Journal
FISHERIES MANAGEMENT AND ECOLOGY
Volume 28, Issue 6, Pages 528-541Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/fme.12503
Keywords
experience; individual perceptions; optimal foraging theory; skipper behaviour; sustainability of fish stocks; whale-fisheries interactions
Categories
Funding
- Institut Polaire Francais Paul Emile Victor
- Australian Research Council [160100329]
- Reserve Naturelle Nationale des TAAF
- Ministere de l'Agriculture et de l'Alimentation
- Agence National de la Recherche (ANR)
- Fondation d'Entreprises des Mers Australes
- Ministere de l'Education Nationale, de l'Enseignement Superieur et de la Recherche (M.E.N. E.S. R) [2015-5286]
- French Ministry of Environment
- TAAF
- Syndicat des Armements Reunionnais des Palangriers Congelateurs (SARPC)
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In a sub-Antarctic long-line fishery, fishermen prioritize exploiting productive areas with high interaction frequencies over avoiding interactions with marine predators in order to maximize fishing success, despite potential negative impacts on fish stocks and depredating whales.
Fishers aim to optimise cost-benefit ratios of their behaviour when exploiting resources. Avoidance of interactions with marine predators (i.e. their feeding on catches in fishing gear, known as depredation) has recently become an important component of their decisions. How fishers minimise these interactions whilst maximising fishing success is poorly understood. This issue is addressed in a sub-Antarctic, long-line fishery confronted with extensive depredation by sperm whales Physeter macrocephalus and killer whales Orcinus orca by examining a 15-year data set. Whereas a broad range of behaviours was identified from spatio-temporal and operational descriptors, none combined high fishing success with low frequency of interactions. With experience, fishers favoured exploitation of productive patches with high frequencies of interactions over avoidance behaviours. Such decisions, although potentially optimal in the short term, are likely to intensify pressures on fish stocks and impact depredating whales. Therefore, the present study provides additional evidence to inform management decisions pertaining to the coexistence between fisheries and marine predators.
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