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Assessing the sustainability and adaptive capacity of the gooseneck barnacle co-management system in Asturias, N. Spain

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Abstract

The gooseneck barnacle fishery in Asturias (N. Spain) has undergone three important changes: (1) the early implementation of a co-management system based on Territorial User Rights for Fishing, (2) a change in management measures (due to a decrease in landings), and (3) an economic crisis. This has allowed us to analyze the systems’ sustainability in time through examining five critical variables: landings, effort, catch per unit effort (CPUE), mean market prices, and annual revenue. Additionally, we used focus groups and questionnaires to determine the response of the system to these three changes. Co-management has succeeded in maintaining or increasing CPUE throughout all management areas and produced stable mean market prices. This was achieved through flexible management policies and adaptive strategies adopted by the fishers, such as increased selectivity and diversification. The analysis of this fishery provides important lessons regarding the need to understand the evolutionary dynamics of co-management and the importance of embracing adaptive capacity.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Asturian cofradías for their continuous support. Jorge Sostres provided logistic support during the focus groups, Ricardo González-Gil provided information on statistical analysis techniques and Manuel Llorca delivered valuable comments for this manuscript. This work was financed by the Spanish Government through project DOSMARES (CTM2010-21810-C03-02, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain). Fishery data were provided by the Dirección General de Pesca Marítima del Principado de Asturias. AR is supported by an FPU fellowship (Ministerio de Educación de España, Grant no. AP2010-5376). SG thanks CONICYT Basal FB-0002, nucleo-milenio initiatives RC130004 and NC-120086 from the Ministerio de Economia, and The Pew Marine Conservation Fellowship Program. This is a contribution of the Asturias Marine Observatory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Biología de Organismos y Sistemas, Universidad de Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain

    Antonella Rivera & José Luis Acuña

  2. Center of Applied Ecology and Sustainability (CAPES) & Centro de Conservación Marina, Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 114-D, Santiago, Chile

    Stefan Gelcich

  3. Centro de Experimentación Pesquera, Consejería de Agroganadería y Recursos Autóctonos del Principado de Asturias, Gijón, Spain

    Lucía García-Flórez

Authors
  1. Antonella Rivera
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  2. Stefan Gelcich
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  3. Lucía García-Flórez
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  4. José Luis Acuña
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Correspondence to Antonella Rivera.

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Rivera, A., Gelcich, S., García-Flórez, L. et al. Assessing the sustainability and adaptive capacity of the gooseneck barnacle co-management system in Asturias, N. Spain. Ambio 45, 230–240 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-015-0687-z

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