Journal
GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE-HUMAN AND POLICY DIMENSIONS
Volume 69, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2021.102288
Keywords
Gulf of Cadiz (GoC); Integrated ecosystem assessment (IEA); Integrated trend analysis (ITA); Ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM); Regime shifts; Sustainable fisheries partnership agreements (SFPA)
Categories
Funding
- European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF)
- Marie Curie (re)Integration Grant [PERG05-GA-2009-247528]
- OCAL-DILEMA project [CTM2014-59244-C3-2-R]
- Science without Borders fellowship program [99999.013763/2013-00]
- Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) [EASME/EMFF/2018/1.3.2.4/Lot2/SI2.818388-SC03]
- European Union
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Seafood is a vital source of protein globally, but balancing food security and ocean health is a challenge. The European Union adopts Ecosystem-based fisheries management to address this challenge, however, the impact of fisheries agreements with neighboring countries on EU ecosystems is often overlooked.
Seafood is an essential source of protein globally. As its demand continues to rise, balancing food security and the health of marine ecosystems has become a pressing challenge. Ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) has been adopted by the European Union (EU) Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) to meet this challenge by accounting for the multiple interacting natural and socio-economic drivers. The CFP includes both the implementation of regulatory measures to EU stocks and the establishment of bilateral fisheries agreements with neighbouring countries, known as sustainable fisheries partnership agreements (SFPAs). While the effects of fisheries management regulations are well acknowledged, the consequences of the SFPAs on EU ecosystems have been commonly overlooked. Here we investigate the development of the Gulf of Cadiz marine ecosystem over the last two decades and found evidence of the impact of both policy interventions. Our findings reveal the effectiveness of regulatory measures in reverting a progressively degrading ecosystem, characterised by high fishing pressure and dominance of opportunistic species, to a more stable configuration, characterised by higher biomass of small pelagics and top predators after 2005. Knock-on effects of the EU-Morocco SFPA and climate effects were detected before 2005, resulting in increased purse seine fishing effort, lower biomass of pelagic species and warmer temperatures. This southern EU marine ecosystem has been one of the latest to introduce regulations and is very exposed to fishery agreements with neighbouring Morocco. Our study highlights the importance of taking into consideration, not only the effects of in situ fisheries regulations but also the indirect implications of political agreements in the framework of EBFM.
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