Location: Indonesia & Micronesia / Melanesia

Lab Personnel: Elaine Shen, Nicky Roberts, Paul Carvalho, Kelvin Gorospe, Melati Kaye, Diky Suganda

Collaborators: Indonesia: Hawis Madduppa (Bogor Agricultural University); Imam Bachtiar (Universitas Mataram); Wa Iba (Universitas Halu Oleo). Micronesia / Melanesia: Alifereti Tawake (Locally Managed Marine Area Network)

Goal: Conduct monitoring on fish catches, reef fish assemblages, and environmental DNA to build models and test the effects of management and environmental drivers on fish population dynamics and biodiversity.

Significance: These results will inform decisions intended to move towards an ecosystem approach to fisheries management that consider multiple objectives and social-ecological tradeoffs.

Background: A majority of coral reefs are located in developing countries where overfishing is a pervasive issue to meet short-term needs. This can diminish the ability of coral reefs to delivery ecosystem services to coastal communities on longer time scales. An estimated 55% of coral reefs are considered threatened by overfishing. In a place like Indonesia and the Pacific Islands, coral reef fisheries are small-scale and dispersed across thousands of small islands. Catches include hundreds of species and use a variety of gear types (e.g., nets, hook-and-line, and spears), which complicates efforts to collect fisheries data. Additionally, the lack of data for many coral reef fishes and fisheries precludes scientists and managers from using traditional stock assessment methods. However, studies have demonstrated the ability of fishery-independent methods and indicators for assessing the health and productivity of reef fish populations. Our research will use traditional survey techniques and collaborative methods, as well as cutting edge methods such as environmental DNA where appropriate, to collect data and perform stock assessments, management strategy evaluation, and value chain analyses.

Scientific Milestones: We have published a paper on fisheries catches in Lombok, size spectra of fishes across multiple regions of Indonesia, as well as a gear-based fisheries model. We also have a handful of manuscripts currently under review.

Funding: US Agency for International Development (USAID), US National Science Foundation (NSF), The Nature Conservancy (TNC)