Growth overfishing in the brown shrimp fishery of Texas, Louisiana, and adjoining Gulf of Mexico EEZ

Growth overfishing in the brown shrimp, Farfantepenaeus aztecus, fishery in inshore (estuarine) and offshore (Gulf of Mexico) territorial waters of Texas and Louisiana, and adjoining waters of the United States’ (U.S.) Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), and its potentially detrimental economic consequences to the harvesting sector, have not been among major concerns of Federal and State shrimp management agencies. Three possible reasons include (1) environmentally influenced variations in recruitment that cause wide fluctuations in annual landings, which tend to obscure effects of fishing, (2) competition between inshore and offshore components of the harvesting sector, and (3) partitioning of management jurisdiction among a Federal council and two State agencies. Wide variations in landings led to beliefs that high levels of fishing mortality were tolerable and recruitment overfishing was of no major concern. This encouraged somewhat laissez-faire management approaches that allowed fishing effort to increase over the years.Our objectives were to determine whether growth overfishing occurred in this fishery during 1960–2006, and whether and how decreases in size of shrimp within the landings, in response to increases in fishing effort, affected inflation-adjusted annual (calendar year) ex-vessel value of the landings, i.e., their value to the harvesting sector. Growth overfishing occurred in the early 1990s, and then abated as fishing effort declined due to rising fuel costs and competition from imported shrimp. However, inflation-adjusted annual ex-vessel value of the landings peaked in 1985, prior to growth overfishing.Management actions implemented in 2001 for Texas’ territorial waters, and in the EEZ off Texas and Louisiana in 2006, should limit future fleet expansion and increases in fishing effort, thereby reducing the chances of growth overfishing and its potentially detrimental economic impacts on the harvesting sector. Growth overfishing should be included among the guidelines for future management of this brown shrimp fishery.     

广西北部湾生态安全屏障保护与建设

分析了北部湾生态屏障现存问题,提出对北部湾自然生态系统进行保护建设,对生境退化区、水源涵养区、水土保持区和防风固沙区等进行人工生态系统建设,对北部湾生态系统健康进行保障建设,以期构建一个人工和自然生态系统相结合的多层次的北部湾生态系统,并确保其长期健康、稳定和持续地发挥生态屏障作用,保障北部湾及其周边地区的生态安全。     

基于GEE的广西北部湾沿海水产养殖池塘遥感提取

沿海水产养殖池塘带来经济效益的同时,也会引起诸多环境问题,了解其空间分布对于海岸带的科学管理和渔业可持续发展具有重要意义。广西北部湾海岸带地形错综复杂,养殖池塘沿岸线散乱分布,导致传统遥感识别方法难以实现高精度提取。针对此问题,该研究提出一种基于Google Earth Engine（GEE）平台和全年Sentinel-1和Sentinel-2时序遥感数据的水产养殖池塘识别方法,结合多阈值分割和面向对象分类提取2019年广西北部湾海岸带的水产养殖池塘。结果表明：1）广西北部湾海岸带养殖池塘面积总计199.3 km2,遍布整个沿岸地区;识别结果总体精度达到0.921,Kappa系数为0.842;2）选取4个典型区域,对比该研究方法提取结果与Google高清影像目视解译结果,在规模化集聚型养殖区域中,识别结果占目视解译的面积比例达到90%以上,在排布密集的小型池塘区域面积占比也能达到80%以上;3）以时序遥感数据作为分类特征值,能够有效排除废弃池塘、水稻田和季节性水域。该方法在大范围复杂环境中仍具有良好性能,显著提高了水产养殖池塘遥感识别的精度,能够为海岸带生态环境的智能监控、养殖区域空间优化提供技术支持。     

广西北部湾经济区农产品冷链物流模式研究

通过分析农产品物流的基本模式,结合广西北部湾经济区实际,选取基于批发市场、连锁超市、物流中心等3种农产品冷链物流协同模式作为广西北部湾经济区农产品冷链物流模式,以期为区域农产品冷链物流的发展提供参考。     

北部湾浮游幼虫群落结构及其环境适应性分析

根据1998年2月至1999年5月在北部湾海域按季度进行的4个航次生态、环境综合调查资料,本文研究了北部湾海域浮游幼虫的主要类群及其季节变动。结果表明:北部湾海域浮游幼虫主要有15大类群;其中4类(长尾类幼虫、短尾类幼虫、口足类阿利玛幼虫、蛇尾类长腕幼虫)周年出现,其它为季节性出现。长尾类幼虫、口足类阿利玛幼虫、蛇尾类长腕幼虫、短尾类溞状幼虫、短尾类大眼幼虫及其它短尾类幼虫为优势类群。北部湾浮游幼虫的年丰度变化范围为0.02~7.65ind/m³,均值为0.50ind/m³,四季的丰度为夏季(0.86ind/m³)>春季(0.40ind/m³)>秋季(0.32ind/m³)>冬季(0.12ind/m³)。从春季到冬季整个浮游幼虫密集中心呈逆时针从湾的东北部向西北部海区移动,移至湾的中部后再返至西北部。K优势度曲线分析表明群落多样性由高到低依次为春季>冬季>夏季>秋季,总体上浮游幼虫群落多样性的季节差异不大。典范对应分析结果表明影响浮游幼虫栖息密度的主要因子是水温和pH,其次是盐度、溶解氧。     

Floristic diversity and vegetation patterns along disturbance gradient in arid coasts in southern Mediterranean: Case of the Gulf of Gabès,southern Tunisia

Knowledge about vegetation patterns along disturbance gradients is essential for conservation and management of coastal habitats in arid regions. This study focuses on the floristic diversity and the factors controlling the vegetation structure in the Gulf of Gabès (Tunisia). For this purpose, the floristic diversity of 120 relevés belonging to three coastal sites with different disturbance levels (40 relevés per site) was analyzed in relation with 10 environmental and anthropogenic factors. Therophytes constitute 54% of the 237 plants species belonging to 44 families identified in the present study. The species richness and floristic diversity indices exhibited a similar trend and peaked in the slightly disturbed site (H′?=?3.38; S?=?176). The similarity between sites was relatively low and reached its maximum between the little and the highly disturbed sites. Two-way indicator species analysis and detrended correspondence analysis applied on the floristic data resulted in groups mainly determined by disturbance level by explicitly segregating the three sites. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) indicated that the spatial pattern of species composition was mainly influenced by anthropogenic variables. Partial CCA revealed that the effect of anthropogenic variables on floristic composition was thrice higher than the effect of environmental variables (57.5% vs. 18.4%, respectively). Overall, this study provides a broad understanding of the floristic diversity and vascular plant richness in the Gulf of Gabès. The obtained results reflected a disturbance–diversity pattern and thus revealed the obvious importance of maintaining the intermediate disturbance for biodiversity conservation and monitoring.     

Biophysical dynamics of western transition zones: a preliminary synthesis

The nature of the western portions of the biogeographic temperate or transition zones in the North Pacific and North Atlantic is reviewed. The physical transport of nutrients and biomass into them from the Kuroshio and Gulf Stream as well as from the poleward sides are estimated. The conclusion is that the upwelling in the two western boundary currents makes the largest contribution to the nutrient and biomass fluxes into these transition zones. A conservative estimate of the amount of upwelled fluid is derived from absolute velocity sections in the Gulf Stream. The estimate suggests that upwelling into the euphotic zone exceeds 2 × 10⁶ m³ s^–1. This implies that upwelling in these western boundary currents matches or exceeds that in eastern boundary currents such as the California Current. The two western boundary regimes have very different poleward situations. The Oyashio extension flows parallel to the Kuroshio and is a deep current. The North Atlantic Shelf Front flow is to the west where it is ultimately entrained into the edge of the Gulf Stream. There does not seem to be any tendency for this to occur in the Kuroshio. Despite these differences in the northern and western boundaries, the two transition zones are similar with large amplitude meanders, anticyclonic rings and streamers dominating their physical structure. The physical features responsible for the transfer of materials from the boundary current extensions into the transition zones are similar in both systems. Ring formation contributes only ? 10% of the transfer, while ring‐induced streamers contribute 30%. The rest of the transport is contributed by branching of the boundary current front. Both currents have well developed secondary fronts consisting of subtropical surface water pulled into the transition zone. Biologically, the upwelling in both western boundary currents leads to a biomass maximum along the boundary in both secondary producers (copepods) and in small pelagic fish. In the Kuroshio, the latter are the Japanese sardine, Sardinops melanostictus, that spawn in the Kuroshio and then enter the transition zone for the summer and fall months. In the Gulf Stream, the dominate species are menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus and B. smithi. These species make use of the coastal environments of North America and although the adults spawn in the Gulf Stream, they are not thought to play a major role in the Slope Water, transition zone. The similar differences in the use of the Kuroshio and the Gulf Stream ecosystems occurs in the behaviour of bluefin tuna, squid and other large pelagics. The Gulf Stream system also lacks an equivalent to Pacific saury, Cololabis saira. The biology therefore is at least subtly different, with saury and sardines being replaced by mid‐water fish in the North Atlantic. A fuller comparison of the biology with quantitative methods in both systems should be encouraged.     

Growth and biometric relationships of the pearl oyster Pinctada fucata (Gould) on transplanting from the Gulf of Mannar to the Arabian Sea

Comparative studies were made on the growth and biometric relationships of the pearl oyster Pinctada fucata (Gould) Tuticorin stock at (Tuticorin (TST) – parent stock) transplanted from the Tuticorin Bay (8.7°N; 78.2°E) in the Gulf of Mannar along the Indian southeast coast to Kollam Bay (8.8°N; 76.5°E) in the Arabian Sea along the Indian southwest coast (Tuticorin stock at Kollam (TSK) – transplanted stock). At the time of transplantation, Kollam Bay did not have a native stock, however, within a year, the transplanted stock spawned and oyster spats were collected from within the farm (Kollam stock (KS) – progeny stock). The growth in dorso‐ventral measurement and total weight in Kollam Bay was 1.4–1.6 times and 3.1 to 6.8 times respectively greater than that observed at Tuticorin. Furthermore, at Kollam Bay, the thickness observed at the end of first year was similar to that obtained at the end of second year in Tuticorin. Both the TSK and KS had significantly higher instantaneous growth rates (IGR) than TST. All the stocks displayed significantly different biometric relationships. The increased growth in Kollam Bay is attributed to the almost double productivity in the Arabian Sea compared with the Bay of Bengal. It is concluded that in the case of P. fucata, the site and its interaction with environment are important determinants of growth and shell dimensions. The present study clearly indicates that the environmental conditions prevailing along the southeast Arabian Sea are congenial for the growth, gametogenesis, spawning and settlement of P. fucata larvae. In spite of strong monsoonal influences in the hydrology of Kollam Bay, the growth and reproduction of P. fucata stocks indicates its relative hardiness and ability to adapt to a changed environment.     

Comparative analysis of ichthyoplankton sampling gear for early life stages of walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma)

Comparative gear tows were conducted during the summers of 1987–1990 in the Gulf of Alaska. Efficiencies of four types of ichthyoplankton sampling gear were compared with respect to total catch and size distribution of larval fish. Fish were sampled using the bongo net (333 and 505 μm mesh), 1 m Tucker net, 3 m Tucker net and the Methot frame net. Results indicate that the bongo and the 1 m Tucker nets caught similar numbers and size distribution of fish. The larger 3 m Tucker and Method frame nets caught a larger size class of fish but a smaller total catch. Although there was a slightly significant diel difference in total catch detected in the smaller nets, no diel differences in size distribution of fish caught were detected for any of the nets.