image: Stacked Dungeness crab pots. view more
Credit: Image credit: Amy Brodbeck Linhart (photographer).
Researchers report fishing industry responses to the 2015-16 Dungeness crab fishery closures to show how network analysis of pre-shock harvesting behavior can predict the extent to which resource use patterns change during a climate shock. The 2014-2016 North Pacific marine heatwave led to an unprecedented harmful algal bloom, which necessitated closures of the 2015-16 United States West Coast Dungeness crab fishery. In California alone, the fishery produces around 26% of all annual fishing revenue and supports more than 25% of all fishing vessels. Mary C. Fisher and colleagues studied the impacts of the closure on fishery participation by 2,516 vessels across seven California fishing communities, to see how such a climate-related shock impacted community networks of resource use. The authors found that the fishery closures led to significant changes in resource use networks associated with three responses by Dungeness crab fishing vessels: temporarily leaving the food system, redirecting their efforts to other fisheries, or moving to fish elsewhere. Patterns of resource use suggest that the Dungeness crab fishery may be a so-called "gilded trap" in Northern California; focusing effort on this single fishery is economically lucrative yet perilous in the long term, increasing the community's vulnerability to future shocks. According to the authors, highly connected yet decentralized networks of resource use reduce vulnerability and increase resilience to climate shocks.
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Article #20-14379: "Climate shock effects and mediation in fisheries," by Mary C. Fisher, Stephanie K. Moore, Sunny L. Jardine, James R. Watson, and Jameal F. Samhouri.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Mary C. Fisher,
University of Washington,
Seattle, WA;
e-mail: <mfisher5@uw.edu>