A new study sponsored by the Seafood Industry Research Fund (SIRF) has the main aim of assisting the NFI Crab Council in formulating effective policies for bolstering blue swimming crab populations in South East Asia.
The research, Stock Enhancement: Strategic Approach for the Blue Swimmer Crab in SE Asia, provides a history of enhancement work, a survey of existing methods and recommendations specific to crab fisheries.
The study co-authors Drs. Anson H. Hines and Yonathan Zohar describe enhancement work as one important component of a fisheries improvement regime.
The reserach states that enhancement, or the use of hatchery-reared organisms to increase fishery abundance in the wild, is, as the study posits, most successful when used to increase a spawning stock’s reproductive potential over a period of time in conjunction with robust fishery management.
Many tools are required to set a fishery on a path for sustainability, said Crab Council Chairman Brendan Sweeny.
While we recognize that strong fisheries management policies are the foundation of a sustainable fishery, this SIRF-sponsored study has helped clarify the council’s position on one of those tools, Sweeny pointed out.
In the chairman’s view, the paper, presented in full during the Seafood Expo North America, will really serve as a seminal communications tool in helping people understand that the old put-and-take enhancement method does not work for crab. But a focus on brood stock might.
Further, the paper is helping to guide the Crab Council’s strategic direction of enhancement practices.
SIRF, like the NFI Crab Council, is interested in investing in a better seafood industry, said SIRF Chairman Russ Mentzer.
SIRF supports the council’s enhancement research because of its dual-benefits to the blue swimming crab fishery’s long-term health and value, Mentzer concluded.
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