Managing sustainable sea URchin fishery and marine FORest conservation

This project focuses on the sustainable management of sea urchin fishery and on the interplay between resource use, ecosystem dynamics and habitat conservation for the tri-trophic system sea urchins-fish-macroalgae. The case studies are in the Mediterranean sea, where both sea urchin and fish, including their main predators, constitute locally important target species for small-scale fisheries. Uncoordinated management resulted in many areas in overfishing of either or both resources, and/or in overgrazing of the macroalgae (when predatory fish are depleted, sea urchin proliferate uncontrolled), leading to habitat and biodiversity loss and to permanent regime shifts. This situation is common in many tropical, temperate and subpolar marine coastal systems, but there is hardly any example of effective ecosystem-based management of the fisheries and the habitats (EBFM). This project sets out firstly to improve understanding of coastal ecosystem dynamics and their relationship to environmental stressors in the context of multiple alternative stable states. The objective is that of identifying thresholds leading to irreversible regime shifts, or tipping points, on the resource (i.e. overfishing), on the habitat (i.e. overgrazing) and on the fishery (i.e. economic profitability). This will be achieved through a multi-modelling approach, by deploying a mix of single-species, multi-species, ecosystem and bioeconomic models that can tackle the issue from different, complementary perspectives. Models will be informed by tailored in-situ experiments and stakeholder engagement exercises. Secondly, the project will provide a proof-of-concept showing the possibility and the necessity to manage the tri-trophic system under a holistic perspective under the framework of EBFM, while taking into account resource users and stakeholders perspectives.

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