<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18928">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY background="" bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Ecological Applications, 20(6), 2010, pp.
1504–1511<BR>The Ecological Society of America</FONT></DIV><FONT size=2
face=Arial>
<DIV><BR><FONT size=4>Spearfishing to depletion: evidence from temperate reef
fishes in Chile</FONT><BR>NATALIO GODOY,1 STEFAN GELCICH,1 JULIO A. VASQUEZ,2
AND JUAN CARLOS CASTILLA1,3<BR>1Departamento de Ecologıa y Centro de Estudios
Avanzados en Ecologıa y Biodiversidad, Facultad de Ciencias
Biologicas,<BR>Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Casilla 114-D,
Santiago, Chile 2Departamento de Biologı´a Marina, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar,
Universidad Catolica del Norte, Casilla 117, Coquimbo, Chile 3 Corresponding
author. E-mail: jcastilla@bio.puc.cl<BR></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG>Abstract.</STRONG> 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.<BR></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>