The next part of my R&A project has brought me to the small coastal town of Las Cruces in Chile, where the Estación Costera de Investigaciones Marina (ECIM) research centre is located. Here I will be working with a team of fisheries scientists on a project assessing the sustainability of the Yellownose Skate fishery in the southern regions of Chile.
The Yellownose Skate (Dipturus chilensis) is a large (up to 158cm total length) elasmobranch species endemic to the Southeast Pacific Ocean. Since 2004, a booming artisanal fishery for the species has grown in the south of Chile in response to a growing Chinese export market. For many years the fishery lacked proper management and to this day regulation remains patchy. A growing fishery is especially concerning for this species as large elasmobranchs are characterised by slow growth and low reproductive rates, taking them many years to reach reproductive age and then after reproducing few times in their lifetimes; Put together, these factors are leading to the scientific consensus that the species is overfished, an unfortunate reality supported by its appearance on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in the Endangered category.
My role on this project will involve looking at historical biological data about landed catches from this species, analysing various variables to uncover whether the species is being overfished and/or what other factors may be contributing to its decline. Additionally, I will be joining field sessions in the south of Chile where scientific field observers will collaborate with fishermen to assess biological features of the Yellownose Skates within their catches.
At first glance, this project may appear to be a big diversion from the central focus of my R&A project on coastal ecosystems. However, the sustainable exploitation of marine resources is a v research area with many connections to the broader sustainability of coastal ecosystems. Much in the same way that coastal ecosystems are threatened by human pressures so too are the species within those ecosystems. Overfishing is a major global challenge, predicted to amplify under future climate change scenarios. The focus of this project on uncovering why a marine resource is declining and in what ways human actions need to be changed to prevent its collapse fits perfectly with the central ideas that I aim to learn about through my project.
Additionally, the collaboration between scientific fisheries observers and fishermen in collecting the data for this project is an example of collaborative research and of involving marine stakeholders in decision-making that will influence their livelihoods. This form of collaborative data collection fits well with my aim to focus on the improved involvement of coastal communities in delivering marine conservation objectives.
Lastly, fisheries science is a subject area that I really enjoyed when I first got the chance to study it in my final year of University and I am really excited by the opportunity to explore if it is something that I would like to focus on in my future studies and career.
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