Integrating marine historical ecology into management of Alaska’s Pacific cod fishery for climate readiness

Details

• Journal Title:
  ICES Journal of Marine Science
• Personal Author:
  West, Catherine F ; McClenachan, Loren ; Barbeaux, Steven J ; Spies, Ingrid ; Addison, Jason A ; Anderson, Bruce T ; Hofman, Courtney A ; Reedy, Katherine L ; Elliott Smith, Emma A ; Etnier, Michael A ; Helser, Thomas E ; Finney, Bruce P
• NOAA Program & Office:
  NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) ; AFSC (Alaska Fisheries Science Center)
• Description:
  The Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) fishery was closed in 2020 after a rapid decline in biomass caused by the marine heat waves of 2014–2019. Pacific cod are exceptionally thermally sensitive and management of this fishery is now challenged by increasingly unpredictable climate conditions. Fisheries monitoring is critical for climate readiness, but short-term monitoring data may be inadequate for recognizing and anticipating change under rapid climate changes. We propose an interdisciplinary, marine historical ecology framework that looks to long-term records (local and traditional knowledge, history, archaeology, and paleoclimatology) to capture a long range of ecological variability and provide historical context for management. In order to connect to contemporary fisheries management, this framework must be built on a common vocabulary and an understanding of the key metrics used in fisheries stock assessments. Here, we propose metrics derived from Pacific cod stock assessment and synthesize information relevant to understanding the effects of past warming periods on cod populations across the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea. This case study provides a framework for thinking about how to use these historical records in the context of fisheries management under rapidly changing climate conditions.
• Source:
  ICES Journal of Marine Science, 82(4)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsaf056
• ISSN:
  1054-3139 ; 1095-9289
• Format:
  pdf
• Publisher:
  Oxford University Press (OUP)
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• License:
  https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
• Rights Information:
  CC0 Public Domain
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7e782d704d60397972895cae8c4c4010fef0bbe6b2064df6e21f4fa2b0995d8fa4d81d63d4086641f8bfb50f4812f19faa855033ce0ac90b43894e15ace69c62
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/72086/noaa_72086_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.98 MB ]