Lesson 17: Marine Resources and Fisheries

1. Lesson 17: Marine Resources and Fisheries Amy Duray EVPP 490 003 April 12, 2010

2. Introduction • Importance of fish as a component of Asian diets. In many areas, it is the only source of protein some consume. • Incredible sensitivity of fish populations (both marine and freshwater) frustrates management regimens • “Global commons” behavior of marine resources and those that harvest them • Southeast Asia is the most important biological reserve of coral, finfish, and seagrass species

3. Large Marine Ecosystems of East and Southeast Asia and Associated Watersheds 34 – Bay of Bengal 35 – Gulf of Thailand 36 – South China Sea 37 – Sulu-Celebes Sea 38 – Indonesian Sea 47 – East China Sea 48 – Yellow Sea 49 – Kuroshio Current 50 – Sea of Japan 51 – Oyashio Current 52 – Sea of Okhotsk

4. Drivers • Social and Economic Trends • Poverty • Increasing population (60% of the world population, 4 billion people) • Over consumption of resources and the drive to advance the economy using those resources • Inadequate governance of resources (lack of monitoring, enforcement, effective management and corruption) • Lack of public participation (lack of incentives, understanding of environmental issues by the local people) • Natural Hazards: Increased vulnerability or occurrences • Tsunami • Cyclones • Floods

5. Understanding the Role of Climate Change • Sea Surface Temperatures • Threatens food security (wild catch and aquaculture) • Bleaches corals, reduces biodiversity, changes species distribution • Sea Level rises • Submerges fragile coastal systems, seagrasses • Ocean acidification • Biocalcifying organisms, including reef corals

6. Primary and Secondary Drivers of Biomass Yields in LMEs of Asia Adapted from Sherman, K. (2006) The Large Marine Ecosystem network approach to WSSD targets. Ocean & Coastal Management 49: 640–648

7. Pressures • Conversion of marine ecosystems to other uses, • Severe storms • Eutrophication and increased sediment • Over-fishing and destructive fishing techniques (commercial drag nets and bottom trawling, artisanal poisoning and blasting) • Increased sea temperature levels • Introduction of invasive species

8. Asia Coastal Populations

9. Broad Threats to Marine Ecosystems • Fisheries • Ornamental trade (including aquarium fish and coral and shell souvenirs) • Hunting of endangered species (mainly turtles, also dugongs, whales and sharks) • Tourism (damage of habitats by tourists, anchors, pollution, and constructions) • Environmentaldegradation (siltation, pollution, coastaldevelopment, mining, dredging, etc.)

10. Southeast Asia • Environmental degradation is largest factor in declining biodiversity in regional aggregate • In Malaysia, this effect is the most pronounced • In Viet Nam and Indonesia, the effects of overfishing and destructive fishing techniques have the largest effect • Impacts from Tourism most pronounced in Thailand and Indonesia, but also critical in Malaysia as well

11. State and Trends • Decreased mangrove coverage • Coral reef destruction • Decreased biomass and diversity from habit loss (pollution) • Over-fishing • Loss of seagrasses • Increased coral bleaching from increased water temperatures

12. Status of Coral Reefs, 2004 (GEO-4)

13. Impacts • Reducing mangrove and coral reef coverage leads to the loss of coast-buffering service from severe storms--leading to a higher human death toll • Loss of coral reefs and mangroves leads to a lack of nurseries and protected areas for young fish populations • Conversion of mangroves swamps to a populated area increases the increases risk of malaria--leading to a higher human death toll • A decreased biomass and bio-diversity threatens the region’s food security and livelihoods from depleted fish stocks • Coral bleaching also leads to increased poverty with the decreased likelihood of tourism that provides economic basis of many of the coastal communities.

14. Responses • Response created via policy and management, economic markets, technology and restoration: • Addressing climate change with international agreements • Cap and trade of emissions • Carbon sequestering, • Scrubbing away nitrogen and sulphur • Increasing protection for coastal populations • Coral reef and wetland restoration • Managed coastal retreats and land-use zoning • Fishing gear restrictions • Establishing marine protected areas (MPAs) • Using by-catch reduction methods • International agreements on fishing limits • Mariculture

15. Marine Protected Areas • Goal: Improve marine ecosystem conditions, while simultaneously spurring community-level sustainable economic development. • Reality: • Only 10-20% of MPAs in ASEAN Region are effectively managed • Terrestrial plan being applied to marine systems • Exploiters become managers • MPAs cover coral ecosystems, but seagrass ecosystems are largely unprotected • Large Gaps (Myanmar, Western Philippines, Sumatra) • Economic losers create community tension – need to equitably spread the economic benefit as well as the loss • Social factors are tremendously important in continuing success of MPAs

16. Coral Triangle Initiative (1 of 2) • August 2007 – President Yudhoyono of Indonesia. Compact signed in May 2009 • Six Nations: • Philippines • Indonesia • Timor Leste • Malaysia • Papua New Guinea • Solomon Islands • NGO Partners: • GEF • WWF • CI • Nature Conservancy • US Dept of State

17. Coral Triangle Initiative (2 of 2) • Key program components: • Lobby for international agreement on Climate Change • National Plans and Targets • Integrated Coastal Zone Management • Socio-economic programs • Video (WWF) – good footage of destructive fishing techniques. • WWF Interactive Map: http://wwfmaps.org/?zone=coral

18. Mangrove Destruction (1 of 3) • Primary Pressure – Agricultural expansion, secondary is shrimp aquaculture (conversion and shrimp seed harvesting)

19. Mangrove Destruction (3 of 3) USGS ecologists produced this map of mangrove deforestation in Burma’s (Myanmar’s) Irrawaddy Delta using an older version of the Global Land Survey dataset. Recent improvements are allowing them to map mangrove deforestation worldwide. (Map adapted by Robert Simmon from Giri et al., 2008.)

20. Mangrove Destruction (3 of 3) • Impacts: • Erosion impacts coastal residents – exacerbated by sea level rise • Water quality and ecosystem diversity • Increase in water-borne diseases

21. Sea Grass Destruction • Sea grass beds are declining throughout Asia: Indonesia has lost 40%; Philippines about 50% • The destruction of the sea grasses is linked to the loss of mangrove forests. • The grass beds serve as a link from the swamp to the reefs and are valuable on a global scale for carbon storage (Fortes, 2004)

22. Aquaculture and Mariculture • Alternative to capture fisheries • Human consumption and fishmeal production for agricultural uses • Implications for food security • Impacts: • Mangrove destruction • Invasive species • Changing pathogenic and parasitic relationships • Integrated rice paddy aquaculture

23. Spratly Archipelago • Disputed territory claimed by six nations: China, Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam • Highly biodiverse • Pelagic larval movements indicate that a reserve in this area could help biodiversity in adjacent ecosystems, such as the South China Sea • International community wants to make an MPA to protect from oil exploration