DATA-POOR FISHERIES: CASE STUDIES from the SOUTHERN MEDITERRANEAN and the ARABIAN PENINSULA by Myriam Khalfallah B.Eng., Univers
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DATA-POOR FISHERIES: CASE STUDIES FROM THE SOUTHERN MEDITERRANEAN AND THE ARABIAN PENINSULA by Myriam Khalfallah B.Eng., University of Carthage, Tunisia, 2013 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Resource Management and Environmental Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2020 © Myriam Khalfallah, 2020 The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled: Data-Poor Fisheries: Case Studies from the Southern Mediterranean and The Arabian Peninsula submitted by Myriam Khalfallah in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Resource Management and Environmental Studies Examining Committee: Dr. Daniel Pauly, Killam Professor, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries & Department of Zoology, UBC Supervisor Dr. U. Rashid Sumaila, Professor, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries & School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Philippe Le Billon Professor, Department of Geography & the Liu Institute for Global Issues, UBC Super visory Committee Member Dr. James Vercammen, Professor, Faculty of Land and Food Systems & Sauder School of Business, UBC University Examiner Dr. Navin Ramankutty, Professor, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs & Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, UBC University Examiner Additional Supervisory Committee Members: Dr. Eddie Allison, Professor, School of Marine and Environmental Affairs, University of Washington Supervisory Committee Member ii Abstract Considerable gaps of knowledge regarding the state of the marine fisheries occur in most economically developing countries despite the importance of fisheries as a source of food security and livelihood for their inhabitants. Global studies in fisheries science have often disregarded the data-poor fisheries in economically developing countries due to a combination of factors including the high cost and data requirements of classical stock assessments. However, other methods, less costly and equally reliable, such as the catch reconstruction approach combined with catch-based indicators and the most recent ‘CMSY’ stock assessment method have been developed to help assess the state of marine living resources. The countries of the Southern Mediterranean and the Arabian Peninsula (SMAP) are examples of where marine fisheries are not as well assessed as in other regions, aggravated by the frequency of political and socio-economic instability, the latest being the so-called “Arab Spring”, which has deeply impacted the regions. The "catch reconstruction" method, which improves official catch statistics, is applied here to re-estimate marine fisheries catches for the SMAP for 1950-2015 and to reconstruct a century of Mediterranean marine fisheries catches for Egypt (i.e., 1917-2017) to which two catch-based indicators, i.e., the Marine Trophic Index and the Mean Temperature of Catch were also applied. In the third part of this thesis the CMSY method is used to assess several commercially important fish stocks of the SMAP to provide decision makers with alternative policy options for better fisheries management and more effective marine conservation strategies. iii Lay Summary Often, studies in the field of fisheries sciences that claim to inform on the state of world marine fisheries exclude those in economically developing countries. This is due to a combination of factors, but mainly because in order to study a fishery using mainstream methods one would need extensive amounts of hard-to-acquire data that economically developing countries cannot afford to obtain. In this study the health of fisheries of countries of the Southern Mediterranean and the Arabian Peninsula is evaluated using newly developed methods that are based on the quantity and species composition of fish caught in every country. Such information is relatively easy to obtain and is here improved for the time period of 1950-2015. The same is applied to the Mediterranean Egyptian fisheries but for the time period of 1917-2017. Finally, the health of the fisheries for 10 fish species is evaluated using a new method called CMSY. iv Preface I am the sole author of all chapters of this thesis. I completed the research contained in all of its chapters, including the design, data collection, and analysis. Dr. Daniel Pauly, Dr. U. Rashid Sumaila, Dr. Eddie Allison and Dr. Philippe Le Billon contributed with their expertise and advice with ideas, methods and data interpretation. Except for the conclusion, all of the chapters will be submitted for publication. The work completed for the country of Oman part of Chapter 2 has been published in Khalfallah, M., Zylich, K., Zeller, D. and Pauly, D. 2016. Reconstruction of Domestic Marine Fisheries Catches for Oman (1950-2015). Frontiers in Marine Science 3(152): 11. I conducted the data collection and most of the analysis of the data and the writing of the manuscript. The co-authors helped with some of the data analysis and editing of the manuscript. v Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... iii Lay Summary ............................................................................................................................... iv Preface .............................................................................................................................................v Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................... vi List of Tables ..................................................................................................................................x List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. xii List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................. xiv Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................xv Dedication .................................................................................................................................. xvii Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................1 1.1 Data-poor fisheries .......................................................................................................... 7 1.2 ‘The Southern Mediterranean and the Arabian Peninsula’ context .............................. 14 1.3 Thesis overview ............................................................................................................ 19 Chapter 2: Marine Fisheries Catch Reconstructions Through Uncertainties .......................20 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 20 2.2 Methods......................................................................................................................... 28 2.2.1 Review of reported data ........................................................................................ 30 2.2.2 Defining fisheries sectors and identification of missing components .................. 31 2.2.3 Extensive literature search and anchor points ....................................................... 32 2.2.4 Catch reconstruction approaches .......................................................................... 33 2.2.5 Quantifying uncertainty ........................................................................................ 35 2.3 Results ........................................................................................................................... 39 2.3.1 Country level results ............................................................................................. 39 2.3.1.1 Algeria ............................................................................................................... 40 vi 2.3.1.2 Bahrain .............................................................................................................. 47 2.3.1.3 Egypt (Red Sea) ................................................................................................ 63 2.3.1.4 Iraq .................................................................................................................... 70 2.3.1.5 Jordan ................................................................................................................ 97 2.3.1.6 Kuwait ............................................................................................................. 108 2.3.1.7 Lebanon ........................................................................................................... 112 2.3.1.8 Libya ............................................................................................................... 119 2.3.1.9 Morocco (Mediterranean) ............................................................................... 137 2.3.1.10 Palestine ...................................................................................................... 144 2.3.1.11 Qatar ...........................................................................................................