Bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus, Scombridae) are a globally important commercial fish. About 60% of the world's bigeye is caught in the Pacific Ocean, where stocks have been subject to overfishing and ...longline fleets are governed by increased conservation measures. One conservation measure entails multilateral bigeye quota reductions. Since 2010, quota reductions have resulted in four extended closures for Hawai`i longliners. Previous research indicated that regulatory closures may result in differential socioeconomic impacts, but little is known about how four extended closures may affect fishers and fishing trips in a diverse longline fleet with 142 active vessels. The purpose of this research is to assess the trip-level impacts of closures on Hawai`i longliners and determine whether impacts could be lessened while sill meeting conservation measures. To do this, economic data and longline logbooks for Hawai`i longliners were analyzed from 2010 to 2015, and 28 longline fishers were interviewed in Fall 2015. Vessels allowed to fish during closures spent nearly two more days at sea not fishing compared to the same month in years without a closure, with no significant difference in trip length. Vessels with special permits are allowed to fish closer to port during closures, while the larger vessels (25% of the fleet) were restricted from retaining bigeye between 32 and 61 days a year, raising equity concerns across the fleet. Our findings also suggest that two levels of collective action may be needed to meet Pacific-wide economic and conservation goals for an economically and ecologically important pelagic common-pool marine resource.
•Closures result in differential socioeconomic impacts for the Hawai`i longline fleet.•Smaller vessels and additional permits provide advantages during closures.•Larger vessels are especially disadvantaged during WCPFC and IATTC closures.•Bigeye tuna landings have increased despite reduced WCPFC catch limits.•Territorial transfers and higher small vessel IATTC catch offset reduced catch limits.
To address overfishing concerns, a total allowable catch (TAC) management program was instituted in the main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) bottomfish fishery during 2007. Using results from a recent survey ...of bottomfish fishermen, this paper details behavioral and social aspects of bottomfish fishing in Hawaii and explores fisher perceptions towards current fishery conditions and future management alternatives. The paper further discusses the applicability of potential catch share management for this fishery. Bottomfish fishermen expressed uncertainty towards catch share programs and appear to be reluctant about any movement towards catch share management. This paper describes many preexisting conditions in the fishery that suggest a catch share program may not be practical at this time.
•Overview of the quota management system for the Deep 7 component of the main Hawaiian Islands bottomfish fishery.•Survey results on fisher perceptions of current fishery conditions in the fishery.•Survey results on fisher understandings and attitudes toward the catch share programs as a management alternative in the fishery.•Current practicality of adopting an equitable catch shares program.
This paper presents the results of a study to monitor the socioeconomic impacts of the first extended closure of the western and central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) bigeye tuna (bigeye) fishery to US ...longliners from the state of Hawai'i. We applied qualitative and quantitative approaches to examine how diverse members of Hawai'i's bigeye fishery community, including fishermen, a large fish auction, dealers, processors, retailers, consumers, and support industries, perceived and were affected by the constraints of the 40-day closure of the WCPO bigeye fishery at the end of 2010. Our analysis found that there was reduced supply and reduced quality of bigeye landed along with increased prices for bigeye during the closure period. In addition, Hawai'i longliners were forced to travel longer distances to fish during the closure. These factors contributed to increased stress and in some cases lost revenue for a variety of individuals and businesses connected to the fishery. We also found that different stakeholder groups responded to the closure in different ways and fish dealers were among those most affected by the closure. However, overall impacts to the bigeye community were not as severe as what had been anticipated at the outset. Several mitigating factors meant this was not a true closure, as US boats could continue to fish for bigeye in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and foreign and dual permitted vessels could still fish in the WCPO. Hawai'i's longline fleet has since benefited from US legislation and federal rules that have prevented any subsequent closures of the fishery. While this relief from closures could stall short term socioeconomic impacts to Hawai'i bigeye community, some worry that it could set back global efforts towards sustainable management of the fishery. This study highlights the challenges and equity considerations inherent in efforts to achieve meaningful conservation benefits from localized management actions within a global fishery. It also demonstrates the importance of interdisciplinary socioeconomic monitoring to examine how global fisheries policies scale down to individual fishing communities.
With the increase in development of large marine protected areas (LMPAs) worldwide, there have been calls from social scientists to gather better empirical information about the human dimensions of ...LMPAs. Of the social research done on LMPAs to date, most has focused on the perceptions of stakeholders closely connected to their implementation, and little research has explored the general public's response. This paper presents the results of a phone survey conducted in the US territories of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to assess residents' knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument-a LMPA designated offshore in 2009. The survey was administered in 2012 to 500 randomly-selected residents from each territory. Findings suggest: (1) public awareness of the Monument prior to the survey was low; (2) residents generally supported designation of the Monument; (3) most residents did not believe that the Monument would affect them or their community; and (4) knowledge and perceptions of the Monument varied between fishing and non-fishing households. This research illustrates that awareness and views differ between stakeholders and those of the general public, which should be used to inform social research on LMPAs and outreach for LMPA managers.
Different seafood supply chain pathways contribute to or conversely detract from the resilience and adaptive capacity of the fishing sector. Direct seafood marketing strategies shorten the link ...between seafood harvesters and consumers. These strategies appear to be relatively resistant to systemic food system disruptions, making them a potentially important segment of a resilient food system providing benefits to consumers and harvesters. However, little is known about the scale and diversity of the direct seafood marketing sector in the United States. This paper outlines the advantages of collecting data on direct seafood marketing in the US. Additionally, we describe our methodology for creating a sampling frame of direct seafood marketers. We provide initial results from the first national assessment of direct seafood marketing practices, including results from a questionnaire distributed to 39,511 commercial seafood harvesters engaging in wild capture fisheries. Direct seafood marketing was a common strategy among respondents, and the most popular strategy involved selling to a source-identified distributor, i.e. intermediaries who identify the harvester at the point of sale. When combined with data on direct seafood marketing permits, it is estimated that 12% of US seafood harvesters engage in direct seafood sales. These findings suggest that direct marketing is a ubiquitous practice in the commercial fishing sector in the US. Understanding scale and diversity of direct seafood marketing in the US can provide information needed for targeted investments in policies, funding, and technical assistance programs that build diverse, resilient seafood supply chains, and benefit the fishing sector and food security of the nation.
This paper presents the results of a study to monitor the socioeconomic impacts of the first extended closure of the western and central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) bigeye tuna (bigeye) fishery to US ...longliners from the state of Hawai‘i. We applied qualitative and quantitative approaches to examine how diverse members of Hawai‘i's bigeye fishery community, including fishermen, a large fish auction, dealers, processors, retailers, consumers, and support industries, perceived and were affected by the constraints of the 40-day closure of the WCPO bigeye fishery at the end of 2010. Our analysis found that there was reduced supply and reduced quality of bigeye landed along with increased prices for bigeye during the closure period. In addition, Hawai‘i longliners were forced to travel longer distances to fish during the closure. These factors contributed to increased stress and in some cases lost revenue for a variety of individuals and businesses connected to the fishery. We also found that different stakeholder groups responded to the closure in different ways and fish dealers were among those most affected by the closure. However, overall impacts to the bigeye community were not as severe as what had been anticipated at the outset. Several mitigating factors meant this was not a true closure, as US boats could continue to fish for bigeye in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and foreign and dual permitted vessels could still fish in the WCPO. Hawai‘i's longline fleet has since benefited from US legislation and federal rules that have prevented any subsequent closures of the fishery. While this relief from closures could stall short term socioeconomic impacts to Hawai‘i bigeye community, some worry that it could set back global efforts towards sustainable management of the fishery. This study highlights the challenges and equity considerations inherent in efforts to achieve meaningful conservation benefits from localized management actions within a global fishery. It also demonstrates the importance of interdisciplinary socioeconomic monitoring to examine how global fisheries policies scale down to individual fishing communities.
•Study examines the socioeconomic impacts of the Hawai‘i longline bigeye tuna closure.•Forty day closure delivered important impacts to Hawai‘i's bigeye fishing community.•Accountability and equity among all nations and sectors is crucial in regulation of global fisheries.•Interdisciplinary socioeconomic monitoring of fisheries policies is important.
Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) models include a comprehensive accounting of regional income and institutional factors, and are intended to be capable of assessing distributional analysis. However, in ...practice, studies generally construct models that are not appropriately designed to capture income linkages. In this study, we demonstrate the use of SAM modeling to assess the income distribution linkages of Hawaii's commercial fishery sector. We identify the distributional characteristics of the economic impact from the fishery industry by mapping industry labor inputs to a state level occupational matrix prior to the linking of household accounts. The distributional analysis of the SAM indicates that Hawaii's longline sectors impact middle income groups most significantly with modest linkages to lower income groups.
Despite the emerging role of programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) pathway inhibitors for patients with advanced lung cancer, a paucity of data are available on the activity of these agents among patients ...with brain metastases. We investigated the outcomes of PD-1 pathway inhibitors and stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for the treatment of patients with brain metastases from lung cancer.
We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of non-small-cell lung cancer patients with brain metastases consecutively treated with PD-1 pathway inhibitors and SRS at our institution from 2012 to 2017. Overall survival (OS), distant brain failure (DBF), and local control (LC) were assessed using Kaplan-Meier estimates and Cox regression models.
We identified 37 patients treated with SRS to 85 lesions (90.6% intact and 9.4% resected) and a median total of 7 doses of PD-1 pathway inhibitors (83.8% nivolumab, 10.8% atezolizumab, 5.4% pembrolizumab). Most lesions were treated with 18 Gy in a single fraction (n = 61; 71.8%). Patients treated with concurrent SRS and PD-1 pathway inhibitors had longer OS and reduced rates of DBF compared with patients treated with SRS before or after PD-1 pathway inhibitor therapy (1-year OS, 87.3% vs 70.0% vs 0%, P = .008; 1-year DBF, 38.5% vs 65.8% vs 100%, P = .042). LC was favorable among lesions treated with SRS concurrent with or after PD-1 pathway inhibitor therapy compared with before PD-1 pathway inhibitor therapy (1-year LC, 100% vs 72.3%, P = .016). Three lesions transiently enlarged after SRS and then had partially or completely resolved on follow-up imaging. Four patients required steroids for SRS-associated toxicity. No patient experienced grade ≥ 4 toxicity.
Concurrent treatment with SRS and PD-1 pathway inhibitors was associated with favorable OS and locoregional disease control. This combination of therapy was well tolerated and merits further evaluation in larger cohorts in a prospective setting.
Triglyceride-glucose index (TyGI) is an emerging surrogate marker of insulin resistance. We aim to explore the role of triglyceride-glucose index in the prediction of the development of hypertension.
...We conducted a retrospective cohort study that included 3,183 study participants identified from a community health screening programme who had no baseline hypertension and were then followed up after an average of 1.7 years. Cox proportional-hazard model was used to assess the association between risk of incident hypertension and TyGI in quartiles, while adjusting for demographics and clinical characteristics.
Hypertension occurred in 363 study participants (11.4%). Those who developed hypertension had higher TyGI 8.6 (IQR 8.2-9.0) than those who did not 8.2 (IQR 8.0-8.7) (
<0.001). Significant association between TyGI and hypertension was observed in both the unadjusted and proportional hazard model Quartile (Q)2,
=0.010; Q3,
<0.001 and Q4,
<0.001 and the model that adjusted for demographics (Q2,
=0.016; Q3,
=0.003; Q4,
<0.001). In the model adjusted for clinical covariates, the hazard of developing hypertension remained higher in TyGI Q4 compared to TyGI Q1(Hazard Ratio=2.57; 95% Confidence Interval: 1.71, 3.87). Increasing triglyceride-glucose index accounted for 16.4% of the association between increasing BMI and incident hypertension, after adjusting for age, gender, ethnicity and baseline HDL cholesterol (
<0.001).
Triglyceride-glucose index was an independent predictor of the development of hypertension. It may potentially be used as an inexpensive indicator to predict the development of hypertension and risk-stratify individuals to aid management in clinical practice.
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