http://hdl.handle.net/10468/540 Mon, 30 Oct 2017 08:14:19 GMT 2017-10-30T08:14:19Z http://hdl.handle.net/10468/4035 The diet of the grey seal [Halichoerus grypus (Fabricius, 1791)] in Ireland and potential interactions with commercial fisheries Gosch, Martha Interactions between grey seals and fisheries have seemingly increased in recent decades, with high levels of depredation reported in set-net fisheries. There exists a perception that grey seals are competing for commercial fish stocks, however, the extent to which commercial species contribute to diet composition has not been recently quantified. This study aimed to investigate prey species assemblages occurring within grey seal diet in Ireland, particularly with regards to the presence of commercial species, and provide current baseline data on diet composition. The traditional method for diet reconstruction was used with a number of approaches tested. Prey detection increased substantially when “all structures” were included, while a deficit of correction factors tended to under-estimate the biomass contribution of certain prey species. To assess whether temporal and regional variation in diet occurred, faecal samples were collected from two colonies of national importance on the southwest and southeast coast of Ireland. Results highlighted significant seasonal and inter-annual variations within diet samples collected from the southwest site, while significant regional differences occurred between geographic locations. Differences in prey assemblages are assumed to be related to their seasonal abundance and the foraging habitat type surrounding each haul-out site. While commercial species were found in relatively low abundances, haddock/pollock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus/Pollachius pollachius/ P. virens) species were substantial biomass contributors to the diet in Ireland. Low quantities of fishery target species were recovered from juvenile bycaught seal stomachs obtained from the west and south coast of Ireland. Lengths from a total of four prey fish overlapping with sizes targeted by the fisheries. Results suggest this cohort is not primarily responsible for the reported levels of depredation. The findings from this study are discussed in relation to results from other geographical areas of the grey seals distribution, with potential mitigation measures and future recommendations considered. Sun, 01 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10468/4035 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10468/3069 Building resilience for social-ecological sustainability in Atlantic Europe Scollick, Andrew Dale This thesis argues that complex adaptive social–ecological systems (SES) theory has important implications for the design of integrated ocean and coastal governance in the EU. Traditional systems of governance have struggled to deal with the global changes, complexity and uncertainties that challenge a transition towards sustainability in Europe’s maritime macro-regions. There is an apparent disconnect between governance strategies for sustainability in Europe’s maritime macro-regions and a sound theoretical basis for them. My premise is that the design of governance architecture for maritime regional sustainability should be informed by SES theory. Therefore, the aim of this research was to gain insight into a multilevel adaptive governance architecture that combines notions of sustainability and development in the context of the Atlantic Europe maritime macro-region. The central research question asked whether it is possible to achieve this insight by using a SES as a framework and analytical tool. This research adopted social ecology and sustainability science as a foundation for understanding society–nature relations. Concepts from complex adaptive systems, SES and resilience theories were integrated into a conceptual framework that guided the investigation and analysis. A study was conducted to conceptualise the European Atlantic social–ecological system (EASES). This was used to represent and understand the Atlantic Europe macro-region as a SES. The study examined the proposition that governance can be focused on building SES resilience to help achieve maritime regional sustainability. A workbook method was developed and used to elicit expert opinion regarding EASES. The study identified sources of resilience and resilience dynamics that require management in the context of multilevel adaptive governance. This research found that the Atlantic Europe macro-region is a key focal level for multilevel adaptive governance architecture. The majority of the findings are specific to Atlantic Europe and not generalisable to other maritime macro-regions in Europe. Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10468/3069 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10468/1239 Pretty good governance: balancing policy drivers and stakeholder interests in developing fisheries ecosystem plans Fitzpatrick, Thomas Michael The central research question that this thesis addresses is whether there is a significant gap between fishery stakeholder values and the principles and policy goals implicit in an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFM). The implications of such a gap for fisheries governance are explored. Furthermore an assessment is made of what may be practically achievable in the implementation of an EAFM in fisheries in general and in a case study fishery in particular. The research was mainly focused on a particular case study, the Celtic Sea Herring fishery and its management committee, the Celtic Sea Herring Management Advisory Committee (CSHMAC). The Celtic Sea Herring fishery exhibits many aspects of an EAFM and the fish stock has successfully recovered to healthy levels in the past 5 years. However there are increasing levels of governance related conflict within the fishery which threaten the future sustainability of the stock. Previous research on EAFM governance has tended to focus either on higher levels of EAFM governance or on individual behaviour but very little research has attempted to link the two spheres or explore the relationship between them. Two main themes within this study aimed to address this gap. The first was what role governance could play in facilitating EAFM implementation. The second theme concerned the degree of convergence between high-level EAFM goals and stakeholder values. The first method applied was governance benchmarking to analyse systemic risks to EAFM implementation. This found that there are no real EU or national level policies which provide stakeholders or managers with clear targets for EAFM implementation. The second method applied was the use of cognitive mapping to explore stakeholders understandings of the main ecological, economic and institutional driving forces in the Celtic Sea Herring fishery. The main finding from this was that a long-term outlook can and has been incentivised through a combination of policy drivers and participatory management. However the fundamental principle of EAFM, accounting for ecosystem linkages rather than target stocks was not reflected in stakeholders cognitive maps. This was confirmed in a prioritisation of stakeholders management priorities using Analytic Hierarchy Process which found that the overriding concern is for protection of target stock status but that wider ecosystem health was not a priority for most management participants. The conclusion reached is that moving to sustainable fisheries may be a more complex process than envisioned in much of the literature and may consist of two phases. The first phase is a transition to a long-term but still target stock focused approach. This achievable transition is mainly a strategic change, which can be incentivised by policies and supported by stakeholders. In the Celtic Sea Herring fishery, and an increasing number of global and European fisheries, such transitions have contributed to successful stock recoveries. The second phase however, implementation of an ecosystem approach, may present a greater challenge in terms of governability, as this research highlights some fundamental conflicts between stakeholder perceptions and values and those inherent in an EAFM. This phase may involve the setting aside of fish for non-valued ecosystem elements and will require either a pronounced mind-set and value change or some strong top-down policy incentives in order to succeed. Fisheries governance frameworks will need to carefully explore the most effective balance between such endogenous and exogenous solutions. This finding of low prioritisation of wider ecosystem elements has implications for rights based management within an ecosystem approach, regardless of whether those rights are individual or collective. Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10468/1239 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10468/459 The broad-scale distribution and abundance of Scyphomedusae in Irish waters Bastian, Thomas Jean Daniel Scyphomedusae are receiving increasing recognition as key components of marine ecosystems. However, information on their distribution and abundance beyond coastal waters is generally lacking. Organising access to such data is critical to effectively transpose findings from laboratory, mesocosm and small scale studies to the scale of ecological processes. These data are also required to identify the risks of detrimental impacts of jellyfish blooms on human activities. In Ireland, such risks raise concerns among the public, but foremost amongst the professionals of the aquaculture and fishing sectors. The present work looked at the opportunity to get access to new information on the distribution of jellyfish around Ireland mostly by using existing infrastructures and programmes. The analysis of bycatch data collected during the Irish groundfish surveys provided new insights into the distribution of Pelagia noctiluca over an area >160 000 km2, a scale never reached before in a region of the Northeast Atlantic (140 sampling stations). Similarly, 4 years of data collected during the Irish Sea juvenile gadoid fish survey provided the first spatially, explicit, information on the abundance of Aurelia aurita and Cyanea spp. (Cyanea capillata and Cyanea lamarckii) throughout the Irish Sea (> 200 sampling events). In addition, the use of ships of opportunity allowed repeated samplings (N = 37) of an >100 km long transect between Dublin (Ireland) and Holyhead (Wales, UK), therefore providing two years of seasonal monitoring of the occurrence of scyphomedusae in that region. Finally, in order to inform the movements of C. capillata in an area where many negative interactions with bathers occur, the horizontal and vertical movements of 5 individual C. capillata were investigated through acoustic tracking. Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10468/459 2011-11-01T00:00:00Z