Marine social-ecological responses to environmental change and the impacts of globalization (original) (raw)
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Interactive responses of natural and human systems to marine ecosystem changes
This study describes variability in the marine ecosystem of Ghana, West Africa, on several temporal and spatial scales and discusses how the human communities using this ecosystem respond to this variability to cope socially and economically. Ghanaian marine waters are part of an upwelling system with strong seasonal and inter-annual variability. Much of this variability is forced at large spatial scales in the tropical Atlantic and by El Nin˜o-Southern Oscillation events in the Pacific Ocean, which influence inter-annual variability of sea surface temperature and pelagic fish landings off Ghana. At decadal scales, Ghanaian marine waters experienced cool sea temperatures and low fishery landings during the 1960s, rapid warming and increases in fishery landings during the late 1970s and 1980s, and variable temperatures and fishery landings during the 1990s. In the late 1990s, pelagic and demersal fish populations appeared to be declining, partly due to over-fishing, although the per capita supply (domestic production plus net imports) of fish was kept high by increased imports. Artisanal fishers and fishing communities in Ghana have devised strategies to deal with variability on seasonal and inter-annual scales. These livelihood strategies include: (i) exploiting marine and terrestrial natural resources more intensively, initially at local scales but expanding to regional scales; (ii) ensuring multiple and diversified income sources; (iii) investing in social relationships and communities for support; and (iv) undertaking seasonal or permanent migrations. In addition, the national government imports fish to deal with shortages. However, these strategies may be less adapted to variability at decadal scales, and may not be sustainable when viewed at the larger scales of environmental change. Crown
Climate, fishery and society interactions: Observations from the North Atlantic
Deep Sea Research II, 2007
Interdisciplinary studies comparing fisheries-dependent regions across the North Atlantic find a number of broad patterns. Large ecological shifts, disastrous to historical fisheries, have resulted when unfavorable climatic events occur atop overfishing. The ‘‘teleconnections’’ linking fisheries crises across long distances include human technology and markets, as well as climate or migratory fish species. Overfishing and climate-driven changes have led to a shift downwards in trophic levels of fisheries takes in some ecosystems, from dominance by bony fish to crustaceans. Fishing societies adapt to new ecological conditions through social reorganization that have benefited some people and places, while leaving others behind. Characteristic patterns of demographic change are among the symptoms of such reorganization. These general observations emerge from a review of recent case studies of individual fishing communities, such as those conducted for the North Atlantic Arc research project.
2013
South Africa's small pelagics fishery is currently the largest in volume and second largest in value in the southern Benguela. It exploits short-lived, small pelagic fishes such as anchovy (for reduction into fish meal and oil) and sardine (for reduction as well as human consumption through canned products), and to a lesser extent redeye round herring and mesopelagics, largely for reduction. We explore the recent history (1940s to present) of the social-ecological system around this fishery. The natural subsystem, at the scales of the ocean environment and the ecosystem, is characterized by high interannual and documented decadal-scale variability. We characterize the human social subsystem at the scales of the fishing industry, legislation, and west coast fishing towns, and demonstrate interdependencies between the natural and social subsystems by following system-scale changes. The pelagic fishing industry has evolved to deal with variability through consolidation, diversification, and range expansion. Legislation has increasingly looked for conservation of the resource while ensuring economic viability of the industry, and hence factory-and vessel-related jobs. Fishing communities under apartheid stayed largely dependent on company-generated infrastructure, combining seasonal employment in the fishing factories with inshore fishing, targeting rock lobster and line fish. While the pelagic industry persisted and communities survived, the resource base for both offshore and inshore fisheries gradually eroded. The advent of democracy in the mid-1990s brought allocation of long-term fishing rights to individuals or companies under conditions of depleted inshore resources aggravated by a shift in the distribution of pelagic fish away from the west coast towards the Cape south coast in the second half of the 1990s. The resultant loss of employment and fishing rights in the inshore has generated community coping strategies that include poaching and challenges to the current Marine Living Resources Act, while the industry continues to expand by range and species, possibly further eroding the resource base. We argue that the situation in the pelagic social-ecological system is indicative of further loss of resilience to change. Coping with future longterm, system-scale change will necessitate careful long-term scenario planning among the various interest groups involved, joint research being one way to overcome the communications breakdown and initiate the joint planning process.
FISHERIES DEPENDENCE AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE NORTHERN ATLANTIC
Fisheries Dependent Regions, 1998
This chapter looks at the changing face of fisheries dependency in the northern Atlantic. We draw on database work and individual interviews done for a broad comparative study of fishing communities across the northern Atlantic—from Norway to Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland and Maine (Hamilton, Duncan and Flanders 1998a, 1998b). Despite many differences, these places share a 20th-century history of fisheries dependence, particularly on cod. Over the past decade, all of them experienced crises related to declines in cod and other economically important fish populations. As they struggle to cope with these crises, governments face the challenge of encouraging more sustainable development, within constraints imposed by rocky, cold-ocean landscapes. Individuals and families face challenges too, and strive to adapt through changes in their own choices and behavior.
Interactions between changes in marine ecosystems and human communities
Marine Ecosystems and Global Change, 2010
Organization (PICES). Many national and international funding agencies provided support, but in particular the US National Science Foundation, the UK Natural Environment Research Council, and the Plymouth Marine Laboratory are acknowledged for their central role in providing funds for programme coordination. This book sets out many of the important outcomes of the new way of looking at marine ecosystems that GLOBEC fostered. From the outset, GLOBEC research was organized around four foci: retrospective analyses and time series studies, process studies, predictive and modelling capabilities, and feedback from changes in marine ecosystem structure. The work was initially developed within four Regional Programmes: Southern Ocean GLOBEC (SO GLOBEC), Small Pelagic Fishes and Climate Change (SPACC), ICES-GLOBEC Cod and Climate Change Programme (CCC) in the North Atlantic, and the PICES-GLOBEC Climate Change and Carrying Capacity Programme (CCCC) in the North Pacii c. In the later stages of the programme two additional Regional Programmes were started: Climate Impacts on Oceanic Top Predators (CLIOTOP) and Ecosystem Studies of Subarctic Seas (ESSAS). At least the latter two, together with other continuing research elements of GLOBEC, will continue after the formal end of GLOBEC in 2009 as part of the IGBP/SCOR Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (IMBER) project. National funding supported active GLOBEC programmes in many countries (Ashby 2004), for example Canada,
2021
Understanding environmental baseline parameters within Gulf of Guinea offshore areas— as relevant delineating conditions favourably ensuring the survival of marine life bounded within was examined against environmental baseline surveys (EBS) conducted during the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) by licensed oil and gas operators of the region. The case of the EBS within Ghana’s western basin is mainly because offshore marine habitation over a decade has seen a rise in anthropogenic activities. Current concerns span pollution, over-exploitation of natural resources, air emissions, growing anthropogenic activity, and climate change. A series of samplings were taking at essential offshore and coastal facility locations to investigate baseline ocean environment; understand the nature of ecology and identify issues of vulnerabilities that could ensure destructive tendencies. The paper observes EBS conditions were consistent with findings of EIAs. The tropical nature of the region mea...
The hidden companion of non‐native fishes in north‐east Atlantic waters
Journal of Fish Diseases
There are multiple evidences that the climate of the planet is changing, and one of the most patent consequences is the increasing of the average surface temperature in the seas. Galicia is an autonomous region of Spain located in the northwestern corner of the Iberian Peninsula (41°-43°N), in the northern boundary of the Iberian upwelling system. In this upwelling system, an increase in the SST of 0.68°C between 1982 and 2006 was observed, but the prediction for the period 1960/1990-2070/2100 is between 1.4 and 2.4°C (Philippart et al., 2011). Studies from the Galicia region also show similar results: a rise of 0.24°C per decade has been observed in the Galician sea waters since 1974 (Gómez-Gesteira et al., 2011). Oceanic changes in temperature due to global climate change are causing poleward shifts in the latitudinal abundance and distribution ranges of fish species, which may cause dramatic changes in assemblages and trophic webs and have been shown to affect ecosystems and fisheries (Horta e Costa et al., 2014). As a consequence, a tropicalization of coastal fish communities has indeed been occurring in the NE Atlantic, including the Macaronesian archipelagos, the Mediterranean Sea and the European continental shelves, from the Iberian Peninsula up to the North Sea (Afonso et al., 2013).