The quality of compliance: investigating fishers’ responses towards regulation and authorities

A substantial amount of scientific effort goes into understanding and measuring compliance in fisheries. Understanding why, how and when fishers follow or violate rules is crucial for designing effective fishery policies that can halt overfishing. Non‐compliance was initially explained almost exclusively with reference to economic and self‐interested motivations. More recently, however, most explanations involve a combination of economic, social, political and environmental factors. Despite this recent development towards more holistic explanations, many scientists continue to frame the issue in binary terms: fishers either follow rules, or they don't. In this article we challenge this binary interpretation and focus attention on the diversity of fishers’ dispositions and perceptions that underpin compliant behaviour. To this aim we construct a typology of fishers’ responses towards regulation and authorities, thereby developing conceptual tools to understand different motivations and attitudes that underlie compliance outcomes. For this purpose, we identify the motivational postures of ‘creativity’ and ‘reluctance’, and then highlight their empirical relevance with an interview study of Swedish fishers. Reasons for studying the quality and diversity of fishers’ motivations and responses are not purely academic. Conceptualizing and observing the quality of compliance can help policymakers and managers gauge and anticipate the potentiality of non‐compliant fishing practices that may threaten the resilience of marine ecosystems.     

Retrobulbar respiratory epithelial orbital cyst in a dog: A case report

A 10-month-old female, neutered French Bulldog presented with a history of unilateral right-sided intermittent conjunctivitis and exophthalmos. The patient suffered blunt force trauma to the right eye after a tennis ball impact approximately five months prior to presentation. Examination identified the patient was visual with exophthalmos, lateral strabismus, conjunctival hyperaemia, episcleral congestion, and papilloedema. Magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasonography identified an approximately two centimeter diameter fluid-filled structure directly posterior to the globe leading to displacement of the optic nerve and distortion of the posterior globe wall. Centesis of the lesion demonstrated neutrophilic and macrophagic inflammation with evidence of prior hemorrhage. Within four weeks, the structure had re-filled to its original size and was subsequently excised in its entirety, via a lateral orbitotomy. Histopathologic findings indicated a non-keratinising orbital cyst, the lining of which was consistent with a respiratory epithelial cyst. Recurrence had not occurred seven months' post-surgery. To the author's knowledge, previous reports of retrobulbar respiratory epithelial cysts have not been documented in animals.     

Cell wall disruption: An effective strategy to improve the nutritive quality of microalgae in African catfish (Clarias gariepinus)

The rigid cell walls of microalgae may hinder their utilization in fish feeds. The current experiment assessed the correlation between the accessibility of microalgae nutrients and their in vivo digestibility in African catfish. Nannochloropsis gaditana biomass was subjected to physical or mechanical treatments to weaken its cell wall; untreated—no disruption treatment (UNT), pasteurization (PAS), freezing (FRO), freeze‐drying (FRD), cold pasteurization (L40) and bead milling (BEM). Six experimental diets formulated from differently treated and untreated microalgae (at 30% diet inclusion level) were tested on growth performance and apparent nutrient digestibility (ADCs) in juvenile African catfish. A basal diet (REF) containing no microalgae was used as reference diet. Results showed that biomass gain and feed conversion ratio of fish fed L40 and BEM diets increased by 13% and 11%, respectively, relative to the UNT diet. Additionally, FRD, FRO, L40 and BEM cell wall disruption treatments improved protein digestibility by 0.5%, 5.9%, 8.4% and 16.3%, respectively, compared to the UNT treatment. There was a positive correlation between accessibility of microalgal nutrients and their digestibility in African catfish. Nutrient digestibility of microalgae was dependent on extent of cell disruption. Also, the impact of cell disruption on nutrient digestibility of microalgae differs between African catfish and Nile tilapia.     

Public health effects of accidents in self-employed forestry work

Little is known about the extent of work-related accidents occurring during the performance of forestry work by the non-industrial private forest owner or their assistant (hereafter called self-employed NIPF). The absence of an effective accident registration system largely excludes this group from accurate representation in official statistics. In this study, data from 1996 to 2001 were collected from hospital injury records managed by the Umeå Accident Analysis Group at the University Hospital in Umeå. During that period, it was found that 485 persons in the Umeå region were given medical attention due to injuries possibly acquired during self-employed forestry work. Questionnaires about the accidents were sent to each of the 485 injured persons and 80% were returned. Responses revealed that 225 of the respondents were injured during self-employed forestry work. Out of these, 81% performed fewer than 31 days of forestry work annually. Due to the injury, 29% had been on sick leave for some period of time and 42% had persistent symptoms. On average, each injury led to 13 days of sick leave and 24 hours of institutional care. Firewood production was shown to be a key factor behind the large number of accidents for self-employed NIPF. Further studies on the lack of knowledge about how the work should be done and conscious risk taking should be considered as an important link to the development of effective accident prevention strategies.     

Hydroxylysyl pyridinoline cross-link concentration affects the textural properties of fresh and smoked Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) flesh

A simple HPLC method is presented to quantify the low concentration of hydroxylysyl pyridinoline (PYD) cross-links in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) muscle. The method involved the extraction of tissue with NaOH prior to hydrolysis, which greatly reduced the amount of protein to be hydrolyzed and made downstream operations easier and more reproducible. The concentration of PYD was 426 pmol g(-)(1) dry mass muscle in post-rigor muscle stored at 0 degrees C and sampled 3 d after death. Hydroxproline (HYP) concentration was determined following NaOH extraction as a measure of collagen content. In post-rigor samples, the alkaline-insoluble HYP fraction comprised 18.3% of the total HYP. Scanning electron microscopy revealed shrinkage of muscle fibers and a retraction of the connective tissue matrix in smoked salmon. PYD concentration was relatively resistant to processing to the smoked product, decreasing by around 11.7%, as compared to a 22.2% decrease in HYP. There was a positive correlation between PYD concentration and the firmness of post-rigor muscle samples as measured by an instrumental texture analyzer, explaining 25% of the total variation. A weaker but still significant correlation was found between PYD concentration and firmness in the smoked product. There was no relationship between fillet firmness and total collagen concentration, although the correlation with HYP in the alkaline-insoluble fraction was significant at the 6% level (P = 0.057). Our results indicate that only 1-3% of collagen molecules are linked by nonreducible mature cross-links in harvest size farmed Atlantic salmon and that PYD concentration is an important raw material characteristic for flesh quality.     

Quantitative extraction of macro-invertebrates from temperate and tropical leaf litter and soil: efficiency and time-dependent taxonomic biases of the Winkler extraction

Winkler extractors, a simple device presumed to extract macro-invertebrates efficiently from soil and litter samples, is being used increasingly in ecological surveys and functional studies of soil macro-invertebrate communities. In this study the extraction efficiency and taxonomic bias of the Winkler extraction are evaluated for extraction periods of 3 h up to 7 weeks, calibrated by hand-sorting after 7 weeks. The method extracts most macro-invertebrates completely or to a proportion of over 90% except Isopoda, Diplopoda and Mollusca. However, for an exhaustive result, a long extraction period of several weeks is necessary. For the most speciose group (adult beetles) and for the commonly most abundant group (ants), a short extraction of 3 days was sufficient to get 70% of the individuals and nearly all species. Three days was also sufficient to recover the rank abundance order of beetle families, while for ‘higher taxa’ and for Chilopoda species, 4 and 3 weeks were necessary, respectively. Optimum extraction times for the abundant macro-invertebrate groups and possible adjustment factors for the soil macro-invertebrates of temperate woodlands are proposed to compensate the taxonomic bias caused by short extraction periods. However, for recording an accurate snapshot of the soil and litter fauna at a particular time, shorter extraction periods are advisable because of the short life cycle of many soil invertebrates causing emergence of later stages or a second generation during longer extraction periods. The problem of contamination of samples is also discussed.