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ProjectDerivation of diet compositions in the Lesser Antilles Pelagic Ecosystem
Scientific Basis for Ecosystem-Based Management in the Lesser Antilles Including Interactions with Marine Mammals and Other Top Predators (LAPE)
2008Also available in:
No results found.One of the medium-term objectives of the LAPE project is to enable fishery institutions in the Lesser Antilles to implement ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF) management of the pelagic fisheries. An immediate objective of LAPE is the formulation of a food web model of the ecosystem to better understand the effects of fisheries on predator–prey relationships, and of the effects of food web dynamics on fisheries. This report presents average diet compositions of the 29 predator func tional groups, which include seabirds, marine mammals, turtles, fish, squid and zooplankton, in the LAPE model. The data were obtained through field sampling and analysis of stomach contents of a number of species of large and medium sized pelagic fish and marine mammals, as well as through a comprehensive search of published and unpublished literature. Data from 131 studies, of which about 8 percent were from the LAPE area, were used to derive the average diet compositions presented in this report. Despite the scarcity of data from within the LAPE area itself, a reasonable amount of data on same or similar species was available from adjacent areas in the Western Atlantic, including the Caribbean, and other areas mainly in the Atlantic. As expected, the availability of diet information was directly related to the commercial importance of the species. The analysis presented here does not consider differences in diet compositions arising from predator ontogenic changes and size, or seasonal changes in diets. A major problem encountered in a number of the studies was the low level of taxonomic disaggregation of the prey and relatively high proportion of unidentified prey items. Further studies are needed to better quantify diet compositions of the species in the LAPE ecosystem, including non-commercial species that might play an important ecological role. -
ProjectCruise report for the LAPE ecosystem survey on RV Celtic Explorer (CE0607)
Scientific Basis for Ecosystem-Based Management in the Lesser Antilles Including Interactions with Marine Mammals and Other Top Predators (LAPE)
2006Also available in:
No results found.The LAPE project has completed an ecosystem survey using the research vessel R/V Celtic Explorer, operated from Galway, Ireland by the Marine Institute. The survey collected information on the abundance, biomass and distribution information for pelagic forage species, as well as sampling for trophic relationships and physical and biological environmental sampling. This includes samples from numerous species rarely or never observed when sampling from fisheries catches. Acoustic bioma ss estimates have not been completed however the greatest biomass of forage species detected, both acoustically and by trawling, is predominantly mesopelagic fish, squids and crustaceans. The catches of epipelagic species were mostly juveniles of oceanic pelagic, coastal pelagic and reef species. This survey did not target, and did not catch, the commercially important pelagic species of the region. Flyingfish (Exocetidae) and dolphin (Coryphaena hippurus) are known to occur only w ithin a few meters of the surface, above both the acoustic transducers and the minimum fishing depth of the trawls. In addition, these and the adults of the other large pelagic species (Istiophoridae, Scombridae, Xiphiidae) are too fast and agile to be easily caught using pelagic trawls. The ecosystem survey also provided in-situ measures of biological oceanographic parameters to calibrate satellite estimates of primary productivity as well as information on key physical parameters of the water masses in the region. Preliminary inspection of the cruise results are all largely consistent with expected conditions in oligotrophic tropical oceanic waters (Longhurst, 1999). The primary production is limited to deep chlorophyll layers with essentially no chlorophyll or fluorescence measurable in near-surface waters. A cetacean sighting survey was conducted during daylight along the same transects. Although previous surveys have shown that the region does not have high concentrations of cetaceans the cetacean results are still surprisingly low. Since data are too few for a statistical analysis, a careful review of the cetacean survey is required to understand these extremely low results. -
ProjectEstimated catch, price and value for national fleet sectors from pelagic fisheries in the Lesser Antilles
Scientific Basis for Ecosystem-Based Management in the Lesser Antilles Including Interactions with Marine Mammals and Other Top Predators (LAPE)
2008Also available in:
No results found.Catch data are required for estimation of fishing mortality and for representation of fleet dynamics in the Lesser Antilles Pelagic Ecosystem (LAPE) model. The relative extractions by country and fleet type are used to investigate a range of policy scenarios (effort control) for management of shared stocks of pelagic species. A review by the LAPE project concluded that the use of the regional fisheries statistical system (CariFIS) database is still limited and that there remained dat a management issues which were major impediments to full implementation of CariFIS in national fisheries statistics systems. The additional time and technical assistance required to solve these problems are beyond the scope of the LAPE Project. It was necessary therefore to acquire the data by either extraction from international databases at Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) or a re-examination of country data holdings in the variety of software used (CariFIS, MS EXCEL, MS ACCESS). By preference, data were obtained from national sources; however, data were used from the international databases when individual country data proved inaccessible. This report documents the modifications to available data and assumptions made in arriving at estimates of total catch and value of pelagic fisheries in the LAPE region. It is not intended to give a detailed analysis of catches in the region, but rather to provide information in the format necessary
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