In the Wake of the Dhow: Historical Changes in the Marine Ecology and Fisheries of the Persian Gulf
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IN THE WAKE OF THE DHOW: HISTORICAL CHANGES IN THE MARINE ECOLOGY AND FISHERIES OF THE PERSIAN GULF by DALAL AL-ABDULRAZZAK B.A., Middlebury College, 2007 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Zoology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) July 2015 © Dalal Al-Abdulrazzak, 2015 ABSTRACT Marine ecosystems have been altered by human activities over millennia, but ecological and fisheries data used to measure these changes are typically only available over the last few decades. Moreover, recent databases, such as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) FishStat, do not reflect the true catch of seafood. The misreporting of catches, coupled with a lack of historical reflection can lead to mismanagement and poor policy decisions that jeopardize food security. While these issues are prevalent worldwide, they are especially problematic in places such as the Persian Gulf, where a rich seafaring history is at odds with recent mega-development projects. Developing methods to integrate a diversity of data types is essential for better quantifying changes in the distribution and abundance of marine organisms, as well as for clarifying underlying causes of ecological change. Within the field of historical marine ecology, studies have relied on anecdotal evidence, such as written accounts by explorers and interviews of different generations of resource users, to demonstrate the former abundance of certain species and the extent of their ranges. Intercoder reliability tests show that people's perceptions of historical anecdotes are generally consistent and speak to the reliability of using people's perceptions to acquire quantitative data. In the Persian Gulf, anecdotes can be used to examine changes in dugong abundance and distribution and assessing the efficacy of current management targets. Fishery catch reconstructions for the Persian Gulf from 1950-2010 show that officially reported catches potentially underestimate capture fisheries by a factor of 2, and that countries have primarily reported their artisanal and industrial catches, and substantially underreported their discards, recreational, subsistence, and illegal fishing sectors. In addition, recent advances in remote- sensing technology allow us to view stationary fishing gear such as weirs from ii space and mitigate gaps in catch reporting. This dissertation provides context to marine ecosystem management decisions in the Gulf. Because no empirical studies on the region have incorporated historical data, studies on the present ecosystems are based on distorted historical trends and impair our understanding of the management and policy prescriptions necessary for fisheries sustainability in the region. iii PREFACE Apart from Chapters 1 and 7 all chapters have been prepared as stand-alone manuscripts for submission to a peer-reviewed journal or as a book chapter. They are all currently either published, or at some state between submission and publication. I am the lead author on all papers and assumed primary responsibility for the design, implementation, analysis, and writing of co-authored papers. I am the sole author on Chapters 1 and 7. The contributions of my co- authors to Chapters 2-6 are summarized below. Chapter 2 is co-authored with Dirk Zeller and Daniel Pauly, both of whom provided insights into the fishery reconstruction method at local, regional and global scales. A version of this chapter has been published as Al-Abdulrazzak, D., Zeller, D., Pauly, D. (2014) Understanding fisheries through historical reconstructions: Applications to fishery management and policy at different governance scales. In: Marine Historical Ecology in Conservation: Applying the Past to Manage for the Future. (Eds. J.N. Kittinger, L. McClenachan, K. Gedan, L.K. Blight), University of California Press. Chapter 3 is co-authored with Dirk Zeller, Dyhia Belhabib, Dawit Tesfamichael, and Daniel Pauly. Dyhia Belhabib and Dawit Tesfamichael provided the reconstructed fishery catch data for Iran and Saudi Arabia respectively. Dirk Zeller and Daniel Pauly provided guidance on all stages of the work. Chapter 4 is co-authored with Daniel Pauly who suggested a method for accounting for unseen weirs and provided guidance on all stages of the work. A version of this work was published as Al-Abdulrazzak, D., Pauly, D. (2013) Managing fisheries from space: Google Earth improves estimates of distant fish catches. ICES Journal of Marine Science 71, 450-454. iv Chapter 5 is co-authored with Robin Naidoo, Maria Lourdes Palomares and Daniel Pauly. Robin Naidoo assisted with the design and execution of Figure 1. Maria Lourdes Palomares provided data from the Falkland Islands and Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Daniel Pauly provided guidance on all stages of the work. This work was approved by the UBC Behavioral Ethics Research Board (BREB number H11-00140) and a version was published as Al-Abdulrazzak, D., Naidoo, R., Palomares, M.L.D., Pauly, D. (2012) Gaining Perspective on What We've Lost: The Reliability of Encoded Anecdotes in Historical Ecology. Plos One 7. Chapter 6 is co-authored with Daniel Pauly who suggested an approach for estimating ‘pristine’ dugong abundance, and provided guidance on all stages of the work. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... ii PREFACE ............................................................................................................ iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................. viii LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................. ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................... xi 1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 1 2 UNDERSTANDING FISHERIES THROUGH HISTORICAL RECONSTRUCTIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR FISHERY MANAGEMENT AND POLICY ................................................................................................. 9 Introduction .................................................................................................. 10 National .................................................................................................... 13 Regional ................................................................................................... 15 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 18 3 A BRIEF (AND RECENT) HISTORY OF MARINE FISHERIES CATCHES IN THE PERSIAN GULF ............................................................................. 22 Introduction .................................................................................................. 23 Methods ....................................................................................................... 26 Discards ................................................................................................... 27 Subsistence .............................................................................................. 29 Recreational ............................................................................................. 30 Other unreported catches......................................................................... 31 Results ......................................................................................................... 31 Discussion ................................................................................................... 32 4 MANAGING FISHERIES FROM SPACE: GOOGLE EARTH IMPROVES ESTIMATES OF DISTANT FISH CATCHES .............................................. 42 Introduction .................................................................................................. 43 Methods ....................................................................................................... 44 Results ......................................................................................................... 46 Discussion ................................................................................................... 47 5 GAINING PERSPECTIVE ON WHAT WE’VE LOST: THE RELIABILITY OF ENCODED ANECDOTES IN HISTORICAL ECOLOGY ............................. 55 Introduction .................................................................................................. 56 Methods ....................................................................................................... 58 Ethics statement ....................................................................................... 58 Survey ...................................................................................................... 58 Results ......................................................................................................... 60 vi Discussion ................................................................................................... 61 6 RECONSTRUCTING HISTORICAL BASELINES FOR THE PERSIAN GULF DUGONG (Dugong dugon) ............................................................. 67 Introduction .................................................................................................. 68 History of dugong exploitation