@article{6c0b4d48f66b4e069173ee61d38c6372,
title = "Identifying management actions that promote sustainable fisheries",
abstract = "Which management actions work best to prevent or halt overfishing and to rebuild depleted populations? A comprehensive evaluation of multiple, co-occurring management actions on the sustainability status of marine populations has been lacking. Here we compiled detailed management histories for 288 assessed fisheries from around the world (accounting for 45% of those with formal stock assessments) and used hierarchical time-series analyses to estimate effects of different management interventions on trends in stock status. Rebuilding plans, applied less commonly than other management measures (implemented at some point historically for 43% of stocks), rapidly lowered fishing pressure towards target levels and emerged as the most important factor enabling overfished populations to recover. Additionally, the ratification of international fishing agreements, and harvest control rules specifying how catch limits should vary with population biomass, helped to reduce overfishing and rebuild biomass. Notably, we found that benefits of management actions are cumulative—as more are implemented, stock status improves and predicted long-term catches increase. Thus, a broad suite of management measures at local, national and international levels appears to be key to sustaining fish populations and food production.",
author = "Melnychuk, {Michael C.} and Hiroyuki Kurota and Mace, {Pamela M.} and Maite Pons and C{\'o}il{\'i}n Minto and Osio, {Giacomo Chato} and Jensen, {Olaf P.} and {de Moor}, {Carryn L.} and Parma, {Ana M.} and {Richard Little}, L. and Daniel Hively and Ashbrook, {Charmane E.} and Nicole Baker and Amoroso, {Ricardo O.} and Branch, {Trevor A.} and Anderson, {Christopher M.} and Szuwalski, {Cody S.} and Baum, {Julia K.} and McClanahan, {Tim R.} and Yimin Ye and Alessandro Ligas and Jilali Bensbai and Thompson, {Grant G.} and John DeVore and Arni Magnusson and Bjarte Bogstad and Edward Wort and Jake Rice and Ray Hilborn",
note = "Funding Information: Fisheries experts who graciously provided management-related information are listed in Supplementary Note 3. Many other scientists generously contributed data to RAMLDB. C. Costello provided helpful comments on the manuscript. J. Sanders, D. Ovando, H. Bassett, A. Faraj, S. Segurado and J. Wilson provided valuable feedback. Fisheries and Oceans Canada granted permission to reproduce the flounder illustration in the Fig. 2 inset. This work was supported by the Science for Nature and People Partnership programme (working group {\textquoteleft}Fisheries Measures{\textquoteright}) from the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, which was funded by the Nature Conservancy and the Wildlife Conservation Society. RAMLDB has been supported by funding from the Walton Family Foundation and a consortium of Seattle fishing companies. T.A.B. was funded in part by the Richard C. and Lois M. Worthington Endowed Professorship in Fisheries Management. The scientific results and conclusions, as well as any views or opinions expressed herein, are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of NOAA or the US Department of Commerce. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.",
year = "2021",
month = may,
doi = "10.1038/s41893-020-00668-1",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "4",
pages = "440--449",
journal = "Nature Sustainability",
issn = "2398-9629",
publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",
number = "5",
}