[OANNES Foro] Caza submarina con arpon hasta el agotamiento de la especie: evidencia chilena en peces de arrecife

[Mario Cabrejos]

Ecological Applications, 20(6), 2010, pp. 1504-1511
The Ecological Society of America

Spearfishing to depletion: evidence from temperate reef fishes in Chile
NATALIO GODOY,1 STEFAN GELCICH,1 JULIO A. VASQUEZ,2 AND JUAN CARLOS CASTILLA1,3
1Departamento de Ecologia y Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Ecologia y Biodiversidad, Facultad de Ciencias Biologicas,
Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Casilla 114-D, Santiago, Chile 2Departamento de Biologi´a Marina, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar, Universidad Catolica del Norte, Casilla 117, Coquimbo, Chile 3 Corresponding author. E-mail: jcastilla en bio.puc.cl

Abstract. Unreliable and data-poor marine fishery landings can lead to a lack of regulatory action in fisheries management. Here we use official Chilean landing reports and non-conventional indicators, such as fishers' perceptions and spearfishing competition results, to provide evidence of reef fishes depletions caused by unregulated spearfishing. Results show that the three largest and most emblematic reef fishes targeted mainly by spearfishers (.98% of landings) [Graus nigra (vieja negra), Semicossyphus darwini (sheephead or pejeperro), and Medialuna ancietae (acha)] show signs of depletion in terms of abundance and size and that overall the catches of reef fishes have shifted from large carnivore species toward smaller sized omnivore and herbivore species. Information from two snorkeling speargun world championships (1971 and 2004, Iquique, Chile) and from fishers' perceptions shows the mean size of reef fish to be declining. Although the ecological consequences of reef fish depletion are not fully understood in Chile, evidence of spearfishing depleting temperate reef fishes must be explicitly included in policy debates. This would involve bans or strong restrictions on the use of SCUBA and hookah diving gear for spearfishing, and minimum size limits. It may also involve academic and policy discussions regarding conservation and fisheries management synergies within networks of no-take and territorial user-rights fisheries areas, as a strategy for the sustainable management of temperate and tropical reef fisheries.
------------ próxima parte ------------
Se ha borrado un adjunto en formato HTML...
URL: <http://lista.oannes.org.pe/pipermail/oannes-oannes.org.pe/attachments/20121127/8cd45ddc/attachment.html>