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The biomass yields and management challenges for the Yellow sea large marine ecosystem
Environmental Development ∎ (∎∎∎∎) ∎∎∎–∎∎∎
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The biomass yields and management challenges for the Yellow sea large marine ecosystem Qisheng Tang n, Yiping Ying, Qiang Wu Function Laboratory for Marine Fisheries Science and Food Production Processes /Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, CAFS, Qingdao 266071, PR China
a r t i c l e i n f o
abstract
Article history: Received 27 March 2015 Received in revised form 22 June 2015 Accepted 29 June 2015
This paper summarizes the changing biomass yields in the Yellow Sea large marine ecosystem (YSLME) in recent years and discusses the causes of such changes, including overfishing and climate changes. Meanwhile, two kinds of adaptive management strategies are recommended to support the biomass yields in YSLME, including resource-conservation-based capture fisheries (e.g. closed season/areas, stock enhancement etc.) and environmentally friendly aquaculture (e.g. integrated multi-trophic aquaculture, IMTA). & 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Keywords: Biomass yields Adaptive management strategies Large marine ecosystem Yellow Sea
1. Introduction The World’s Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) are defined by ecological criteria including (1) bathymetry, (2) hydrography, (3) productivity, and (4) trophically linked populations (Sherman et al., 1993; Duda and Sherman, 2002; Sherman, 2014). The LMEs, especially the coastal ecosystems, play important roles in food supply, and about 80% of global sea foods has been supplied from the coastal ecosystems every year (Sherman, 2014; Tang, 2014). However, the LMEs continue to be degraded by unsustainable fishing practices, habitat degradation including loss of sea grasses, mangroves and corals, eutrophication, toxic pollution, aerosol contamination, ocean acidification, and emerging diseases. The scale and severity of risks to LMEs goods and services associated with depletion and degradation of coastal oceans is well documented (Sherman et al., 2005). The coastal waters of LMEs contribute an estimated $12.6 trillion annually to the global economy (Costanza, 1997). Therefore, improving of sustainable management and conservation strategies for the ecosystem is becoming an important and urgent issue that needs to be undertaken in LMEs. The Yellow Sea is located between continental North China and Korean Peninsula. It is separated from the West Pacific Ocean by the East China Sea in the south, and is linked with the Bohai Sea. It covers an area of about 400,000 km2, with a mean depth of 44 m. As a semi-enclosed slope and warm water sea, Yellow Sea shows typical characteristics of large marine ecosystem, shallow but rich in nutrients and resources. The Yellow Sea LME (YSLME) has productive and varied coastal, offshore, and transboundary fisheries. Over the past several decades, the fishery populations in the Yellow Sea have changed greatly. Many commercial species are threatened by unsustainable exploitation and by natural perturbations (Tang, 2009). Hence, it is crucial and timely to promote sustainable exploitation of the LMEs and implement effective management n
Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (Q. Tang).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2015.06.012 2211-4645/& 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Please cite this article as: Tang, Q., et al., The biomass yields and management challenges for the Yellow sea large marine ecosystem. Environmental Development (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2015.06.012i
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Fig. 1. The survey area and sampling sites of the YSLME.
Fig. 2. The variations in CPUE of fishery species in the YSLME in spring and autumn.
strategies like ecosystem approach and ecosystem based management at LMEs. In this study, the changing states of biomass yields and management strategies of marine food resources under multiple stressors were discussed by using the case of YSLME.
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2. Changing states of biomass yields The fishing industry in the inshore waters in China has developed recklessly without adequate knowledge on the characteristics of the existing marine fishery resource and the fishery economy, causing the eventual excess utilization of marine fishery resources. With the increase of fishing vessels and greater horsepower, combined with the modernization of fishing gear and methods, the offshore fishery resource was overexploited, and further led to the decline of fishery resource. Fisheries resources in YSLME have been overfished since 1980, the fishing gears include trawl, purse seine, gill net, trap net and so on. As a result, the commercially important long-lived, high trophic level, piscivorous bottom fish have been replaced by the low-valued shorted-lived, low trophic level, planktivorous pelagic fish. By the mid-1980s, the captured production increased by an average of 20 percent with catches mainly composed of small pelagic species, which accounted for more than 60 percent of the total catch. The pelagic fish play important roles in marine fisheries of China, greatly contribute to the sources of human food, as well as the source fishmeal of aquaculture. However, recent surveys indicate that the abundance of pelagic species, e.g. anchovy Engraulis japonicus, is declining, while the biomass of demersal is increasing. Based on the data collected by R/V ‘Beidou’ of Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute from a selected sea area of Yellow Sea, between latitudes 33° and 37 °N, and longitudes 121°30′ and 124°E (Fig. 1), fluctuation of biomass yields of pelagic fish, bottom fish, crustaceans etc. in such area was observed from 1985 to 2013 both in spring and autumn (Fig. 2). In spring, the catch per unit effort (CPUE) of pelagic fish increased continuously for 12 years until the year of 1998, from about 20 kg/h to more than 40 kg/h, but sharply decreased to about 5 kg/h in the following 7 years and maintained this low level in recent years. In autumn, rapid decline of pelagic fish CPUE, could be detected during 1985–2000, but increased since 2009. The biomass of demersal fish changed slighter than the biomass of pelagic fish both in spring and autumn, and showed increasing trend generally since the early 2000s. The CPUE of crustaceans continuously increased in recent years in spring, but decreased in autumn since 2008, when the CPUE reached a peak after 1985. The total biomass of fishery species also fluctuated in last 30 years in the YSLME, increased slightly in the middle of 2000s in spring, autumn and winter, but declined sharply in summer. In winter, the biomass increased since 2000, but showed to a decreasing trend recently in other seasons, while in summer, the biomass yields in the YSLME reduced by more than 90% from 2000 to 2012 (Fig. 3). The dominant species in the YSLME also experienced drastic changes. In 1986, anchovy, flatfish Cleisthenes herzensteini and eelpout Zoarces elongatus were the top three dominant species. Small yellow croaker Larimichthys polyactis became the dominant species since the late 1990s. Anchovy was one of the top three dominant species excluding in 2010. However, mantis shrimp Oratosquilla oratoria became dominant species, and was the top dominant species in 2013, while Crangon affinis was the second dominant species. The accounted percentile of the top three dominant species in total biomass reduced from about 70% in the 1990s to less than 50% after 2010 (Fig. 4). Such survey data implied the percentile of higher trophic level species declined continuously in recent years. The intraspecific changes of trophic levels were more obvious. Trophic levels of food organisms reduced, which led to the trophic level decline of fishery species, as well as caused the changes of feeding habits (Zhang and Tang, 2004). For example, Spotted velvetfish (Erisphex pottii) fed on 83.3% benthon and 16.7% plankton in 1985–1986, but fed on 94.6% plankton in 2000–2001, so feeding habits changed from benthivorous to planktivorous. Trichiurus muticus fed on 68.9% nekton and
Fig. 3. The seasonal variations in CPUE in the YSLME.
Please cite this article as: Tang, Q., et al., The biomass yields and management challenges for the Yellow sea large marine ecosystem. Environmental Development (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2015.06.012i
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Fig. 4. The dominant species shift in the YSLME.
30.6% benthon in 1985–1986, but fed on 87.6% plankton and 11.9% nekton in 2000–2001, so feeding habits changed from piscivorous to planktivorous (Zhang et al., 2007).
3. Causes for changes Traditional theories, e.g. bottom-up, top-down or wasp-waist control, are not sufficient to directly and clearly explain these complicated changes. An acceptable explanation is that the changes in the coastal ecosystem may be a consequence of multifactorial controls. The multi-control mechanism may contribute to ecosystem complexity and uncertainty that are difficult to identify and manage (Tang et al., 2003). Evidence showed, human activity or climate changes, might be the most two important controls. 3.1. Over fishing Fishing could directly impact on the biomass and structure in the YSLME, the selective removal of larger or higher trophic level species, and the reduction in abundance of vulnerable species, resulting in changes in overall biomass, species composition and size spectrum structure (Xu and Jin, 2005). The YSLME is intensively exploited, the major fisheries are at a low level (Tang, 1989; Liu et al., 1990; Xu et al., 2003), and not economically sustainable. The catch composition also varied from the 1960s to the 1980s, and the biomass of fish and invertebrates declined by more than 40% from the early 1960s to the early 1980s. As the consequence, larger-sized and highvalued species such as small yellow croaker and hairtail Trichiutus lepturus were replaced by smaller-sized and low-valued Please cite this article as: Tang, Q., et al., The biomass yields and management challenges for the Yellow sea large marine ecosystem. Environmental Development (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2015.06.012i
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pelagic fish, such as anchovy (Tang, 1989, 1993; Jin, 2003; Jin and Tang, 1996; Xu et al., 2003). Hence, the intensively exploited commercially fish stocks could explain the dominant species shift from large demersal fish to small pelagic fish in the YSLME. 3.2. Climate changes In generally, climate change may have important effects on the recruitment of pelagic species and shellfish. Pacific herring Clupea pallasi in the YSLME has a long history of extreme variability and corresponding exploitation. In the last century, the commercial fishery of this species experienced three peaks (1900, 1938 and 1972), followed by periods of little or no catches. In addition, climate changes also greatly contribute to the dynamic of herring stocks, good relationship between the fluctuations in herring abundance in the YSLME and the 36-year cycle of wetness oscillation was proved (Tang, 1981, 2002). SST (sea surface temperature) regime shifts and fluctuations in herring abundance showed a strong correlation (Huang et al., 2012; Belkin, 2009). Since 2005, both herring stocks and eelgrass biomass (where herring spawn), have increased in Sanggou Bay–a former major herring spawning ground and now a large scale mariculture area. Meanwhile, several unusual events were observed in coastal waters, a false killer whale Pseudorca crassidens firstly occurred Qingdao Bay in 30 years; a sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus landed on Herring Beach in Sanggou Bay in 2008, its body length was 19.6 m, and weight was 51.1 t. However, the changing status of the LMEs might be caused by more complex factors and mechanisms, e.g. coastal eutrophication, which lead to red tide, green tide and jellyfish blooms, further impact on the structure and function of the LMEs (Lin et al., 2005), the similar results were also reported in the YSLME (Uye, 2008; Liu et al., 2010). In addition, the survival rates of fish, benthic fauna and other marine creatures severely decreased for the harmful algal and jellyfish blooms and hypoxia (dead zones) in China coastal waters (Zhu et al., 2011; Tang et al. 2013a).
4. Adaptive strategies to cope with new management challenge 4.1. Developing resource conservation-based capture fisheries Many fisheries conservation strategies have been employed in fisheries management, such as “double-control” system of fishing vessel, closed season/areas, licensing system, and limits of catchable size and the proportion of juveniles in the catch etc. However, the recovery of fishery resources is a slow and complex process, so the development of resource conservationbased capture fisheries will be a long-term and arduous task. A good lesson is the dynamics of Atlantic cod Gadus morhua stock. During the early 1990s, the Atlantic cod stocks in North America were almost collapsed, which led to severe reductions in quotas and temporary moratoria on commercial fishing (Hutchings and Myers, 1994; Myers et al., 1997). Although considered the restrictive management measures, these stocks have remained at low abundance for more than a decade, which could attributed to the recruitment failure, high fishing mortality, elevated natural mortality, and poor fish condition (Rice et al., 2003; Shelton et al., 2006; Bousquet et al. 2014). So, it is necessary to develop the strategies which could fill the gap during the stock recovery period. Stock enhancement is an important method to accelerate the sound development of the fishery economy and effectively enhance fishery production and economic benefits, as well as improved the community structure of ecosystem (Bell et al., 2005; Ye et al., 2005). Releases of hatchery-reared juveniles have been carried out for a variety of species, and in many countries, to replace a stock that is locally extinct, to rebuild a stock that has collapsed as a viable fishery or to augment a natural population for a “put and take” fishery (Travis et al., 1998). However, there are just a few successful cases so far (Hilborn, 1998), e.g. penaeid shrimps Fenneropenaeus chinensis in the Bohai Sea (Jin et al., 2014). Recently, the released strategies have been greatly improved (Kellison and Eggleston, 2004; Loneragan et al., 2006), which has led to reports of more successful initiatives (Kristiansen, 1999; Leber, 2002; Wang et al., 2006). In China, to diminish the fishing efforts, the government has initiated closed season (mandating 60–90 day closures to fishing) in the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, East China Sea and South China Sea during summer months since 1995. Meanwhile, the numbers of motor fishing boats have been reduced by 30% during 1995–2013. Besides these management measures, China also have launched a lot of stock enhancement projects. Actually, since 1984, the experimental release of penaeid shrimps in the Bohai Sea, the northern Yellow Sea and the southern waters off the Shandong Peninsula has been conducted and gained the remarkable social and economic benefits (Wang et al., 2006). In 2006, the Chinese State Council promulgated a program of action on the conservation of living aquatic resources of China. This program has provided guidance for the conservation of living aquatic resources. Now, stock enhancement has become a public activity for increasing marine fishery resources, and about 50 billion hatchlings of several species (including economic species and endangered species) were relaesed into Chinese waters from 2006 to 2010 (Tang, 2014). The stock enhancement has been proved to increase the recruitment of depleted species, which could partially compensate the removed biomass from the LMEs and enhance the recovery of over-exploited fishery stocks. However, stock enhancement greatly contribute to both the ecological and economic benefits. In addition, these adaptive management strategies in increasing the fisheries biomass really bring the benefits to fishers, and easily have been embraced and conducted by them. Please cite this article as: Tang, Q., et al., The biomass yields and management challenges for the Yellow sea large marine ecosystem. Environmental Development (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2015.06.012i
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4.2. Developing environmentally friendly aquaculture One choice is to develop new mariculture model, e.g., integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA). Not only does IMTA provide more production but it also indirectly or directly reduces excess atmospheric CO2 and nutrients, and increases the social acceptability of culturing systems (Tang and Fang, 2012; Tang et al., 2011). The various modes of IMTA are implemented effectively in Sanggou Bay within the YSLME. They include IMTA of long-line culture of abalone and kelp, IMTA of long-line culture of finfish, bivalves and seaweed, and IMTA of benthic culture of abalone, sea cucumber, clam and seaweed (Fang et al., 2009; Tang et al. 2013b). An important criterion in constructing these production modes is to get good ecological benefits. For example, in an IMTA system for finfish, bivalves and seaweeds, kelp and Gracilaria lemaneiformis can be used to remove and transform dissolved inorganic nutrients from the effluent of both finfish and bivalves. It can also provide dissolved oxygen to the finfish and bivalves. In addition, oysters and sea urchins will filter the suspended particulate organic materials from the fish feces, residual feed, and phytoplankton. Through the IMTA, the low trophic level species, such as sea cucumbers, seaweeds and shellfishes, are harvested, a nontop harvest strategy, that increases the conversion efficiency and also reduces the excess atmospheric CO2. It is a good choice for an ecosystem friendly fishery strategy.
5. Conclusion Under the overfishing and climate changes stressors, the YSLME changed significantly, as well as the biomass of fisheries resources. The smaller pelagic species became dominant species instead of larger demersal species. The trophic levels also showed a decline tendency. In order to cope with the new challenges of management, two kinds of management strategies have been recommended to protect the YSLME. A choice is the resource conservation-based capture fisheries, such as closed season/areas and stock enhancement. However, such conservation strategies are long-term process before stock recovery. Therefore, during the resource recovery period, another choice, the development of environmentally friendly aquiculture, such as IMTA, should be encouraged. The two kinds of management could benefit from the non-top harvest strategy (Tang, 2014). Harvest the smaller and lower trophic level fishery species through both fishing and aquaculture, implementing the strategy that enhances ecosystem conversion efficiency. Thus, these managements considered all the essential factors in the ‘five-point modular’ for sustainable development of the LMEs (Sherman et al., 2005), which could balance ecology benefits and socioeconomic requirements.
Acknowledgments This study was supported by funds from the National Key Basic Research Development Plan of China (No. 2006CB400600). We are grateful to our colleagues of the function laboratory for their assistance in providing survey data for this study. We thank K. Sherman for his valuable help during preparation of the manuscript. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.
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The biomass yields and management challenges for the Yellow sea large marine ecosystem Qisheng Tang n, Yiping Ying, Qiang Wu Function Laboratory for Marine Fisheries Science and Food Production Processes /Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, CAFS, Qingdao 266071, PR China
a r t i c l e i n f o
abstract
Article history: Received 27 March 2015 Received in revised form 22 June 2015 Accepted 29 June 2015
This paper summarizes the changing biomass yields in the Yellow Sea large marine ecosystem (YSLME) in recent years and discusses the causes of such changes, including overfishing and climate changes. Meanwhile, two kinds of adaptive management strategies are recommended to support the biomass yields in YSLME, including resource-conservation-based capture fisheries (e.g. closed season/areas, stock enhancement etc.) and environmentally friendly aquaculture (e.g. integrated multi-trophic aquaculture, IMTA). & 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Keywords: Biomass yields Adaptive management strategies Large marine ecosystem Yellow Sea
1. Introduction The World’s Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) are defined by ecological criteria including (1) bathymetry, (2) hydrography, (3) productivity, and (4) trophically linked populations (Sherman et al., 1993; Duda and Sherman, 2002; Sherman, 2014). The LMEs, especially the coastal ecosystems, play important roles in food supply, and about 80% of global sea foods has been supplied from the coastal ecosystems every year (Sherman, 2014; Tang, 2014). However, the LMEs continue to be degraded by unsustainable fishing practices, habitat degradation including loss of sea grasses, mangroves and corals, eutrophication, toxic pollution, aerosol contamination, ocean acidification, and emerging diseases. The scale and severity of risks to LMEs goods and services associated with depletion and degradation of coastal oceans is well documented (Sherman et al., 2005). The coastal waters of LMEs contribute an estimated $12.6 trillion annually to the global economy (Costanza, 1997). Therefore, improving of sustainable management and conservation strategies for the ecosystem is becoming an important and urgent issue that needs to be undertaken in LMEs. The Yellow Sea is located between continental North China and Korean Peninsula. It is separated from the West Pacific Ocean by the East China Sea in the south, and is linked with the Bohai Sea. It covers an area of about 400,000 km2, with a mean depth of 44 m. As a semi-enclosed slope and warm water sea, Yellow Sea shows typical characteristics of large marine ecosystem, shallow but rich in nutrients and resources. The Yellow Sea LME (YSLME) has productive and varied coastal, offshore, and transboundary fisheries. Over the past several decades, the fishery populations in the Yellow Sea have changed greatly. Many commercial species are threatened by unsustainable exploitation and by natural perturbations (Tang, 2009). Hence, it is crucial and timely to promote sustainable exploitation of the LMEs and implement effective management n
Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (Q. Tang).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2015.06.012 2211-4645/& 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Please cite this article as: Tang, Q., et al., The biomass yields and management challenges for the Yellow sea large marine ecosystem. Environmental Development (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2015.06.012i
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Fig. 1. The survey area and sampling sites of the YSLME.
Fig. 2. The variations in CPUE of fishery species in the YSLME in spring and autumn.
strategies like ecosystem approach and ecosystem based management at LMEs. In this study, the changing states of biomass yields and management strategies of marine food resources under multiple stressors were discussed by using the case of YSLME.
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2. Changing states of biomass yields The fishing industry in the inshore waters in China has developed recklessly without adequate knowledge on the characteristics of the existing marine fishery resource and the fishery economy, causing the eventual excess utilization of marine fishery resources. With the increase of fishing vessels and greater horsepower, combined with the modernization of fishing gear and methods, the offshore fishery resource was overexploited, and further led to the decline of fishery resource. Fisheries resources in YSLME have been overfished since 1980, the fishing gears include trawl, purse seine, gill net, trap net and so on. As a result, the commercially important long-lived, high trophic level, piscivorous bottom fish have been replaced by the low-valued shorted-lived, low trophic level, planktivorous pelagic fish. By the mid-1980s, the captured production increased by an average of 20 percent with catches mainly composed of small pelagic species, which accounted for more than 60 percent of the total catch. The pelagic fish play important roles in marine fisheries of China, greatly contribute to the sources of human food, as well as the source fishmeal of aquaculture. However, recent surveys indicate that the abundance of pelagic species, e.g. anchovy Engraulis japonicus, is declining, while the biomass of demersal is increasing. Based on the data collected by R/V ‘Beidou’ of Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute from a selected sea area of Yellow Sea, between latitudes 33° and 37 °N, and longitudes 121°30′ and 124°E (Fig. 1), fluctuation of biomass yields of pelagic fish, bottom fish, crustaceans etc. in such area was observed from 1985 to 2013 both in spring and autumn (Fig. 2). In spring, the catch per unit effort (CPUE) of pelagic fish increased continuously for 12 years until the year of 1998, from about 20 kg/h to more than 40 kg/h, but sharply decreased to about 5 kg/h in the following 7 years and maintained this low level in recent years. In autumn, rapid decline of pelagic fish CPUE, could be detected during 1985–2000, but increased since 2009. The biomass of demersal fish changed slighter than the biomass of pelagic fish both in spring and autumn, and showed increasing trend generally since the early 2000s. The CPUE of crustaceans continuously increased in recent years in spring, but decreased in autumn since 2008, when the CPUE reached a peak after 1985. The total biomass of fishery species also fluctuated in last 30 years in the YSLME, increased slightly in the middle of 2000s in spring, autumn and winter, but declined sharply in summer. In winter, the biomass increased since 2000, but showed to a decreasing trend recently in other seasons, while in summer, the biomass yields in the YSLME reduced by more than 90% from 2000 to 2012 (Fig. 3). The dominant species in the YSLME also experienced drastic changes. In 1986, anchovy, flatfish Cleisthenes herzensteini and eelpout Zoarces elongatus were the top three dominant species. Small yellow croaker Larimichthys polyactis became the dominant species since the late 1990s. Anchovy was one of the top three dominant species excluding in 2010. However, mantis shrimp Oratosquilla oratoria became dominant species, and was the top dominant species in 2013, while Crangon affinis was the second dominant species. The accounted percentile of the top three dominant species in total biomass reduced from about 70% in the 1990s to less than 50% after 2010 (Fig. 4). Such survey data implied the percentile of higher trophic level species declined continuously in recent years. The intraspecific changes of trophic levels were more obvious. Trophic levels of food organisms reduced, which led to the trophic level decline of fishery species, as well as caused the changes of feeding habits (Zhang and Tang, 2004). For example, Spotted velvetfish (Erisphex pottii) fed on 83.3% benthon and 16.7% plankton in 1985–1986, but fed on 94.6% plankton in 2000–2001, so feeding habits changed from benthivorous to planktivorous. Trichiurus muticus fed on 68.9% nekton and
Fig. 3. The seasonal variations in CPUE in the YSLME.
Please cite this article as: Tang, Q., et al., The biomass yields and management challenges for the Yellow sea large marine ecosystem. Environmental Development (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2015.06.012i
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Fig. 4. The dominant species shift in the YSLME.
30.6% benthon in 1985–1986, but fed on 87.6% plankton and 11.9% nekton in 2000–2001, so feeding habits changed from piscivorous to planktivorous (Zhang et al., 2007).
3. Causes for changes Traditional theories, e.g. bottom-up, top-down or wasp-waist control, are not sufficient to directly and clearly explain these complicated changes. An acceptable explanation is that the changes in the coastal ecosystem may be a consequence of multifactorial controls. The multi-control mechanism may contribute to ecosystem complexity and uncertainty that are difficult to identify and manage (Tang et al., 2003). Evidence showed, human activity or climate changes, might be the most two important controls. 3.1. Over fishing Fishing could directly impact on the biomass and structure in the YSLME, the selective removal of larger or higher trophic level species, and the reduction in abundance of vulnerable species, resulting in changes in overall biomass, species composition and size spectrum structure (Xu and Jin, 2005). The YSLME is intensively exploited, the major fisheries are at a low level (Tang, 1989; Liu et al., 1990; Xu et al., 2003), and not economically sustainable. The catch composition also varied from the 1960s to the 1980s, and the biomass of fish and invertebrates declined by more than 40% from the early 1960s to the early 1980s. As the consequence, larger-sized and highvalued species such as small yellow croaker and hairtail Trichiutus lepturus were replaced by smaller-sized and low-valued Please cite this article as: Tang, Q., et al., The biomass yields and management challenges for the Yellow sea large marine ecosystem. Environmental Development (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2015.06.012i
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pelagic fish, such as anchovy (Tang, 1989, 1993; Jin, 2003; Jin and Tang, 1996; Xu et al., 2003). Hence, the intensively exploited commercially fish stocks could explain the dominant species shift from large demersal fish to small pelagic fish in the YSLME. 3.2. Climate changes In generally, climate change may have important effects on the recruitment of pelagic species and shellfish. Pacific herring Clupea pallasi in the YSLME has a long history of extreme variability and corresponding exploitation. In the last century, the commercial fishery of this species experienced three peaks (1900, 1938 and 1972), followed by periods of little or no catches. In addition, climate changes also greatly contribute to the dynamic of herring stocks, good relationship between the fluctuations in herring abundance in the YSLME and the 36-year cycle of wetness oscillation was proved (Tang, 1981, 2002). SST (sea surface temperature) regime shifts and fluctuations in herring abundance showed a strong correlation (Huang et al., 2012; Belkin, 2009). Since 2005, both herring stocks and eelgrass biomass (where herring spawn), have increased in Sanggou Bay–a former major herring spawning ground and now a large scale mariculture area. Meanwhile, several unusual events were observed in coastal waters, a false killer whale Pseudorca crassidens firstly occurred Qingdao Bay in 30 years; a sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus landed on Herring Beach in Sanggou Bay in 2008, its body length was 19.6 m, and weight was 51.1 t. However, the changing status of the LMEs might be caused by more complex factors and mechanisms, e.g. coastal eutrophication, which lead to red tide, green tide and jellyfish blooms, further impact on the structure and function of the LMEs (Lin et al., 2005), the similar results were also reported in the YSLME (Uye, 2008; Liu et al., 2010). In addition, the survival rates of fish, benthic fauna and other marine creatures severely decreased for the harmful algal and jellyfish blooms and hypoxia (dead zones) in China coastal waters (Zhu et al., 2011; Tang et al. 2013a).
4. Adaptive strategies to cope with new management challenge 4.1. Developing resource conservation-based capture fisheries Many fisheries conservation strategies have been employed in fisheries management, such as “double-control” system of fishing vessel, closed season/areas, licensing system, and limits of catchable size and the proportion of juveniles in the catch etc. However, the recovery of fishery resources is a slow and complex process, so the development of resource conservationbased capture fisheries will be a long-term and arduous task. A good lesson is the dynamics of Atlantic cod Gadus morhua stock. During the early 1990s, the Atlantic cod stocks in North America were almost collapsed, which led to severe reductions in quotas and temporary moratoria on commercial fishing (Hutchings and Myers, 1994; Myers et al., 1997). Although considered the restrictive management measures, these stocks have remained at low abundance for more than a decade, which could attributed to the recruitment failure, high fishing mortality, elevated natural mortality, and poor fish condition (Rice et al., 2003; Shelton et al., 2006; Bousquet et al. 2014). So, it is necessary to develop the strategies which could fill the gap during the stock recovery period. Stock enhancement is an important method to accelerate the sound development of the fishery economy and effectively enhance fishery production and economic benefits, as well as improved the community structure of ecosystem (Bell et al., 2005; Ye et al., 2005). Releases of hatchery-reared juveniles have been carried out for a variety of species, and in many countries, to replace a stock that is locally extinct, to rebuild a stock that has collapsed as a viable fishery or to augment a natural population for a “put and take” fishery (Travis et al., 1998). However, there are just a few successful cases so far (Hilborn, 1998), e.g. penaeid shrimps Fenneropenaeus chinensis in the Bohai Sea (Jin et al., 2014). Recently, the released strategies have been greatly improved (Kellison and Eggleston, 2004; Loneragan et al., 2006), which has led to reports of more successful initiatives (Kristiansen, 1999; Leber, 2002; Wang et al., 2006). In China, to diminish the fishing efforts, the government has initiated closed season (mandating 60–90 day closures to fishing) in the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, East China Sea and South China Sea during summer months since 1995. Meanwhile, the numbers of motor fishing boats have been reduced by 30% during 1995–2013. Besides these management measures, China also have launched a lot of stock enhancement projects. Actually, since 1984, the experimental release of penaeid shrimps in the Bohai Sea, the northern Yellow Sea and the southern waters off the Shandong Peninsula has been conducted and gained the remarkable social and economic benefits (Wang et al., 2006). In 2006, the Chinese State Council promulgated a program of action on the conservation of living aquatic resources of China. This program has provided guidance for the conservation of living aquatic resources. Now, stock enhancement has become a public activity for increasing marine fishery resources, and about 50 billion hatchlings of several species (including economic species and endangered species) were relaesed into Chinese waters from 2006 to 2010 (Tang, 2014). The stock enhancement has been proved to increase the recruitment of depleted species, which could partially compensate the removed biomass from the LMEs and enhance the recovery of over-exploited fishery stocks. However, stock enhancement greatly contribute to both the ecological and economic benefits. In addition, these adaptive management strategies in increasing the fisheries biomass really bring the benefits to fishers, and easily have been embraced and conducted by them. Please cite this article as: Tang, Q., et al., The biomass yields and management challenges for the Yellow sea large marine ecosystem. Environmental Development (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2015.06.012i
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4.2. Developing environmentally friendly aquaculture One choice is to develop new mariculture model, e.g., integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA). Not only does IMTA provide more production but it also indirectly or directly reduces excess atmospheric CO2 and nutrients, and increases the social acceptability of culturing systems (Tang and Fang, 2012; Tang et al., 2011). The various modes of IMTA are implemented effectively in Sanggou Bay within the YSLME. They include IMTA of long-line culture of abalone and kelp, IMTA of long-line culture of finfish, bivalves and seaweed, and IMTA of benthic culture of abalone, sea cucumber, clam and seaweed (Fang et al., 2009; Tang et al. 2013b). An important criterion in constructing these production modes is to get good ecological benefits. For example, in an IMTA system for finfish, bivalves and seaweeds, kelp and Gracilaria lemaneiformis can be used to remove and transform dissolved inorganic nutrients from the effluent of both finfish and bivalves. It can also provide dissolved oxygen to the finfish and bivalves. In addition, oysters and sea urchins will filter the suspended particulate organic materials from the fish feces, residual feed, and phytoplankton. Through the IMTA, the low trophic level species, such as sea cucumbers, seaweeds and shellfishes, are harvested, a nontop harvest strategy, that increases the conversion efficiency and also reduces the excess atmospheric CO2. It is a good choice for an ecosystem friendly fishery strategy.
5. Conclusion Under the overfishing and climate changes stressors, the YSLME changed significantly, as well as the biomass of fisheries resources. The smaller pelagic species became dominant species instead of larger demersal species. The trophic levels also showed a decline tendency. In order to cope with the new challenges of management, two kinds of management strategies have been recommended to protect the YSLME. A choice is the resource conservation-based capture fisheries, such as closed season/areas and stock enhancement. However, such conservation strategies are long-term process before stock recovery. Therefore, during the resource recovery period, another choice, the development of environmentally friendly aquiculture, such as IMTA, should be encouraged. The two kinds of management could benefit from the non-top harvest strategy (Tang, 2014). Harvest the smaller and lower trophic level fishery species through both fishing and aquaculture, implementing the strategy that enhances ecosystem conversion efficiency. Thus, these managements considered all the essential factors in the ‘five-point modular’ for sustainable development of the LMEs (Sherman et al., 2005), which could balance ecology benefits and socioeconomic requirements.
Acknowledgments This study was supported by funds from the National Key Basic Research Development Plan of China (No. 2006CB400600). We are grateful to our colleagues of the function laboratory for their assistance in providing survey data for this study. We thank K. Sherman for his valuable help during preparation of the manuscript. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.
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Please cite this article as: Tang, Q., et al., The biomass yields and management challenges for the Yellow sea large marine ecosystem. Environmental Development (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2015.06.012i