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The opaque nature of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing means that the data on catches are scarce or unreliable, making it difficult to estimate the volume of illegal fishing and the number of individuals who practice it. In this work, we develop the use of quantification methods for IUU fishing in data-poor fisheries and provide estimates for the main shellfish species exploited in S-fisheries in Galicia (NW Spain). To make the estimates, we use a model whose primary input is the Confiscations per unit of policing effort (CPUPE) index, which relates the sanctions imposed for poaching, estimated poaching, and confiscations carried out by the Enforcement Forces. The estimates for the period 2012–2020 are 660.2 t of illegal catches of different species and an average number of 1,766.2 poachers/year. These estimates provide evidence that makes it possible to analyse tendencies in illegal fishing, to establish assessment baselines and to highlight potential improvements in the fight against IUU fishing in small-scale fisheries

Over the past two decades, enormous progresses have been made in high-throughput sequencing (HTS) method development. This fact unveiled the potential usefulness of HTS methods in a wide range of fields such as fishery assessment and management, for which their application has been extensively discussed. As a consequence of the rapid development, sequencing costs have continuously declined, leading to a general claim that HTS methods are cost-efficient compared with traditional ones. Within this context, the underlying research objective is to assess the cost-effectiveness of genomic techniques through a review of the state of the art (SoA) on three HTS methods: i) environmental DNA (eDNA); ii) epigenetics method for age determination through DNA methylation (DNAm), and; iii) close-kin mark-recapture (CKMR) applied on marine ecosystems and fisheries and for stock assessment purposes. The SoA review of the literature on HTS methods was performed through the snow-balling systematic reviewing approach. The analysis has considered the set of processes and variables necessary to perform the stock assessment and compared the capacity of current and HTS methods for providing the required data. Research reveals that HTS methods constitute a promising tool for fishery research and, particularly, for improving scientific advice. Nevertheless, up to now, only one research, on a non-commercial species, has been conducted on the application of HTS methods for stock assessment purposes. Although some partial data are present in the literature, no systematic analysis on costs has been found. This paper suggests that the future research agenda should attempt to straddle both the scenarios for the transition process, considering complementary implementation and substitution possibilities and their cost-efficiency. Clarifying these questions is likely to pave the way for the effective and step-wise implementation of these methods in fishery management; thus, further research is recom

The cost-efficiency analysis of genetic HTS methodologies is aimed for understanding the potential of these methodologies for reducing the financial burden of aquatic and marine life assessments without increasing the uncertainty of the biological parameters relevant for such assessments which can be obtained through these methods. Even though several pieces of research have claimed that these methodologies are cost-efficient, most of them refer to uses different to the stock assessment of commercial fish species. The cost-efficiency analysis estimates the ratio of ‘program’ costs to outputs created, allowing to compare cost-per-output for programs producing equivalent outputs. In our case, outputs are the necessary data for performing an accurate stock assessment. The cost-efficiency analysis of the HTS methods compared to the currently used ones in the research surveys requires identifying the cost components in each case, to measure the relative efficiency and to understand the origin of the differences. Fisheries research surveys are not performed in a single way, they differ significantly one to another. A variety of stock assessment evaluation methods are regularly used. They also differ on the requirements on a priori information about the stock, in biological data and fishing parameters, in the time range of this data needed to run it with confidence, etc. A survey design conditions the efficiency of the surveys and the eventual optimization of the cost components. This study presents a contextualised approach for the cost comparison needed and identifies some potential pathways for efficiency both on the surveys at sea and on the lab, where the sampling processing takes place until the output data is made available for the stocks assessment.