Fishery Production Potential of Large Marine Ecosystems: A Prototype Analysis

Satellite-based estimates of primary productivity by size classes, and a more complete food web relative to earlier approaches, were used to estimate marine ecosystem productivity. Including microbial, benthic, and microplankton components of production resulted in an overall fishery production potential of 180 million metric tonnes and an additional 50 million metric tonnes of benthos. Great caution is needed in interpreting these figures as exploitable biomass. Increased exploitation of large components of this production such as mesopelagic fishes or benthic organisms is likely to have serious ecosystem wide negative consequences and other problems. The fishery production potential estimates can be used in concert with observed catch data to estimate ecosystem exploitation rates for major ecosystem components including benthos, benthivores, planktivores, and piscivores. Ecosystem exploitation rates for the benthos are uniformly low, reflecting the generally low level of landings reported relative to other ecosystem components. Benthivores and planktivores exhibit generally low to moderate ecosystem exploitation rates, typically < 20%. Relatively high exploitation rates were observed for piscivores, in some cases, exceeding the estimated level of available production.

FOGARTY Michael J.;  ROSENBERG Andrew A.;  COOPER Andrew B.;  DICKEY-COLLAS M.;  FULTON Elizabeth A.;  GUTIÉRREZ N. L.;  HYDE Kimberly;  KLEISNER Kristin;  KRISTIANSEN Trond;  LONGO C.;  MINTE-VERA C.;  MINTO C.;  MOSQUEIRA SANCHEZ Iago;  OSIO Giacomo Chato;  OVANDO D.;  SELIG E. R.;  THORSON James T.;  YE Y.; 

2016-12-01

ELSEVIER BV

JRC100810

2211-4645,   

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211464516300628,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC100810,   

10.1016/j.envdev.2016.02.001,