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An ocean observation system for monitoring the affects of climate change on the ecology and sustainability of pelagic fisheries in the Pacific Ocean

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Abstract

Climate change presents an emerging challenge to the sustainable management of tuna fisheries, and robust information is essential to ensure future sustainability. Climate and harvest affect tuna stocks, populations of non-target, dependent species and the ecosystem. To provide relevant advice we need an improved understanding of oceanic ecosystems and better data to parameterise the models that forecast the impacts of climate change. Currently ocean-wide data collection in the Pacific Ocean is primarily restricted to oceanographic data. However, the fisheries observer programs that operate in the region offer an opportunity to collect the additional information on the mid and upper trophic levels of the ecosystem that is necessary to complement this physical data, including time-series of distribution, abundance, size, composition and biological information on target and non-target species and mid trophic level organisms. These observer programs are in their infancy, with limited temporal and spatial distribution but recent international and national policy decisions have been made to expand their coverage. We identify a number of actions to initiate this monitoring including: consolidating collaborations to ensure the use of best quality data; developing consistency between sub-regional observer programmes to ensure that they meet the objectives of ecosystem monitoring; interrogating of existing time series to determine the most appropriate spatial template for monitoring; and exploring existing ecosystem models to identify suitable indicators of ecosystem status and change. The information obtained should improve capacity to develop fisheries management policies that are resilient and can be adapted to climate change.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support was provided by the Global Environment Facility Pacific Islands Oceanic Fisheries Management project, the 9th European Union Development Fund (SCIFISH project), the 10th European Union Development Fund (SCICOFISH project), Australian Government Overseas Aid Program (AusAID) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). We would like to thank the following persons for the provision of data and information on observer programmes: Nick Vogel, Stephen Brouwer, Karl Staisch, Tim Park, Stuart Arceneaux, Lesley Jantz, Eric Forney, John D. Kelly and Kevin Busscher.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Secretariat of the Pacific Community, BP D5, 98848, Noumea, New Caledonia

    Simon J. Nicol, Valerie Allain, Graham M. Pilling, Johann Bell, Peter Sharples, Antony Lewis, John Hampton, Jesus Jurado Molina, Simon Hoyle, Karine Briand & Peter Williams

  2. National Marine Fisheries Service, 2570 Dole Street, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA

    Jeff Polovina

  3. Institut de Ciències del Mar, Passeig Maritim de la Barceloneta, 37-49, 08003, Barcelona, Spain

    Marta Coll

  4. Western Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Council, 1164 Bishop Street, Honolulu, HI, 96813, USA

    Paul Dalzell

  5. Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, 8604 La Jolla Shores Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92037-1508, USA

    Robert Olson

  6. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, 41 Boggo Road, Dutton Park, QLD, 4102, Australia

    Shane Griffiths

  7. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, GPO Box 1538, Hobart, TAS, 7001, Australia

    Jeffrey M. Dambacher, Jock Young & Nic Bax

  8. CLS, Space Oceanography Division, 8-10 rue Hermès, 31520, Ramonville, Saint-Agne, France

    Patrick Lehodey

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  1. Simon J. Nicol
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  2. Valerie Allain
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  3. Graham M. Pilling
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  4. Jeff Polovina
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  5. Marta Coll
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  6. Johann Bell
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  7. Paul Dalzell
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  8. Peter Sharples
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  9. Robert Olson
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  10. Shane Griffiths
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  11. Jeffrey M. Dambacher
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  13. Antony Lewis
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  14. John Hampton
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  15. Jesus Jurado Molina
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  16. Simon Hoyle
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  17. Karine Briand
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  18. Nic Bax
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  19. Patrick Lehodey
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  20. Peter Williams
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Correspondence to Simon J. Nicol.

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This article is part of the Special Issue on “Climate and Oceanic Fisheries” with Guest Editor James Salinger.

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Nicol, S.J., Allain, V., Pilling, G.M. et al. An ocean observation system for monitoring the affects of climate change on the ecology and sustainability of pelagic fisheries in the Pacific Ocean. Climatic Change 119, 131–145 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-012-0598-y

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