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Recreational boat angling and spearfishing in southern continental Portugal: a scientific basis for sustainable and integrated management

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A global review of marine recreational spearfishing
Publication . Sbragaglia, Valerio; Arlinghaus, Robert; Blumstein, Daniel T.; Diogo, Hugo; Giglio, Vinicius J.; Gordoa, Ana; Januchowski-Hartley, Fraser Andrew; Laporta, Martín; Lindfield, Steven J.; Lloret, Josep; Mann, Bruce; McPhee, Daryl; Nunes, José A. C. C.; Pita, Pablo; Rangel, Mafalda; Rhoades, O. Kennedy; Venerus, Leonardo A.; Villasante, Sebastián
Recreational spearfishing is a fishing method that occurs globally, yet receives considerably less attention in the scientific literature relative to other recreational fishing methods, such as angling. Lack of scientific information on spearfishing may negatively affect the development and management of marine recreational fisheries. We conducted a systematic review of 102 peer-reviewed papers published between 1967 and 2022 pertaining to marine recreational spearfishing. Based on this literature review, we provide an overview of key insights across social, economic, and ecological dimensions of marine recreational spearfishing. While spearfishers represent less than 5% of marine recreational fishers, the participants are younger and may differ from recreational anglers in their motivations, with suggestions of increased well-being generated from a close connection with the sea during underwater fishing. Recreational spearfishers mostly target species of moderate to high levels of vulnerability that are mid to high trophic level carnivores. Though spearfishers can deliberately target larger individuals of exploited populations, this is not a generalizable pattern. Despite a growing body of research on the ecological impacts of marine recreational spearfishing, there is limited knowledge of these effects and their mechanisms across biological levels of organization (e.g., individual, population, community and ecosystem) compared with those of other fishing methods. Recreational spearfishers can contribute to advances in marine ecological knowledge, and inclusive participatory management could represent a key step towards transformative sustainable development of marine recreational spearfishing. Throughout the review, we identify gaps in the research and areas where future research is needed to better inform the socio-economic importance, ecosystem impacts and future management of marine recreational spearfishing.
First assessment of the Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on global marine recreational fisheries
Publication . Pita, Pablo; Ainsworth, Gillian B.; Alba, Bernardino; Anderson, Antônio B.; Antelo, Manel; Alós, Josep; Artetxe, Iñaki; Baudrier, Jérôme; Castro, José J.; Chicharro, Belén; Erzini, K; Ferter, Keno; Freitas, Mafalda; García-de-la-Fuente, Laura; García-Charton, José A.; Giménez-Casalduero, María; Grau, Antoni M.; Diogo, Hugo; Gordoa, Ana; Henriques, Filipe; Hyder, Kieran; Jiménez-Alvarado, David; Karachle, Paraskevi K.; Lloret, Josep; Laporta, Martin; Lejk, Adam M.; Dedeu, Arnau L.; Martín-Sosa, Pablo; Martínez, Lllibori; Mira, Antoni M.; Morales-Nin, Beatriz; Mugerza, Estanis; Olesen, Hans J.; Papadopoulos, Anastasios; Pontes, João; Pascual-Fernández, José J.; Purroy, Ariadna; Ramires, Milena; Rangel, Mafalda; Reis-Filho, José Amorim; Sánchez-Lizaso, Jose L.; Sandoval, Virginia; Sbragaglia, Valerio; Silva, Luis; Skov, Christian; Sola, Iván; Strehlow, Harry V.; Torres, María A.; Ustups, Didzis; van der Hammen, Tessa; Veiga, Pedro; Venerus, Leonardo A.; Verleye, Thomas; Villasante, Sebastián; Weltersbach, Marc Simon; Zarauz, Lucía
In late 2019, an outbreak caused by a novel coronavirus started in China (Graham and Baric, 2020; Hu et al., 2020; Maxmen, 2021). A global pandemic was declared in March 2020, as COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus (World Health Organization, 2020b), escalated outside China (World Health Organization, 2020a). In mid-2021, when vaccination campaigns began to show positive effects on the control of the disease in several countries (Kaur and Gupta, 2020), the COVID-19 pandemic caused millions of deaths and hundreds of millions of infections (Dong et al., 2020). To fight the pandemic, governments reacted with measures designed to contain the spread of the virus, especially through measures aimed to reduce social interactions, including lockdowns (Wilder-Smith and Freedman, 2020), travel restrictions (Chinazzi et al., 2020), and limiting people’s access to non-essential activities (Storr et al., 2021). Humanity suffered a notable impact as a result of the pandemic, including losses of jobs and an abrupt disruption in global demand of goods and services (Barua, 2020; McKibbin and Fernando, 2020; Nicola et al., 2020). The pandemic further degraded the quality of life of the most vulnerable people, particularly those with mental health problems (Brooks et al., 2020), victims of domestic violence (Usher et al., 2020), children (Singh et al., 2020), or indigenous populations (Lane, 2020). As a result, an increase in economic inequality and worldwide poverty is expected, especially in developing countries (World Bank, 2020), and a peak in the suicide rate (Kawohl and Nordt, 2020). On the other hand, global reduction of human activities has had some positive effects on the global environment, especially for air and water quality (Rutz et al., 2020), and noise reduction (Zambrano-Monserrate et al., 2020). Marine ecosystems for example experienced less impacts derived from commercial fishing due to disruptions in large markets such as the United States (White et al., 2021a) or the European Union (Prellezo and Carvahlo, 2020; Coll et al., 2021).
Interactions between air-breathing marine megafauna and artisanal fisheries in Southern Iberian Atlantic waters: results from an interview survey to fishers
Publication . Alexandre, Sofia; Marçalo, Ana; Marques, Tiago A.; Pires, Alexandra; Rangel, Mafalda; Ressurreição, Adriana; Monteiro, Pedro; Erzini, Karim; Gonçalves, Jorge Manuel Santos
The coastal waters off Western Iberia are an important fishing ground and a marine megafauna foraging area. Overlap between fishery target species and the diet of several air breathing marine megafauna species can lead to negative interactions and consequently conservation and economic issues. This work aimed to assess marine megafauna (cetaceans, marine birds, and marine turtles) – fishery interactions through face-to-face interviews to fishers of the local and coastal artisanal fisheries fleets in the landing sites of the Portuguese mainland Southern coast (Algarve). The main goal was to identify and evaluate problematic interactions known to cause bycatch or economic loss through depredation. We found that bycatch is a concern for all marine megafauna groups, but depredation problems are mostly associated with cetaceans. Of the sampled artisanal fisheries (longlines, pots and traps, bottom set-nets, and purse seine), the fishing gears of most concern were purse seine and coastal bottom set-nets. Purse seine showed problems associated with important bycatch numbers, especially of common dolphins, Delphinus delphis, while bottom set-nets have considerable bycatch of all animal groups and depredation was highly associated with bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus. Bycatch and depredation were found to be species, gear, area, and vessel size dependent. Economic loss caused by depredation led to catch and gear damage and was widely reported by bottom set-net fishers, ranging from 7% to 21% of their revenue. Higher losses were reported for local vessels in leeward (eastern) Algarve area. This study showed that the active participation of fishers provides improved localized knowledge on interactions between local and coastal fisheries and marine megafauna, allowing for the definition of specific management and mitigation strategies.
Co-design of a marine protected area zoning and the lessons learned from it
Publication . e Costa, Horta; Guimarães, M. Helena; Rangel, Mafalda; Ressurreição, Adriana; Monteiro, Pedro; Oliveira, Frederico; Bentes, Luis; Sales Henriques, Nuno; Sousa, Inês; Alexandre, Sofia; Pontes, João; Afonso, Carlos; Belackova, Adela; Marçalo, Ana; Cardoso-Andrade, Mariana; Correia, António José; Lobo, Vanda; Gonçalves, Emanuel J.; Pitta e Cunha, Tiago; Gonçalves, Jorge Manuel Santos
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are a tool to safeguard marine natural systems, yet their effectiveness depends on how well they are integrated into the existing socioeconomic context. Stakeholder engagement in MPA design can contribute to increasing integration. This study focuses on the co-design of an MPA between researchers, public administration, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations. The proposed MPA is in Portugal and includes an area that is a hotspot for biodiversity and economic activities. This is the first MPA proposal in mainland Portugal co-designed using a participatory approach. This study highlights the steps of the zoning process and synthesizes the eight main lessons learned, useful for other cases, particularly for relatively small coastal MPAs with multiple socioeconomic activities. Three zoning proposals were developed and discussed within the participatory process. The proposals considered the best scientific and local knowledge available and were defined using ecological, socioeconomic, and shape-area guiding principles. In an iterative manner and following a participatory approach, compromises with stakeholders were achieved, and a final proposal, scientifically sound and socially accepted by most stakeholders, was delivered to the government. The final zoning plan will achieve ambitious conservation goals, including the largest fully protected area to be declared in mainland Portugal, while minimizing the impacts on the existing economic activities and promoting its sustainability. This process resulted in valuable lessons that may be applied elsewhere and guide future MPA implementation or rezoning of existing ones. These transdisciplinary and participatory processes can be time and resource-consuming but are vital for ensuring MPA effectiveness.
Setting performance indicators for coastal marine protected areas: an expert-based methodology
Publication . Cardoso-Andrade, Mariana; Queiroga, Henrique; Rangel, Mafalda; Sousa, Inês; Belackova, Adela; Bentes, Luis; Oliveira, Frederico; Monteiro, Pedro; Sales Henriques, Nuno; Afonso, Carlos; Silva, Ana F.; Quintella, Bernardo R.; Costa, José L.; Pais, Miguel P.; Henriques, Sofia; Batista, Marisa I.; Franco, Gustavo; Gonçalves, Emanuel J.; Henriques, Miguel; Leonardo, Teresa; Coelho, Paula; Comas-González, Robert; Fernández, Laura P.; Quiles-Pons, Carla; Costa, André; Espírito-Santo, Cristina; Castro, João J.; Arenas, Francisco; Ramos, Sandra; Ferreira, Vasco; Gonçalves, Jorge Manuel Santos; Horta E Costa, Barbara
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) require effective indicators to assess their performance, in compliance with the goals of relevant national and international commitments. Achieving and prioritizing shortlists of multidisciplinary indicators demands a significant effort from specialists to depict the multiple conservation and socioeconomic interests, and the large complexity of natural systems. The present paper describes a structured expert-based methodology (process and outputs) to co-define a list of multidisciplinary MPA performance indicators. This work was promoted by the management authority of coastal MPAs in mainland Portugal to gather a consensual and feasible list of indicators that would guide the design of a future national monitoring program. Hence, Portuguese coastal MPAs served as a case study to develop such a process between 2019 and 2020. In the end, participants (1) agreed on a shortlist of prioritized indicators (i.e., environmental, governance, and socioeconomic indicators) and (2) defined minimum monitoring frequencies for the indicators in this list, compatible with the potential replicability of the associated survey methods. The present approach recommends that management plans incorporate monitoring procedures and survey methods, with a validated list of indicators and associated monitoring periodicity, agreed among researchers, MPA managers and governance experts. The proposed methodology, and the lessons learned from it, can support future processes aiming to define and prioritize MPA performance indicators.

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Funding agency

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

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Funding Award Number

SFRH/BPD/116307/2016

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