Gabriela Montaño-Moctezuma

Using Traditional Ecological Knowledge to Improve Holistic Fisheries Management: Transdisciplinary Modeling of a Lagoon Ecosystem of Southern Mexico

We developed a transdisciplinary modeling approach for the Huave Lagoon System (HLS), Mexico. This lagoon was selected because it has been used sustainably in various complimentary ways by different ethnic groups since pre-Hispanic times. Over the last few years, however, the ecological impact of artisanal fisheries in the region has grown significantly, thus endangering the balance between society and nature. Because the Huaves and the Zapotecs are ancestral fishing cultures with a profound knowledge of ecosystem resources and local property rights, the aim of this study was to identify ecosystem-level management alternatives capable of diminishing fishing impacts to the HLS. We used a consensus-building process and applied the users traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). Our counterintuitive results show that specific management strategies should be considered for each particular fishing seascape within the HLS while taking into account the differences among ecological structures and fishery dynamics. The insights from this research aid in defining holistic management policies and support spatial allocations of use rights in local fisheries.

Ecosystem-Based Analysis of a Marine Protected Area Where Fisheries and Protected Species Coexist

The Gulf of California Biosphere Reserve (UGC&CRDBR) is a Marine Protected Area that was established in 1993 with the aim of preserving biodiversity and remediating environmental impacts. Because remaining vigilant is hard and because regulatory measures are difficult to enforce, harvesting has been allowed to diminish poaching. Useful management strategies have not been implemented, however, and conflicts remain between conservation legislation and the fisheries. We developed a transdisciplinary methodological scheme (pressure-state-response, loop analysis, and Geographic Information System) that includes both protected species and fisheries modeled together in a spatially represented marine ecosystem. We analyzed the response of this marine ecosystem supposing that conservation strategies were successful and that the abundance of protected species had increased. The final aim of this study was to identify ecosystem-level management alternatives capable of diminishing the conflict between conservation measures and fisheries. This methodological integration aimed to understand the functioning of the UGC&CRDBR community as well as to identify implications of conservation strategies such as the recovery of protected species. Our results suggest research hypotheses related to key species that should be protected within the ecosystem, and they point out the importance of considering spatial management strategies. Counterintuitive findings underline the importance of understanding how the community responds to disturbances and the effect of indirect pathways on the abundance of ecosystem constituents. Insights from this research are valuable in defining policies in marine reserves where fisheries and protected species coexist.

Marine Spatial Planning in a Transboundary Context: Linking Baja California with California's Network of Marine Protected Areas

It is acknowledged that an effective path to globally protect marine ecosystems is through the establishment of eco-regional scale networks of MPAs spanning across national frontiers. In this work we aimed to plan for regionally feasible networks of MPAs that can be ecologically linked with an existing one in a transboundary context. We illustrate our exercise in the Ensendense eco-region, a shared marine ecosystem between the south of California, United States of America (USA), and the north of Baja California, Mexico; where conservation actions differ across the border. In the USA, California recently established a network of MPAs through the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA), while in Mexico: Baja California lacks a network of MPAs or a marine spatial planning effort to establish it. We generated four different scenarios with Marxan by integrating different ecological, social, and management considerations (habitat representation, opportunity costs, habitat condition, and enforcement costs). To do so, we characterized and collected biophysical and socio-economic information for Baja California and developed novel approaches to quantify and incorporate some of these considerations. We were able to design feasible networks of MPAs in Baja California that are ecologically linked with California’s network (met between 78.5 and 84.4% of the MLPA guidelines) and that would represent a low cost for fishers and aquaculture investors. We found that when multiple considerations are integrated more priority areas for conservation emerge. For our region, human distribution presents a strong gradient from north to south and resulted to be an important factor for the spatial arrangement of the priority areas. This work shows how, despite the constraints of a data-poor area, the available conservation principles, mapping, and planning tools can still be used to generate spatial conservation plans in a transboundary context.

Preliminary Studies on the Use of Pit Tags to Evaluate Abalone Restocking

ABSTRACT The evaluation of abalone (Haliotis spp.) restocking programs might be improved by the use of microchips attached to seeds [ca. 20–30mmshell length (SL)]. Preliminary studies were conducted to standardize thismethodology and to assess tag retention and the potential impacts of tagging red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) seeds (initial averages: 26 mm SL, 2.5 g total weight) with passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags (9×2mm, Biomark, HPR Plus Reader). Tags were placed in previously made grooves in the shells and glued with a cyanoacrylate adhesive fast cured with sodium bicarbonate. Laboratory trials showed that metabolic rate increased in tagged seeds compared with untagged controls (t = 4.74, P = 0.009) immediately after the tagging procedure, but this effect was not significant after 3 h (t= 1.43, P = 0.23). Food (Macrocystis pyrifera) consumption after 24 h was similar by seeds marked with PIT tags, plastic tags, both tags, and untagged controls (F= 0.12, P = 0.94). Tag retention and survival was 100% after 108 days in all treatments and no effects were detected on growth rates in length (range=0.92–1.11 mm/mo, F= 0.72,P= 0.57) or weight (range= 0.30–0.44 g/mo, F=2.44,P= 0.16). Results from a small-scale field experiment in tide pools, suggest that the detection of planted abalone seeds can be significantly improved when these are marked with PIT tags, compared with those marked with conventional plastic tags. Improvements should, however, bemade regarding antenna design and reading distance to optimize the use of this technology to evaluate restocking programs.

Evaluation of tuna fishing zones in the eastern Pacific using a multicriteria method

A multicriteria assessment of fishing zones was carried out using the utility function (U) technique, considering three management objectives (maximizing tuna yield, minimizing dolphin mortality, and minimizing bycatch) and seven different weights among them. The Mexican purse-seine tuna fishery in the eastern Pacific Ocean was used as case study, based on data obtained between 1998 and 2003 by the Mexican Tuna-Dolphin Program. The fishing zones were classified by trimester according to U, and 64% were identified as conflictive (U > 0.666 for some weights, but U 0.666 para la ponderacion de al menos un tomador de decisiones, pero al mismo tiempo U < 0.333 para la de al menos otro), por lo que en 2 de cada 3 cuadrantes trimestrales, es necesaria una negociacion entre encargados de la toma de decisiones por la naturaleza conflictiva de la pesqueria. Se localizaron cuadrantes con caracteristicas especificas en donde, por ejemplo, algunos lances explicaban los altos valores de captura incidental, o en donde el enfoque de la pesqueria hacia el atun aleta azul explicaba la clasificacion del cuadrante como excelente. A pesar de que las ponderaciones utilizadas resultaron una buena aproximacion, dada la gran variabilidad espaciotemporal de los recursos pelagicos, las preferencias (ponderaciones) reales deberian estar diferenciadas en espacio y tiempo para ser realmente utiles en el proceso de toma de decisiones. Un aspecto importante es que ya se han implementado estrategias y planes de manejo bien estructurados y eficientes para alcanzar dos de los objetivos de manejo (maximizar las capturas de tunidos y minimizar la mortalidad de delfines), mientras que para el tercero (minimizar la captura incidental) hasta el momento no se cuenta con un esquema parecido. Palabras clave: multicriterio, funcion utilidad, captura incidental.