Illegal_Fishing_Alcatrazes

The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to have significant consequences for wildlife populations and conservation efforts, particularly in driving an increase in illegal extraction at the local and regional level. Here, we report a shift in illegal catch by both commercial and recreational fishing vessels inside and outside the Alcatrazes Archipelago marine protected area, a biodiversity hotspot in the southwest Atlantic Ocean, for the three years before and two years during the pandemic. We witnessed an increase in both the total illegal catch and numbers of species caught since the pandemic, particularly by amateur fishers. Both types of vessels targeted larger, more valuable apex predators during the pandemic, including many threatened and endangered species. Based on a functional trait analysis, removal of these species is likely to have significant ecosystem sequences into the future. Our study provides new evidence that the pandemic can significantly reduce the effectiveness of marine conservation.新冠疫情（COVID-19 pandemic）预计将对野生生物种群与保护事业产生显著影响，尤其会助推地方及区域尺度的非法捕捞活动加剧。本研究聚焦疫情暴发前三年及疫情暴发后两年的观测数据，记录了商业捕捞与休闲垂钓渔船在阿尔卡特拉兹斯群岛海洋保护区（Alcatrazes Archipelago Marine Protected Area）及其周边海域的非法渔获变化情况——该海域是西南大西洋的生物多样性热点区域。研究结果显示，自疫情暴发以来，非法捕捞总渔获量与被捕捞物种数量均呈上升趋势，其中业余垂钓者的捕捞活动增幅最为明显。疫情期间，两类捕捞主体均以体型更大、经济价值更高的顶级捕食者为捕捞目标，其中包含诸多受威胁与濒危物种。基于功能性状分析，移除这些物种大概率会对未来的生态系统造成显著连锁反应。本研究为新冠疫情会显著削弱海洋保护工作的有效性提供了新的实证支撑。