Addressing the reliability of data -poor stock assessment methods to provide advice on the status of small -scale fisheries John Gabriel Ramírez Téllez Ph.D. Thesis Cover : pictures of fishes were modified from http ://fishbiosystem .ru (Haemulon plumierii, white grunt (Eng )), www .shrimpnfishflorida .com (Lutjanus synagris, lane snapper (Eng )), http ://www .conxemar .com (Merluccius merluccius , European hake (Eng )) and http ://tumi .lamolina .edu .pe (Anisotremus scapularis, Peruvian grunt (Eng )) . Lower panel shows two Wayuu fishers who are recovering gillnets (lane snappers are caught) in the Colombian Caribbean Sea . (modified from Fundación Ecosfera ). Addressing the reliability of data-poor stock assessment methods to provide advice on the status of small-scale fisheries John Gabriel Ramírez Téllez Memòria presentada per John Gabriel Ramírez Téllez per optar al grau de doctor per la Universitat de Barcelona Programa de Doctorat en Ciències del Mar Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona Tesi desenvolupada en el Departament de Recursos Marins R enovables de l’Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM -CSIC) de Barcelona Director de la tesi: Co-director de la tesi: Dr. Francesc Maynou Dr. Marta Coll ICM-CSIC ICM-CSIC Tutor de la tesi: Doctorand: Dr. Luis Cardona John Gabriel Ramírez Telléz UB ICM-CSIC Barcelona, Julio del 2019 Ramírez, J.G. (2019). Addressing the reliability of data-poor stock assessment methods to provide advice on the status of small-scale fisheries. PhD Thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, 242 pp. PROJECT FRAMEWORK This thesis used four case studies to provide a wide view of the stock assessment issues for small-scale fisheries. Data from th e European hake ( Merluccius merlucius ) fishery in GSA 06 (Spain) used in chapter 2.1 was supported by the EU H2020 Research and Innovation Action MINOUW (contr. nº 634495) project and EU Tender “DrumFish” Approaches to management for data-poor stocks in mixed fisheries (contract EASME/EMFF/2014/1.3.2.4/SI2.721116). Data from the European hake fishery in GSA 01 (Spain) used in chapter 2.2 was supported by the Fisheries General Directorate of the Murcia Region. The research of this chapter has received funding from the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No. 773713 (“PANDORA”). Data from the Wayuu fishery (Colombian Caribbean) used in the chapter 2.3 was provided by the participatory monitoring program of artisanal fishery in the central Guajira that was supported by Fundación Ecosfera (Colombia) and Ecopetrol-Chevron Petroleum Company (Colombia). Finally, data from the beach fishery of Peruvian grunt used in chapter 2.4 was supported by the Monitoring and Assessment Program implemented by the Center for Conservation and Sustainability of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (PERU LNG and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute Biodiversity, Peru and United States). This thesis was powered by the Research group in Fishery Bioeconomic Modelling of the Institute of Marine Sciences of Barcelona (ICM-CSIC). To Martina Acknowledgement AKNOWLEGDMENTS More than 10 years ago I had the opportunity to live and work for four years with the Amerindian Wayuu community in the northern Colombian Caribbean. This community lives in rural settlements, surrounded by a desert landscape, in houses made from cactus and mud, without access to utilities and getting water literally from the sky (using rain reservoirs). In other words, even today it is the place where I can come back to a far past as many things occur as they occurred 500 years ago. The economy and food supply of the Wayuu people inhabiting coastal areas relies on fisheries. When I finally left the Wayuu rancherías , I brought a lot of experiences I never thought to have but also I realized that other humans, other Colombian people, people from a developing country, fishers surviving in a remote place from my birth country daily face several problems finding food for them and for their families. Never again I was unable to stop seeing them. My largest acknowledgment is to them, because this thesis and the road travelled simply would not have existed without Wayuu fishers from Manaure and Uribia (La Guajira, Colombia). Especially thanks to my colleague, Gina Puentes who the Wayuu-fishery adventure started with. Thanks to Francisco Reyes, Luis Rodríguez, Miller Camargo and all Fundación Ecosfera team for the invaluable work to help improving the Wayuu fisheries. Thanks to all Wayuu people and Fundación Ecosfera that lead the largest participatory monitoring program of marine fisheries in Colombia (since 2006) because it was the seed of this thesis. My days working with Wayuu fishers taught me the importance to properly determine the status of the resources harvested by fisheries if we wish to contribute to improve the livelihoods of artisanal fishers while resources are healthy exploited. Accordingly, I was involved in the scientific department of the national fishery authority of Colombia (AUNAP). There, I discovered that one of the reasons why Colombia does not care enough about the status of fishery resources is because the lack of knowledge of life-history of target species and partial understanding of hundreds of artisanal fisheries look like a huge wall to be climbed. Consequently, the stock assessment tasks are performed paying insufficient attention to assumptions and caveats of models. In other words, the availability of few and biased data as well as misunderstanding of the Acknowledgement models used to define catch limits or stock status lead to a hopeless picture. The former director of the knowledge office of the AUNAP, Vladimir Puentes, promoted me to go deeper in the participatory perspective for monitoring and managing artisanal fisheries, which is highly desirable when catch history is not available. Thanks to AUNAP and Vladimir for all your support. This was the period when I identified that my PhD thesis should be focused on improve the way to advice artisanal fisheries (small-scale fisheries). After landing in Spain, I worked with Ferran Pereira (rest in peace) who was a passionate person in small-scale fishers in Latin America. He permeated me with the love for fishery science and we spent a really good time together while my M.Sc. thesis was getting shape. By the way, it was the first approach to the understanding of the Wayuu fisheries. Additionally, Ferran brought me the opportunity of developing the monitoring program of fish and fisheries associated with a liquefaction plant of gas in the central coast of Peru. That experience allowed me to expand my view on artisanal fisheries, also incorporated in this thesis. For all the above reasons, you are an important part of this thesis wherever you are. Thanks to Mikel Zabala for his valuable suggestions during my M.Sc. studies. Then, I started to work with Jordi Lleonart my Ph.D. advisor during the first years before he becames retired. I would like to mention a particular moment that changed the focus of my thesis. While I was defining the input data to perform the pseudo-cohort VPA of the lane snapper (Wayuu fishery), I asked him: which of the von Bertalanffy growth parameters sets that I have estimated is the correct one to define the growth of this species? ’. His answer was forceful: “I don’t know”. I remember that his answer was very frustrating to me but it also was the motivation to explore what exactly means an "I don’t know" in terms of stock ass essment of small-scale fisheries. This thesis tilts around this question. Additionally, I thank Jordi for introducing me to the stock assessment world of “data -rich” fisheries in the Mediterranean. Through participating in several stock assessment meetings, I realized that knowledge of data-rich and data- moderate stock assessment is highly valuable to recognize the caveats and scope of data-limited/poor fisheries. Acknowledgement Developing my thesis I had the opportunity of work in several European projects. Thanks to Paloma Martín for involving me in the DrumFish project that helped me to develop my skills analyzing data-poor Catalan fisheries. Additionally, thanks to Laura Recasens to provided me with support and data to go deeper in the European hake fisheries in the Northwestern Mediterranean. T his species was the “guinea pig” that allowed me to test the answer of data-poor models to different assumptions and data availability. A special acknowledgment to Jason Cope, for providing a kind and strong advice to go deeper in the stock assessment of data-limited stocks, but also for spending time in his laboratory in Seattle (USA) discussing our passion: to help people from the data-limited stock-assessment arena. To Francesc Maynou, my advisor, thanks for promoting a very nice scientific atmosphere, full of possibilities, where any answer is good enough to be the foundation of the next good question to be answered. Thanks to Marta Coll, my co-advisor,for all support provided along the thesis development and the key suggestions to improve this study. Now that I understand better the implications of advice fisheries from the single- species perspective, I am ready to critically explore wider views including Ecosystem approach to fisheries. To Francesc, Jordi and Marta, thanks a lot for inviting me to participate and learn in the MINOUW, SPELMED and PANDORA stock-assessment- related projects. Thanks to CSIC-ICM for making me feel at home. Pero en este largo camino he tenido el acompañamiento y apoyo de muchas personas en diferentes países y ciudades a las que desde ahora les agradezco. A Neicy Yadira, Catalina, Oscar, Beto, David, Carito, Alexander, Nelson, Wilson, Vivian, Remy, Catalina R., Arthur, Simonete, Noelete, Juqui, Gisela y Rubén por los buenos momentos que ayudaron a rebajar la presión de una tesis que parecía no terminar (como la Sagrada Familia!).