Evidence of fishery depletions and shifting cognitive baselines in Eastern Indonesia

We analyzed fisher interview data collected in the Raja Ampat archipelago of Eastern Indonesia to demonstrate a perceived decline in the abundance of living marine resources targeted by commercial and artisanal fisheries. The decline appeared ubiquitous among all tested species and a clear trend eme...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biological conservation 2008-03, Vol.141 (3), p.848-859
Main Authors: Ainsworth, Cameron H., Pitcher, Tony J., Rotinsulu, Christovel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Applied ecology
Biological and medical sciences
Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife
Exploitation and management of natural biological resources (hunting, fishing and exploited populations survey, etc.)
fisheries management
Fishery depletion
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Fuzzy logic
Indonesia
interviews
Local ecological knowledge
Marine
marine fish
marine fisheries
overfishing
Parks, reserves, wildlife conservation. Endangered species: population survey and restocking
public opinion
Raja
Raja Ampat
Shifting baselines
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Summary:We analyzed fisher interview data collected in the Raja Ampat archipelago of Eastern Indonesia to demonstrate a perceived decline in the abundance of living marine resources targeted by commercial and artisanal fisheries. The decline appeared ubiquitous among all tested species and a clear trend emerged in which older fishers recall greater past abundance than younger fishers. This provides evidence for the shifting baseline syndrome, a dangerous cognitive condition in which each generation of fishery stakeholders accepts a lower standard of resource abundance as normal. We used a fuzzy expert system to standardize and quantify the anecdotal evidence, and combine it with additional depletion indicators to produce a decadal time series of resource abundance from 1970 to present. Using governmental catch-per-unit-effort data from more recent years we hindcasted to establish an absolute scale with which to interpret the perceived decline. The interview information suggested that some exploited species may have declined by as much as an order of magnitude since 1970.
ISSN:0006-3207
1873-2917
DOI:10.1016/j.biocon.2008.01.006