Venezuelas Fisheries since the Economic Crisis of 1983: How sustainable are they

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Venezuelas Fisheries since the Economic Crisis
of 1983 How sustainable are they?

• Amelia Smith, Environmental, Ecological and
  Evolutionary Biology Department, Columbia
  University
• School of General Studies

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Venezuelan Economic Crisis of 1983

• Oil revenues in 1970s made Venezuela the richest
  country in South America
• Global recession during the 80s
• In 1983 the Venezuelan currency, the Bolivar, was
  released from a fixed rate of 4.5 Bs./1US
• Development of other sectors of the economy

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CPI and Inflation vs. Time
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Bolivars/Dollars vs. Time
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Rodriguez 2000 Other sectors
                                              
                                      

• Fig 3. Trends in human use of renewable natural
  resources in Venezuela (A) wood harvest
  (19701996) (B) ornamental fish exports
  (19751996) (C) commercial spectacled caiman
  harvest (19601996) (D) commercial capybara
  harvest (19681996). Gaps in B indicate years
  where no exports were recorded, while gaps in C
  are years were no commercial harvests were
  authorized.

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Data Sources

• Autonomous Service of Fishing and Aquaculture
  Resources (SARPA 1996)
• Ministry of Agriculture and Farming (MAC
  1970-1994)
• Office of Information and Statistics (OCEI
  1970-1996)
• Central Bank of Venezuela (bcv.org.ve, 1950-2003)
• SOFIA State of the Worlds Fisheries and
  Aquaculture

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Purpose of this Project

• Determine which species are being harvested
  unsustainably
• Assess whether there are relationships between
  unsustainably harvested species
• Artisanal fisheries role in the sustainable
  development of Venezuelas fisheries

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Methods

• Catch-per-unit-effort (Robinson Redford 1994)
• Maximum Sustainable Yield (King 1995)
• Actual Yield
• Maximum Economic Yield (King 1995)
• Sustainability of Overexploited Species
• STATISTICA

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Fishing Effort vs. Time

• The size of the Venezuelan fishing fleet has
  nearly tripled in the last three decades. The
  bulk occurred in the artisanal sector,
  particularly those that operate in continental
  waters. The marine artisanal fleet nearly
  doubled and the freshwater fleet tripled even
  though the industrial fleet did not significantly
  change.

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CPUE vs. Effort for Marine Industrial and
Artisanal Species

• Kings method (1995) demonstrates how catch and
  effort values from SARPA (1970-95) for an
  industrially fished species (left) and an
  artisanally fished species (right) can both have
  decreasing catch-per-effort values due to the
  relative abundance in numbers of marine artisanal
  boats.

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Daniel Novoa

• Head of Ministry of Fisheries
• Passed the New Law of Fisheries
• Used Welcommes method (1990) that assessed the
  harvest levels of freshwater fish in West Africa.
• The New Law promotes and supports the artisanal
  fisheries as a solution to the theory that the
  industrial fisheries are the most significant
  source of declining catch values for certain
  species.

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CPUE vs. Effort for Freshwater Species

• Despite the fact that only boats fishing in
  freshwater are artisanal boats, they appear to
  have similar decreasing catch-per-unit-effort
  trends to marine industrial and artisanal species.

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Maximum Sustainable Yield Actual Yield for
Various Shrimp
MSY
MSY

• MSY shows where the maximum number of shrimp
  caught that is sustainable for the amount of
  ships fishing. In this particular case the
  maximum sustainable yield occurs at 2,832,109 kgs
  of shrimp with a maximum number of 768 industrial
  ships. The actual yield for 84,85,90,91,92,93,94
  95 all exceed MSY by much more than 10

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Maximum Sustainable Yield Actual Yield for
Madamango Seacatfish
MSY
MSY
MSY

• Of the total catch of seacatfishes, 90 are
  caught by marine artisanal boats. Despite the
  fact that the MSY occurs when there are 8,300
  boats fishing, the actual catch will show that
  the MSY, which is about 924,000 kgs. has been
  exceeded by about 200,000 kgs.

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Maximum Sustainable Yield Actual Yield for a
Freshwater Species
MSY
MSY

• MSY for hassar, a small species of catfish,
  displays extreme overexploitation of a freshwater
  artisanally fished species. The number of boats
  exceeds the maximum effort by more than 8,000 and
  the maximum catch is exceeded by a million kgs.
  In certain years!

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CPUE vs. Freshwater Effort
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Overall Sustainability Results

• Total of 52 species assessed
• Unsustainable is 10 above MSY value
• 21 were found to be unsustainably harvested
• 19 or 90 are fished by artisanal boats more than
  90 of the time

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Of the 21 Unsustainably Harvested Species

• 38 (n8) above 10 MSY since 1985
• 43 (n9) above 10 since 1990
• 19 (n4) more above 10 since 1995

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Trophic Levels of Unsustainably Harvested Species
(Pauly et.al 1998)

• 33 with t.l.gt4 38 with t.l.gt3 19 with
  t.l.gt2 9 with t.l.1

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STATISTICA Results
1st
2nd
3rd
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Maximum Economic Yield

• suggests the relationship between sustainable
  revenue, fishing costs, and fishing efforts (King
  1995)
• Cost line crosses revenue curve at the Economic
  Break-Even Point
• MEY can be used as a tool to determine both the
  environmental and economic sustainability of the
  fisheries

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Maximum Economic Yield 1994

• This graph demonstrates that the MEY is achieved
  when there are 8,500 artisanal boats. In 1994
  there were over 7,500 boats. It also
  demonstrated that while the economy is still
  depressed Venezuelans fish because it is a
  relatively steady income.

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What has happened to the economy since 1995?
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Discussion

• Artisanal fisheries are responsible for 90 of
  unsustainable harvests of 21 of the 52 total
  species
• No data published since 1995
• Novoas Law and management of the fisheries will
  not support these results
• Potential to lead to overall shifts in the food
  web that could result in a collapse of some
  species that contribute to the majority of
  harvests and revenues.

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Recommendations

• Work with SARPA and Daniel Novoa to
• Publish or obtain data from 1996 to 2002 and
  assess changes and trends
• Work with artisanal fisheries to address their
  pressures and needs
• Incorporate these results into the New Law of
  Fisheries

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Acknowledgements

• Jon Paul Rodriguez, Instituto Venezolano de
  Investigaciones Cientificas
• Daniel Novoa, Ministry of Fisheries
• CERC

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