Drivers and implications of change in an inshore multi-species fishery

Abstract

Abstract Inshore fisheries are an important source of employment and income across Europe. However, their sustainability and management efficacy are relatively understudied, particularly in a multispecies context. Management of these data-limited fisheries can be informed by assessments of standardized catch and landings per unit effort (CPUE and LPUE) data from fishery-dependent surveys. We demonstrate the utility of this approach in the first robust assessment of the sustainability and management of a multispecies inshore fishery for live wrasse (Labridae) in southern England. Our findings have wider ramifications for assessment and management of inshore fisheries, including international live wrasse fisheries, many of which are intensely exploited but have less stringent management than the fishery studied here. Using generalized linear models, we identified ecologically relevant drivers of variation in CPUE and LPUE, alongside interspecific variation in responses to fishing pressure during 2017–2019. We also highlight robust evidence of declines in the primary target species, a protogynous hermaphrodite, that are suggestive of fishery impacts driven by management-enabled selective removal of mature females. We demonstrate the need to consider ecologically similar species separately for management purposes, and account for ecogeographical variables in assessments; a failure to do so risks erroneous conclusions regarding inshore fisheries’ sustainability.