Reply to ‘Achieving sustainable and equitable fisheries requires nuanced policies not silver bullets’

[Extract] Cisneros-Montemayor et al.1 criticize our argument2 that Indonesia’s recent efforts at combatting illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing can recover fish stocks without temporary reductions in domestic catches, and that this strategy can be scaled up. Here, we respond to their specific criticisms. While it is true that our projection of benefits considers only the illegal aspect of IUU fishing in Indonesia, we argue there may be similar benefits to helping legal fishers gain the benefits of stock recoveries from policies that reduce or eliminate other components of IUU. The fact that fixing one component of IUU alone can reduce fishing mortality rates more than enough to drive stock recovery is a critical finding. The scope for benefits to legal fishers would only be larger from resolutions that also reduce other IUU challenges.

NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION

Nature Ecology & Evolution

2

2397-334X

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N/A

1