Status of Fish and Shellfish Stocks
Victor S. Kennedy; Luca Bolognini; Jakov Dulc?ic?; Ryan J. Woodland; Michael J. Wilberg; Lora A. Harris;
Fisheries in the Adriatic Sea and Chesapeake Bay are heavily exploited, with some overfished. Adriatic landings fluctuated around 140,000 metric tons (t) year-1
from 1992 to 2002, increasing to ~185,000 t year-1 in 2016. Over the same period, Chesapeake landings decreased from ~350,000 to ~200,000 t year-1 , so that 2016 landings were
roughly equivalent between systems. While Chesapeake landings per unit of the bay’s surface area were three times higher than for the Adriatic, landings per unit phytoplankton production were one and a half times higher in the Adriatic. Although fish migrations from adjacent water bodies can affect harvests, landings per unit area may reflect the Chesapeake’s higher phytoplankton production, while landings per unit phytoplankton produc- tion may reflect differences in the fraction of phytoplankton production deposited in the benthos. Adriatic fish- eries exploit several small pelagic species, whereas only one Chesapeake fishery targets a pelagic species. Both regions harvest a variety of demersal species. Adriatic invertebrate fisheries involve a variety of crustaceans and mollusks but Chesapeake invertebrate fisheries target just one crustacean and three mollusk species. Coupled benthic-pelagic food webs are important ecologically in both systems, but food webs have become decoupled in the seasonally hypoxic mid-Chesapeake. Dams, coastal structures, sediment, altered river flows, and diminished water quality and habitat affect fishery species negatively. Management in both regions involves interagency col- laboration and cooperative agreements.
2020 - Contribution in volume
Coastal Ecosystems in Transition: A Comparative Analysis of the Northern Adriatic and Chesapeake Bay, pp. 203–227, 2020
Keywords: Adriatic Sea, Chesapeake Bay, anthropogenic changes, fisheries management, phytoplankton production, predator, prey interactions, shellfish