No more reason for ignoring gelatinous zooplankton in ecosystem assessment and marine management: Concrete cost-effective methodology during routine fishery trawl surveys

Type Article
Date 2018-02
Language English
Author(s) Aubert A.1, Antajan ElvireORCID2, Lynam C.3, Pitois S.3, Pliru A.4, Vaz SandrineORCID5, Thibault D.6
Affiliation(s) 1 : CRESCO, Natl Museum Nat Hist MNHN, 38 Rue Port Blanc, F-35800 Dinard, France.
2 : IFREMER, Channel & North Sea Fisheries Res Unit, 150 Quai Gambetta, F-62321 Boulogne Sur Mer, France.
3 : CEFAS, Pakefield Rd, Lowestoft NR33, Suffolk, England.
4 : Univ Southern Mississippi, Dept Marine Sci, 1020 Balch Blvd, Stennis Space Ctr, MS 39529 USA.
5 : IFREMER, UMR MARBEC, Ave Jean Monnet,CS 30171, F-34203 Sete, France.
6 : Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, INSU, Univ Toulon,IRD,MIO,UM 10, F-13288 Marseille, France.
Source Marine Policy (0308-597X) (Elsevier Sci Ltd), 2018-02 , Vol. 89 , P. 100-108
DOI 10.1016/j.marpol.2017.12.010
WOS© Times Cited 21
Keyword(s) Gelatinous zooplankton, Jellyfish, Monitoring, Trawl, Marine management, MSFD
Abstract

Gelatinous zooplankton, including cnidarians, ctenophores, and tunicates (appendicularians, pyrosomes, salps and doliolids), are often overlooked by scientific studies, ecosystem assessments and at a management level. Despite the important economic consequences that they can have on human activities and on the marine foodweb, arguments often related to the costs of monitoring or their coordination, or simply negligence, have resulted in the absence of relevant monitoring programs. A cost-effective protocol has been applied on trawling from existing fishery surveys conducted by national laboratories in England and France. The testing phase has successfully demonstrated the adequacy of such a tool to sample macro- and mega-zooplankton gelatinous organisms in a cost-effective way. This success has led to the acceptance of this protocol into the French implementation of the EU's Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). Here, a protocol which can be applied to any trawl-based fishery survey and in any new large-scale monitoring program is provided. As an ecosystem approach to marine management is currently adopted, exemplified by the MSFD in Europe, gelatinous zooplankton should be monitored correctly to prevent a knowledge gap and bias to ecosystem assessments in future.

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Aubert A., Antajan Elvire, Lynam C., Pitois S., Pliru A., Vaz Sandrine, Thibault D. (2018). No more reason for ignoring gelatinous zooplankton in ecosystem assessment and marine management: Concrete cost-effective methodology during routine fishery trawl surveys. Marine Policy, 89, 100-108. Publisher's official version : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2017.12.010 , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00416/52771/