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Forecasting the Major Influences of Predation and Environment on Cod Recovery in the Northern Gulf of St. Lawrence

The northern Gulf of St. Lawrence (NGSL) stock of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), historically the second largest cod population in the Western Atlantic, has known a severe collapse during the early 1990 s and is currently considered as endangered by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife i...

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Autores principales: Bousquet, Nicolas, Chassot, Emmanuel, Duplisea, Daniel E., Hammill, Mike O.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3921123/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24523852
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0082836
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author Bousquet, Nicolas
Chassot, Emmanuel
Duplisea, Daniel E.
Hammill, Mike O.
author_facet Bousquet, Nicolas
Chassot, Emmanuel
Duplisea, Daniel E.
Hammill, Mike O.
author_sort Bousquet, Nicolas
collection PubMed
description The northern Gulf of St. Lawrence (NGSL) stock of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), historically the second largest cod population in the Western Atlantic, has known a severe collapse during the early 1990 s and is currently considered as endangered by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. As for many fish populations over the world which are currently being heavily exploited or overfished, urgent management actions in the form of recovery plans are needed for restoring this stock to sustainable levels. Stochastic projections based on a statistical population model incorporating predation were conducted over a period of 30 years (2010–2040) to assess the expected outcomes of alternative fishing strategies on the stock recovery under different scenarios of harp seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus) abundance and environmental conditions. This sensitivity study shows that water temperature is key in the rebuilding of the NGSL cod stock. Model projections suggest that maintaining the current management practice under cooler water temperatures is likely to maintain the species in an endangered status. Under current or warmer conditions in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, partial recovery might only be achieved by significant reductions in both fishing and predation pressure. In the medium-term, a management strategy that reduces catch could be favoured over a complete moratorium so as to minimize socio-economic impacts on the industry.
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spelling pubmed-39211232014-02-12 Forecasting the Major Influences of Predation and Environment on Cod Recovery in the Northern Gulf of St. Lawrence Bousquet, Nicolas Chassot, Emmanuel Duplisea, Daniel E. Hammill, Mike O. PLoS One Research Article The northern Gulf of St. Lawrence (NGSL) stock of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), historically the second largest cod population in the Western Atlantic, has known a severe collapse during the early 1990 s and is currently considered as endangered by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. As for many fish populations over the world which are currently being heavily exploited or overfished, urgent management actions in the form of recovery plans are needed for restoring this stock to sustainable levels. Stochastic projections based on a statistical population model incorporating predation were conducted over a period of 30 years (2010–2040) to assess the expected outcomes of alternative fishing strategies on the stock recovery under different scenarios of harp seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus) abundance and environmental conditions. This sensitivity study shows that water temperature is key in the rebuilding of the NGSL cod stock. Model projections suggest that maintaining the current management practice under cooler water temperatures is likely to maintain the species in an endangered status. Under current or warmer conditions in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, partial recovery might only be achieved by significant reductions in both fishing and predation pressure. In the medium-term, a management strategy that reduces catch could be favoured over a complete moratorium so as to minimize socio-economic impacts on the industry. Public Library of Science 2014-02-11 /pmc/articles/PMC3921123/ /pubmed/24523852 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0082836 Text en © 2014 Bousquet et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Bousquet, Nicolas
Chassot, Emmanuel
Duplisea, Daniel E.
Hammill, Mike O.
Forecasting the Major Influences of Predation and Environment on Cod Recovery in the Northern Gulf of St. Lawrence
title Forecasting the Major Influences of Predation and Environment on Cod Recovery in the Northern Gulf of St. Lawrence
title_full Forecasting the Major Influences of Predation and Environment on Cod Recovery in the Northern Gulf of St. Lawrence
title_fullStr Forecasting the Major Influences of Predation and Environment on Cod Recovery in the Northern Gulf of St. Lawrence
title_full_unstemmed Forecasting the Major Influences of Predation and Environment on Cod Recovery in the Northern Gulf of St. Lawrence
title_short Forecasting the Major Influences of Predation and Environment on Cod Recovery in the Northern Gulf of St. Lawrence
title_sort forecasting the major influences of predation and environment on cod recovery in the northern gulf of st. lawrence
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3921123/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24523852
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0082836
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