semi-structured interviews from 2019 to 2021 with seafood supply chain actors, including producers and processors. Seafood supply chains included were farmed catfish produced in the U.S., farmed pangasius and shrimp produced in Vietnam, farmed Atlantic salmon produced in Norway, and wild-caught sockeye and pink salmon caught in the U.S.
Results
We provide detailed descriptions of stages within each supply chain regarding resource use and efficiency strategies, and report higher-level findings that apply across supply chains. There was variation across settings regarding how resources are used and opportunities and barriers for improving efficiencies, but we also found commonalities in settings, indicating that resource-saving strategies or innovations could lead to increased efficiency across multiple supply chains. Interviewees shared that cost savings drove past adoption of, and high interest in, energy conservation practices. Generally, direct costs did not motivate reduced use of freshwater, but associated costs like energy to run pumps and supplies to treat contaminated surface water drove interest in reducing water use.
Discussion
Efforts to improve resource use in the U.S. seafood supply should focus on identifying and scaling-up strategies that (i) involve improved efficiency of more than one resource and/or (ii) apply across multiple settings. This work should involve partnerships between industry, government agencies, and academic researchers, and should be informed by supply chain actors’ experiences and insights. The qualitative insights from this study encompass rich descriptions of FEW-relevant factors at the level of specific supply chain stages as well as findings across six major seafood supply chains in three countries. The study provides an essential complement to existing quantitative characterizations of resource use, and enables nuanced and informed responses to challenges.
Fisheries stock assessments increasingly account for size-dependence in natural mortality rates, usually by modeling mortality as a power function of body length. Various empirical studies have ...indicated a scaling of mortality with length in the range of − 0.84 to − 1.11, but substantially different scaling exponents ranging from − 0.75 to − 1.5 have been proposed on theoretical grounds or derived from some empirical models. To resolve these controversies and provide a well-supported default estimate of scaling for stock assessments, we re-analyzed two major data sets used in previous studies that supported different scaling exponents, and a combined data set. Both original data sets and the combined data yielded within-population exponents close to − 1 when analyzed using joint-slope mixed-effects models with population as a random effect. When population effects were disregarded, regression models yielded exponents that did not correctly reflect within-population scaling. The greatest deviations from the correct within-population scaling of approximately − 1 occurred in multiple regression models of mortality, size, and growth parameters. We conclude that within- and among-population scaling of natural mortality should be clearly distinguished, and that within-population scaling of natural mortality with length in fish populations is highly consistent at approximately − 1. We also explored empirical models for predicting the intercept of the mortality-length relationship for a given population from growth parameters.
•Within- and among- fish population scaling of natural mortality with size should be clearly distinguished.•Natural mortality rates in fish populations consistently scale with body length to the power of approximately − 1.•We provide empirical models to predict the intercept of the mortality-length relationship from growth parameters.
Seafood is a highly traded food group. Moreover, the trade is controversial, and particularly in relation to developing countries. To proponents, trade provides a source of food, nutrition and ...economic development, while for opponents, it is an example of how the rich take food out of the mouths of the poor. Review articles provide no clear conclusions with respect to the merit of the seafood trade, suggesting that the picture is nuanced and that case studies are important. In this study we will investigate seafood availability in Nigeria for the period 2000 to 2020 with a focus on the origin of the seafood by estimating apparent consumption. Our results indicate that Nigeria is a country where seafood imports are highly important for seafood availability. Imports provide 42% of the seafood consumed in 2020, while exports are negligible. In common with imports, domestic fisheries landings and aquaculture production have increased since the turn of the century. The Netherlands is the most important source country for Nigerian seafood imports, and most imports originate in Europe. Imports from neighboring countries in Africa are highly limited.
This special section of Marine Policy is devoted to applications of the Fisheries Performance Indicators (FPIs). The overall objective of these indicators is to provide a low cost, easily accessible ...and rapid assessment tool that measures an overall status of a particular fishery anywhere in the world where all three sustainability pillars; ecology, community, and economics are considered 2. The eight case studies that follow this introduction are the result of a collaboration between researchers at the Institute for Sustainable Food Systems at the University of Florida, researchers and colleagues around the world and the Environment for Development (EfD) Global Hub at University of Gothenburg. EfD is a global network of environmental economics research centers aiming at effective management of the environment in the Global South. The rest of this introduction is organized in the following manner. The next section gives a brief introduction to FPIs, the third section provides a quick background to EfD, its Marine research program and how the FPIs were developed, Section 4 has an overview and some descriptive data from the 149 fisheries currently in the FPI data base, Section 5 gives an overview of the eight new case studies, and the last section concludes.
A number of fisheries development projects are undertaken every year in recognition of the important role fisheries play in many coastal communities. The objectives vary, but typically go beyond a ...limited focus on fisheries management and the ecosystem. This makes it difficult to evaluate the contribution of a project, particularly in data poor environments such as most developing countries. This paper used the recently developed Fisheries Performance Indicators (FPIs) to evaluate the impact of a World Bank development project in a Liberian coastal community. FPIs are designed to capture economic and social performance of a fisheries system in addition to the management and environmental impacts. The results show improvements in most ecological dimensions, and also in many social and economic dimensions targeted by the project. Hence, the project intervention appears to be positive. However, some indicators, particularly in relation to general governance in Liberia, showed a negative development which was not caused by the project.
Fishmeal and fish oil (FMFO) have historically come from capture fisheries, although supply from capture fisheries is constrained and demand for FMFO is increasing. Fish production losses and ...by-products are an alternative raw material for FMFO, however, there is little systematic data collected on the use of these raw materials and limited knowledge about barriers to their use in FMFO production. This study collected data on production losses and by-products from seven fisheries and aquaculture sectors that are important in supplying the US seafood market. From 2019–2021, quantitative surveys (n=47 businesses), semi-structured qualitative interviews (n=31 businesses), and secondary data were collected for the study period of 2014–2018. There was significant variation in utilization of production losses and by-products across sectors (range: 37–99 %), and overall, the aggregate utilization rate was 72 %. Scale appeared to be the most important factor leading to use of production losses and by-products. Aquaculture industries in this study had a large and relatively steady supply of by-products year-round, which made investments in FMFO plants worthwhile and led to moderate to high rates of by-product utilization. Wild-caught fisheries in this study had lower rendering rates due to short fishing seasons, smaller scales, operations in remote locations, and regulations that allow dumping of by-products. There were several examples of companies that invested in rendering plants because it was profitable to sell the rendered waste, while other sectors and industries require better coordination and policy supports to make use of this valuable resource.
•This study analyzed by-products from 7 industrialized fisheries and aquaculture sectors.•On average 72 % of by-products were rendered with wide variation among sectors.•Aquaculture used a higher proportion of by-products compared to fisheries.•Scale of operation was an important factor in explaining by-product utilization.
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