Yield-per-Recruit, Utility-per-Recruit, and Relative Biomass of 21 Exploited Fish Species in China's Coastal Seas

Based on growth and related fishery parameters, three approaches, yield-per-recruit(Y/R), utility-per-recruit (U/R) analyses and relative biomass (B/B0) analyses were applied to 21 economically important, trawl-caught species in China’s coastal seas to estimate their relative yield, economic value a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in Marine Science 2019-11, Vol.6
Main Authors: Zhai, Lu, Pauly, Daniel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biomass
biomass estimation
Catch per unit effort
Chinese coastal fisheries
Commercial fishing
data-poor fisheries
Economics
Fish
Fisheries
Fisheries management
Fishery management
Fishing
Fishing mortality
Fishing vessels
Maximum sustainable yield
Mortality
Overfishing
Recruitment
Recruitment (fisheries)
Species
stock assessments
Stocks
Sustainable yield
Trawlers
utility per recruit
Yield-per-recruit
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Summary:Based on growth and related fishery parameters, three approaches, yield-per-recruit(Y/R), utility-per-recruit (U/R) analyses and relative biomass (B/B0) analyses were applied to 21 economically important, trawl-caught species in China’s coastal seas to estimate their relative yield, economic value and biomass under different schedules of fishing mortality and mean length at first capture. The results show that all species suffer from overfishing, given the high average fishing mortality (F~1 year-1) and small mesh size (~1 cm) used by trawlers. Long-term Y/R would double and U/R (expressed as price per landed weight) would increase 5-fold if mesh size were increased to about 10 cm. Comparing Y/R and U/R showed that the benefits of higher prices for larger individuals were detectable only if larger mesh sizes are used, so that individuals are caught only after they have been able to grow. The Y/R analyses also allowed estimating the biomass of the 21 assessed populations relative to their unexploited biomass, i.e., B/B0. Species-specific B/B0 values ranged from 0.01 to 0.58, with a mean of 0.16 (+/- 0.03), i.e., much lower than the 50% reduction corresponding to Maximum Sustainable Yield (i.e., B/BMSY =1), or B/B0 =0.5). This confirms the many authors who reported systematic overfishing along China’s coastlines, and suggests that rebuilding stocks should be the foremost goal of fisheries management in China.
ISSN:2296-7745
2296-7745
DOI:10.3389/fmars.2019.00724