Balanced harvesting could reduce fisheries-induced evolution

TY - JOUR

T1 - Balanced harvesting could reduce fisheries-induced evolution

AU - Law, Richard

AU - Plank, Michael

N1 - © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.

PY - 2018/11

Y1 - 2018/11

N2 - Current fisheries management pays little attention to fisheries-induced evolution. Methods of exploitation that have benefits in the short term, while ameliorating selection in the longer term would therefore be advantageous. Balanced harvesting (BH) is a potential candidate. This tries to bring fishing more in line with natural production, and some short-term benefits for conservation of aquatic ecosystems and for biomass yield have already been documented. It is also predicted to be relatively benign as a selective force onfish stocks, because it keeps the overall distribution of mortality relatively close to natural mortality.We test this prediction, coupling an ecological model of marine, size-spectrum dynamics to an adaptive-dynamics model of life-history evolution. The evolutionary variable is the reproductive schedule, set by the maximum body mass and the mass at maturation. The prediction is supported by our numerical analysis: directional selection under BH is approximately an order of magnitude weaker than in a standard fishery in which fish experience a fixed rate of fishing mortality after recruitment. The benefit of BH follows from relatively little fishing on large fish, due to the low somatic production rates these big fish have. These results therefore support the general argument for protecting big, old fish, both for ecological and for evolutionary reasons. Slot fisheries that protect large fish share some qualitative features with BH, and show similar evolutionary benefits.

AB - Current fisheries management pays little attention to fisheries-induced evolution. Methods of exploitation that have benefits in the short term, while ameliorating selection in the longer term would therefore be advantageous. Balanced harvesting (BH) is a potential candidate. This tries to bring fishing more in line with natural production, and some short-term benefits for conservation of aquatic ecosystems and for biomass yield have already been documented. It is also predicted to be relatively benign as a selective force onfish stocks, because it keeps the overall distribution of mortality relatively close to natural mortality.We test this prediction, coupling an ecological model of marine, size-spectrum dynamics to an adaptive-dynamics model of life-history evolution. The evolutionary variable is the reproductive schedule, set by the maximum body mass and the mass at maturation. The prediction is supported by our numerical analysis: directional selection under BH is approximately an order of magnitude weaker than in a standard fishery in which fish experience a fixed rate of fishing mortality after recruitment. The benefit of BH follows from relatively little fishing on large fish, due to the low somatic production rates these big fish have. These results therefore support the general argument for protecting big, old fish, both for ecological and for evolutionary reasons. Slot fisheries that protect large fish share some qualitative features with BH, and show similar evolutionary benefits.

KW - adaptive dynamics, ecosystem dynamics, fishing-induced selection, life-history evolution, production rate, size spectrum

M3 - Article

SN - 1467-2960

VL - 19

SP - 1078

EP - 1091

JO - Fish and fisheries

JF - Fish and fisheries

IS - 6

ER -