Theme G: Adapting to change: climate, habitat and socio-economics
53. MARINE STOCK ENHANCEMENTS UNDER A CHANGING CLIMATE: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE RESPONSIBLE ENHANCEMENT APPROACH
Sarah Jennings*1, Stewart Frusher2, Johann Bell3, Marcus Haward4,5, Alistair Hobday6, Melissa Nursey-Bray7, Gretta Pecl2, Ingrid van Putten8
1School of Economics and Finance, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
2Tasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Institute, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
3Secretariat of the Pacific Community, B.P. D5, 98848 Noumea Cedex, New Caledonia
4School of Government, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
5Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
6Climate Adaptation Flagship, CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
7Department of Geographical and Environmental Studies, University of Adelaide, South Australia
8CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Sarah.Jennings@utas.edu.au
Marine stock enhancements refer to a suite of management actions intended to restore, conserve or enhance fisheries through the release of cultured organisms. The need to develop, evaluate and manage enhancements from a broad, integrated fisheries management perspective, which reflects the rapidly changing fisheries science and management contexts in which enhancements take place, is now widely accepted and well embedded in the revised ‘Responsible Approach’ (Lorenzen et al. 2010). Climate change represents one of many existing stresses on marine systems, others being overfishing, pollution and habitat degradation. However, in combination with other stressors, climate change threatens to push marine social-ecological systems beyond their historical ranges of variability, creating a complex and unpredictable mix of challenges (Perry et al. 2010) for marine resource users and managers. In this paper, an interdisciplinary team evaluates the revised Responsible Approach through a climate change lens. In particular, we assess the adequacy of the approach in the face of some of the key challenges presented by climate change, including increased variability and uncertainty, and a greater incidence of ecosystem surprises and range shifts. We highlight a number of issues related to marine ecology, fisheries biology and management, sociology, economics and governance that are likely to challenge practitioners involved in the development, evaluation and management of marine stock enhancements, and suggest further revisions to the Responsible Approach. We conclude by highlighting the need to consider the role of stock and habitat enhancements when assessing the vulnerability of marine systems to climate change, and in the design of regional fisheries climate change adaptation plans.
Lorenzen, K., Leber, K. M. and Blankenship, H. L. Responsible Approach to Marine Stock Enhancement: An Update. Reviews in Fisheries Science, 18(2):189-210 (2010).
Perry, R. I., Omner, R. E., Barabge M. and Werner, F.. The challenge of adapting marine social-ecological systems to the additional stress of climate change. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 2:356-363 (2010).
Keywords: climate change, stock enhancement, responsible enhancement approach
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