Addressing bycatch of depleted species through a marine conservation network in the Canadian Atlantic

Bycatch of depleted and vulnerable species is a pressing conservation issue that undermines the sustainability of fisheries worldwide. Here, we utilised spatiotemporal modelling of fisheries-independent survey data to evaluate the potential for existing and proposed Marine Conservation Areas (MCAs) in Atlantic Canada to reduce bycatch vulnerability for three severely-depleted species—Atlantic cod (<i>Gadus morhua</i>), American plaice (<i>Hippoglossoides platessoides</i>) and White hake (<i>Urophycis tenuis</i>)—commonly caught as bycatch in commercial trawl fisheries on the Scotian Shelf-Bay of Fundy. We overlaid predicted distributions of abundance for these depleted species with those of commercially targeted Haddock (<i>Melanogrammus aeglefinus</i>) and Pollock (<i>Pollachius virens</i>) to identify areas of high-vulnerability.

兼捕受枯竭与易危物种的问题，是危及全球渔业可持续性的严峻保护议题。本研究借助渔业独立调查数据开展时空建模，评估加拿大大西洋海域现有及拟议海洋保护区（Marine Conservation Areas, MCAs）在降低三种严重枯竭物种兼捕脆弱性方面的潜力——这三种物种分别为大西洋鳕（Gadus morhua）、美洲鲽（Hippoglossoides platessoides）和白无须鳕（Urophycis tenuis），它们在斯科舍陆架-芬迪湾的商业拖网渔业中常被作为兼捕渔获捕获。本研究将上述枯竭物种的丰度预测分布与商业目标捕捞物种黑线鳕（Melanogrammus aeglefinus）和绿青鳕（Pollachius virens）的分布进行叠加分析，以此识别高脆弱性区域。