Persisting Worldwide Seabird-Fishery Competition Despite Seabird Community Decline

David Gremillet; Aurore Ponchon; Michelle Paleczny; Maria-Lourdes D. Palomares; Vasiliki Karpouzi; Daniel Pauly

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2018.10.051

Persisting Worldwide Seabird-Fishery Competition Despite Seabird Community Decline

David Gremillet^* (Corresponding Author), Aurore Ponchon, Michelle Paleczny, Maria-Lourdes D. Palomares, Vasiliki Karpouzi, Daniel Pauly

^*Corresponding author for this work

Aberdeen Centre For Environmental Sustainability

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

75 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Fisheries transform marine ecosystems and compete with predators [1], but temporal trends in seabird-fishery competition had never been assessed on a worldwide scale. Using catch reconstructions [2] for all fisheries targeting taxa that are also seabird prey, we demonstrated that average annual fishery catch increased from 59 to 65 million metric tons between 1970-1989 and 1990-2010. For the same periods, we estimated that global annual seabird food consumption decreased from 70 to 57 million metric tons. Despite this decrease, we found sustained global seabird-fishery food competition between 1970-1989 and 1990-2010. Enhanced competition was identified in 48% of all areas, notably the Southern Ocean, Asian shelves, Mediterranean Sea, Norwegian Sea, and Californian coast. Fisheries generate severe constraints for seabird populations on a worldwide scale, and those need to be addressed urgently. Indeed, seabirds are the most threatened bird group, with a 70% community-level population decline across 1950-2010 [3].

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	4009-4013
Number of pages	5
Journal	Current Biology
Volume	28
Issue number	24
Early online date	6 Dec 2018
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.10.051
Publication status	Published - 17 Dec 2018

Bibliographical note

This is a contribution of the Sea Around Us project, a scientific collaboration between the University of British Columbia, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. D.G. acknowledges the support of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), the French Polar Institute IPEV (program 388 ADACLIM), the Belmont Forum, and the French National Research Agency ANR (TAMANI program), as well as of Jean-Christophe Auffray for the Office for Science, French Embassy in Canada. We are grateful for the analytical assistance of Doris Gomez, Eric Sy, Sarah Popov, and Christopher Hoornaert, for the illustrative assistance of Bénédicte Martin and Evelyn Liu, and for the constructive comments of three anonymous reviewers.

Keywords

OCEAN
OVERLAP
PETRELS

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Cite this

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title = "Persisting Worldwide Seabird-Fishery Competition Despite Seabird Community Decline",

abstract = "Fisheries transform marine ecosystems and compete with predators [1], but temporal trends in seabird-fishery competition had never been assessed on a worldwide scale. Using catch reconstructions [2] for all fisheries targeting taxa that are also seabird prey, we demonstrated that average annual fishery catch increased from 59 to 65 million metric tons between 1970-1989 and 1990-2010. For the same periods, we estimated that global annual seabird food consumption decreased from 70 to 57 million metric tons. Despite this decrease, we found sustained global seabird-fishery food competition between 1970-1989 and 1990-2010. Enhanced competition was identified in 48% of all areas, notably the Southern Ocean, Asian shelves, Mediterranean Sea, Norwegian Sea, and Californian coast. Fisheries generate severe constraints for seabird populations on a worldwide scale, and those need to be addressed urgently. Indeed, seabirds are the most threatened bird group, with a 70% community-level population decline across 1950-2010 [3].",

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note = "This is a contribution of the Sea Around Us project, a scientific collaboration between the University of British Columbia, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. D.G. acknowledges the support of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), the French Polar Institute IPEV (program 388 ADACLIM), the Belmont Forum, and the French National Research Agency ANR (TAMANI program), as well as of Jean-Christophe Auffray for the Office for Science, French Embassy in Canada. We are grateful for the analytical assistance of Doris Gomez, Eric Sy, Sarah Popov, and Christopher Hoornaert, for the illustrative assistance of B{\'e}n{\'e}dicte Martin and Evelyn Liu, and for the constructive comments of three anonymous reviewers.",

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AU - Karpouzi, Vasiliki

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N1 - This is a contribution of the Sea Around Us project, a scientific collaboration between the University of British Columbia, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. D.G. acknowledges the support of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), the French Polar Institute IPEV (program 388 ADACLIM), the Belmont Forum, and the French National Research Agency ANR (TAMANI program), as well as of Jean-Christophe Auffray for the Office for Science, French Embassy in Canada. We are grateful for the analytical assistance of Doris Gomez, Eric Sy, Sarah Popov, and Christopher Hoornaert, for the illustrative assistance of Bénédicte Martin and Evelyn Liu, and for the constructive comments of three anonymous reviewers.

PY - 2018/12/17

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N2 - Fisheries transform marine ecosystems and compete with predators [1], but temporal trends in seabird-fishery competition had never been assessed on a worldwide scale. Using catch reconstructions [2] for all fisheries targeting taxa that are also seabird prey, we demonstrated that average annual fishery catch increased from 59 to 65 million metric tons between 1970-1989 and 1990-2010. For the same periods, we estimated that global annual seabird food consumption decreased from 70 to 57 million metric tons. Despite this decrease, we found sustained global seabird-fishery food competition between 1970-1989 and 1990-2010. Enhanced competition was identified in 48% of all areas, notably the Southern Ocean, Asian shelves, Mediterranean Sea, Norwegian Sea, and Californian coast. Fisheries generate severe constraints for seabird populations on a worldwide scale, and those need to be addressed urgently. Indeed, seabirds are the most threatened bird group, with a 70% community-level population decline across 1950-2010 [3].

AB - Fisheries transform marine ecosystems and compete with predators [1], but temporal trends in seabird-fishery competition had never been assessed on a worldwide scale. Using catch reconstructions [2] for all fisheries targeting taxa that are also seabird prey, we demonstrated that average annual fishery catch increased from 59 to 65 million metric tons between 1970-1989 and 1990-2010. For the same periods, we estimated that global annual seabird food consumption decreased from 70 to 57 million metric tons. Despite this decrease, we found sustained global seabird-fishery food competition between 1970-1989 and 1990-2010. Enhanced competition was identified in 48% of all areas, notably the Southern Ocean, Asian shelves, Mediterranean Sea, Norwegian Sea, and Californian coast. Fisheries generate severe constraints for seabird populations on a worldwide scale, and those need to be addressed urgently. Indeed, seabirds are the most threatened bird group, with a 70% community-level population decline across 1950-2010 [3].

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Persisting Worldwide Seabird-Fishery Competition Despite Seabird Community Decline

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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