Background Documents for the Workshop on Investing in Ecosystem-Based Shrimp and Groundfish Fisheries Management of the Guianas – Brazil Shelf
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SLC/FIAF/C1120 (En) FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Circular ISSN 2070-6065 WESTERN CENTRAL ATLANTIC FISHERY COMMISSION BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS FOR THE WORKSHOP ON INVESTING IN ECOSYSTEM-BASED SHRIMP AND GROUNDFISH FISHERIES MANAGEMENT OF THE GUIANAS – BRAZIL SHELF Barbados, 7–8 September 2015 FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Circular No. 1120 SLC/FIAF/C1120 (En) WESTERN CENTRAL ATLANTIC FISHERY COMMISSION BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS FOR THE WORKSHOP ON INVESTING IN ECOSYSTEM-BASED SHRIMP AND GROUNDFISH FISHERIES MANAGEMENT OF THE GUIANAS – BRAZIL SHELF Barbados, 7–8 September 2015 FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Rome, 2017 The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. 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All requests for translation and adaptation rights, and for resale and other commercial use rights should be made via www.fao.org/contact-us/licence-request or addressed to [email protected]. FAO information products are available on the FAO website (www.fao.org/publications) and can be purchased through [email protected] iii PREPARATION OF THE DOCUMENT This Circular presents the three background papers that were used as supporting documentation for the Workshop on investing in ecosystem-based shrimp and groundfish fisheries management of the Guianas – Brazil shelf, which was held in Barbados, from 7 to 8 September 2015 (Report available at www.fao.org/3/a- i5513b.pdf). The documents in this Circular are reproduced as submitted. FAO. 2017. Background documents for the Workshop on investing in ecosystem-based shrimp and groundfish fisheries management of the Guianas – Brazil shelf, Barbados, 7–8 September 2015. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Circular No. 1120. Rome, Italy. ABSTRACT The Workshop on Investing in Ecosystem-based shrimp and groundfish fisheries management of the Guianas –Brazil shelf, was held in Barbados, on 7-8 September 2015. The Workshop was the 1st meeting of the joint Working Group on Shrimp and Groundfish of the Western Central Atlantic Fisheries Commission (WECAFC), Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), and the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Seas (IFREMER). The workshop discussed the status of the shrimp and groundfish stocks, investment options for shrimp and groundfish fisheries in the sub-region - which comprises Brazil, Venezuela, French Guiana, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname - and opportunities to harmonize fisheries management measures that would increase financial and environmental sustainability of the sector. The experts attending the workshop discussed three background documents on bioeconomic analysis of the fisheries, the current management arrangements as well as a proposal of investment plan for the shrimp and groundfish fisheries in the sub-region; all three documents are included in this volume. Based on these discussions, recommendations were made to increase collaboration in stock assessments of the fish and shrimp resources between the countries, to build capacity to carry out the necessary analyses in support of fisheries management decision making, to develop a regional plan of action to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing as well as a sub-regional shrimp and groundfish fishery management plan for the Northern Brazil-Guianas Shelf countries, to finalize a general investment plan and to assist the countries in conducting the necessary feasibility studies for the preparation of full-fledged, location specific fisheries investment proposals. The implementation of these recommendations are in line with the outcomes of the CLME+ project on “Catalysing Implementation of the Strategic Action Programme for the Sustainable Management of shared Living Marine Resources in the Caribbean and North Brazil Shelf Large Marine Ecosystems”. As a result, the CLME+ is an adequate support for the execution of a number of management and investment measures that were identified by the regional experts. v CONTENTS CHAPTER I – BIOECONOMICS OF SHRIMP AND GROUNDFISH FISHERIES OF THE BRAZIL-GUIANAS SHELF 1 1. INTRODUCTION 1 2. REVIEW OF PREVIOUS BIOECONOMIC STUDIES 5 3. FISHERIES OF NORTHERN BRAZIL-GUIANAS SHELF ECOSYSTEM: TRENDS IN FLEET SIZES, CATCH AND CPUES 7 4. RESOURCE RENT OF FISHERIES OF NORTHERN BRAZIL-GUIANAS SHELF ECOSYSTEM 11 5. STOCK ASSESSMENT OF F. SUBTILIS AS SEPARATE AND SHARED STOCKS 21 6. BIOECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE MULTI-SPECIES SHRIMP FISHERY OF THE BRAZIL-GUIANAS SHELF 25 CONCLUSIONS 30 RECOMMENDATIONS 32 REFERENCES 33 ANNEX I CATCH AND EFFORT DATA FOR THE SHRIMP FISHERY IN NBSLME 36 ANNEX II CATCH AND EFFORT DATA FOR THE SEABOB FISHERY IN NBSLME 44 ANNEX III CATCH AND EFFORT DATA FOR THE GROUNDFISH FISHERY IN SURINAME 48 CHAPTER II – REVIEW OF MANAGEMENT CONTROLS USED IN SHRIMP AND GROUNDFISH FISHERIES OPERATING ON THE BRAZIL-GUIANAS SHELF 49 1. INTRODUCTION 49 2. CONTROLS BEING APPLIED 49 3. CONTROLS NOT USED 52 4. CONTROL EFFECTIVENESS 54 5. DEVELOPING APPROPRIATE MANAGEMENT CONTROLS 55 6. MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES 56 APPENDIX 1 62 CHAPTER III – INVESTING IN ECOSYSTEM-BASED SHRIMP AND GROUNDFISH FISHERIES MANAGEMENT OF THE GUIANAS-NORTH BRAZIL CONTINENTAL SHELF 76 1. JUSTIFICATION AND OVERALL OBJECTIVE OF INVESTMENT COMPONENTS 76 2. KEY INVESTMENT COMPONENTS 77 3. CASE STUDIES 78 4. COUNTRY FISHERIES CHARACTERISTICS AND INVESTMENT NEEDS 78 5. THE WAY FORWARD 87 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We wish to express our gratitude to Dr Elizabeth Mohammed, Dr Loïc Baulier, Dr Fabian Blanchard, Ms Lara Ferreira and Ms Yolanda Babb-Echteld for their valuable comments and information to improve the draft version of the report. The authors wish to thank Mr Seion Richardson, Ms Dawn Maison, Mr Denzil Roberts and personnel of the fisheries departments from Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and Brazil for their kind support in providing fisheries data and publications relevant to this study. We also appreciate the orientation and support of Mr Raymon Van Anrooy, and Mr Carlos Fuentevilla from FAO. This Circular is a collation of background documents presented at the Workshop on investing in ecosystem- based shrimp and groundfish fisheries management of the Guianas - Brazil shelf, held in Barbados on 7–8 September 2015 (FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Report No. 1125) in the framework of the Inter American Development Bank project on “Investing in ecosystem-based shrimp and groundfish fisheries management of the Guianas -Brazil Shelf”. CHAPTER 1 BIOECONOMICS OF SHRIMP AND GROUNDFISH FISHERIES OF THE BRAZIL-GUIANAS SHELF by Juan Carlos Seijo, Alvaro Hernández, José Augusto Negreiros Aragão, Miguel A. Cabrera and Mario Yspol 1. INTRODUCTION The valuable shrimp and groundfish resources of the study region are comprised within the highly productive North Brazil Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem (NBSLME) and the adjacent Gulf of Paria. The NBSLME extends along northeastern South America from the Parnaíba River estuary in Brazil to the boundary with the Caribbean Sea, and has a surface area of about 1.1 million km2. The North Brazil Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem owes its ecological identity to the hydrodynamics of this region driven by the North Brazilian Current, which is an extension of the South Equatorial Current and its prolongation, the Guyana Current. The shelf topography and external sources of material, particularly the Amazon River with its average discharge of 180 000 m3s-1, exert a significant influence on the marine ecosystem. This productivity is enriched by the discharge from other rivers such as Tocantins, Maroni, Corentyne, and Essequibo. The North Brazil Shelf LME is considered a Class I, highly productive ecosystem (>300 gCm-2yr-1) (Phillips 2007). The shrimp resources in the Guianas–Brazil sub-region support one of the most important export oriented shrimp fisheries in the world. These resources include four of the larger penaeids (southern brown shrimp Farfantepenaeus subtilis, pink spotted shrimp F. brasiliensis, southern pink shrimp F. notialis and southern white shrimp L. schmitti) and the smaller seabob shrimp (Xiphopenaeus kroyeri), with their distribution and abundance differing amongst the countries in the region. In general, the brown shrimp, F. subtilis, is the more abundant species in the NBSLME (Ehrhardt 2001). The groundfish resources such as red snapper (Lutjanus purpureus), weakfish (Cynoscion sp.), whitemouth croaker or corvine (Micropogonias furnieri) and