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Local and regional food initiatives—new ways of connecting food suppliers with nearby consumers—have proliferated in recent decades in the USA and beyond. One manifestation of this local food movement is the emergence of community-supported fishery (CSF) programs: alternative seafood distribution arrangements with shortened, traceable supply chains. Such alternative food value chains are seen as having the potential to benefit multiple stakeholders, including suppliers, customers, and intermediaries; however, the nature of those benefits—and the degree to which they foster connection among stakeholders—needs to be better understood. In particular, regional, intermediated value chains are less well understood than those that involve direct sales from harvester to consumer. This case study examines an intermediated, regional CSF (Fishadelphia) intentionally designed to connect culturally dissimilar stakeholders: New Jersey seafood suppliers and diverse consumers in Philadelphia. The project is coordinated by high school students from the Philadelphia neighborhoods served by the project. The paper examines the perspectives of three participant groups—suppliers, students, and customers—and compares motivations for taking part, values derived from doing so, and awareness of/interest in other stakeholders. Input was solicited from all active members of each participant group. Data were collected at multiple points during Fishadelphia’s first year of operations using a combination of surveys and individual/group interviews. We found that views of other stakeholders in this value chain varied widely within and across groups; these views showed some evidence of being affected by direct face-to-face contact. Our findings suggest that interplay among three types of values—self-interested, altruistic, and relational—may be important in motivating stakeholders to initiate and sustain participation in alternative value chains. This analysis furthers understanding of varied benefits that alternative food value chains can yield for different stakeholders, and illuminates opportunities for, and limitations to, the development of connection among value chain stakeholders.

Climate change is expected to have a profound impact on the distribution, abundance and diversity of marine species globally1,2. These ecological impacts of climate change will affect human communities dependent on fisheries for livelihoods and well-being3. While methods for assessing the vulnerability of species to climate change are rapidly developing4 and socio-ecological vulnerability assessments for fisheries are becoming available5, there has been less work devoted to understanding how impacts differ across fishing communities. We developed a linked socio-ecological approach to assess the exposure of fishing communities to risk from climate change, and present a case study of New England and Mid-Atlantic (USA) fishing communities. We found that the northern part of the study region was projected to gain suitable habitat and the southern part projected to lose suitable habitat for many species, but the exposure of fishing communities to risk was strongly dependent on both their spatial use of the ocean and their portfolio of species caught. A majority of fishing communities were projected to face declining future fishing opportunities unless they adapt, either through catching new species or fishing in new locations. By integrating climatic, ecological and socio-economic data at a scale relevant to fishing communities, this analysis identifies where strategies for adapting to the ecological impacts of climate change will be most needed. Climate change is projected to directly impact fishing communities through changes to habitat for marine species. A socio-ecological approach is developed to assess fishing community exposure to climate change risk and applied to New England and Mid-Atlantic (USA) fishing communities.

The coronavirus pandemic is more fully exposing ubiquitous economic and social inequities that pervade conservation science. In this time of prolonged stress on members of the research community, primary investigators or project leaders (PLs) have a unique opportunity to adapt their programs to jointly create more equitable and productive research environments for their teams. Institutional guidance for PLs pursuing field and laboratory work centers on the physical safety of individuals while in the lab or field, but largely ignores the vast differences in how team members may be experiencing the pandemic. Strains on mental, physical, and emotional health; racial trauma; familial responsibilities; and compulsory productivity resources, such as high-speed internet, quiet work spaces, and support are unequally distributed across team members. The goal of this paper is to summarize the shifting dynamics of leadership and mentorship during the coronavirus pandemic and highlight opportunities for increasing equity in conservation research at the scale of the project team. Here, we (1) describe how the pandemic differentially manifests inequity on project teams, particularly for groups that have been structurally excluded from conservation science, (2) consider equitable career advancement during the coronavirus pandemic, and (3) offer suggestions for PLs to provide mentorship that prioritizes equity and wellbeing during and beyond the pandemic. We aim to support PLs who have power and flexibility in how they manage research, teaching, mentoring, consulting, outreach, and extension activities so that individual team members' needs are met with compassion and attention to equity.

Export-oriented seafood trade faltered during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic In contrast, alternative seafood networks (ASNs) that distribute seafood through local and direct marketing channels were identified as a “bright spot ” In this paper, we draw on multiple lines of quantitative and qualitative evidence to show that ASNs experienced a temporary pandemic “bump” in both the United States and Canada in the wake of supply chain disruptions and government mandated social protections We use a systemic resilience framework to analyze the factors that enabled ASNs to be resilient during the pandemic as well as challenges The contrast between ASNs and the broader seafood system during COVID-19 raises important questions about the role that local and regional food systems may play during crises and highlights the need for functional diversity in supply chains © Copyright © 2021 Stoll, Harrison, De Sousa, Callaway, Collier, Harrell, Jones, Kastlunger, Kramer, Kurian, Lovewell, Strobel, Sylvester, Tolley, Tomlinson, White, Young and Loring

Change, adaptation, and resilience have emerged as central concerns in the study of natural resource governance. The mobility of fisheries makes them particularly dynamic and susceptible to long term drivers of movement, such as changing climatic conditions and human pressures. To explore how movement impacts resource systems, this paper presents a mixed-method empirical analysis of long-term geographic shifts and social response in the Northeast U.S. summer flounder fishery from 1996 to 2014. First, the paper describes changes in the distribution of summer flounder and the catch location of commercial fishing trips landing summer flounder. This is followed by a description of the institutional context of summer flounder fishery management and a narrative policy analysis of the ongoing regulatory process. Results indicate significant northward movement of both resource and resource users. Fisheries movement patterns are a result of both ecological change, and an institutional context that allows for some types of fishery mobility while constraining others. Significant conflict has emerged over the distribution of resource access and benefits as these fishery shifts occur within a spatially allocative, and relatively static management context. The analysis identifies competing policy narratives that have emerged to advocate for different forms of adaptation. Narratives offer contesting constructions of the nature and extent of locational shifts, and the fundamental goals of allocation. The differences in these narratives highlight how policy history shapes contemporary disagreements about appropriate response. This fishery serves as a case study for exploring human response to large scale, long-term movements of a natural resource.

Determining what animals eat is simultaneously challenging and yet also critical for ecologists, fisheries scientists, and resource managers. The tools of trophic ecology have expanded considerably in the last half century in pursuit of this goal. In this study, we combined stomach contents, stable isotope, and fatty acid analyses to investigate trophic patterns in three species of highly mobile, pelagic predators: striped marlin (Kajikia audax), blue marlin (Makaira nigricans), and common dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus). We were particularly interested in examining individual diet specialization among these species. We compared the short-term stomach contents with long-term diet proportions estimated from stable isotope ratios and fatty acid profiles using a Bayesian mixing model. Our results indicate that all three species feed on a mix of prey types. This work furthermore suggests that individuals of all three predator species demonstrate generalist feeding habits, with minimal differences in long-term (weeks, months) diet estimates between individuals with different short-term (hours, days) stomach contents. This novel, three-part analytical approach can elucidate complex and otherwise elusive trophic dynamics.

Fisheries are coupled human–natural systems locally, regionally, and globally. However, human–nature interactions within and between adjacent and distant systems (metacouplings) are rarely studied in fisheries despite their prevalence and policy relevance. We filled this knowledge gap by using network models to identify how the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has rewired couplings and reshaped resilience of Fishadelphia, a community-supported fishery program (CSF) in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, USA. As abstractions illustrating interactions among supply-chain actors, networks are helpful for characterizing flows and assessing resilience to disturbances such as those induced by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Since Fall 2018, 18 seafood (finfish and shellfish) species totaling 6273 lbs have flowed from harvesters (n = 4), to processors (n = 2), to a distributor, to retailers (n = 2), and finally to customers (n = 183). The pandemic reduced the number of seafood harvesters and processors (−50%), seafood flow quantity (−25%), species diversity in the marketplace (−67%), and species per supplier (−50%) before stopping flows in mid-March 2020, when Fishadelphia closed for 3 months. Models of network optimality indicated that the pandemic fragmented metacouplings that previously allowed multiple seafood suppliers to provide diverse products to customers. However, demand-side resilience increased through dispersed, socially distanced, efficient seafood delivery that expanded the customer base and generally increased customer satisfaction. This resilience dichotomy—wherein the post-closure network was less resilient than the pre-closure network in supply-side species diversity, but more resilient in demand-side social distancing, delivery efficiency, and customer satisfaction—has implications for rewiring networks to sustain CSFs and other local food systems amid ecological and social disturbances.

Summary Despite concern over the conservation status of many Mongolian salmonids and the importance of their ecological role in Mongolia's aquatic ecosystems, little is known about their basic biology. Hovsgol grayling (Thymallus nigrescens) is endemic to Lake Hovsgol, Mongolia and listed as endangered on the Mongolian Red List. Baikal grayling (T. baicalensis) and lenok (Brachymystax lenok) are found in lakes and rivers throughout the Selenge drainage. A detailed study of the age and growth of these three salmonids was conducted based on 1,682 samples collected from July 2006 to July 2013 in Lake Hovsgol, its outlet the Eg River, and one of the Eg's largest tributaries, the Uur River. Our results suggest that Hovsgol grayling in particular can reach a much older maximum age (17 years in our samples) than previously believed based on aging from scales. Female Hovsgol grayling were heavier at a given length than their male counterparts. Lenok had a greater average length-at-age in Lake Hovsgol compared to the rivers and greater weight-at-length in the warmer Uur River than in the Eg; female lenok from the rivers had a greater average length-at-age than their male counterparts. This study provides critical new information for the management and conservation of these threatened salmonid species in Mongolia.

Conclusions drawn from stable isotope data can be limited by an incomplete understanding of natural isotopic variability over time and space. We quantified spatial and temporal variability in fish carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes in Lake Hovsgol, Mongolia, a large, remote, oligotrophic lake with an unusually species-poor fish community. The fish community demonstrated a high degree of trophic level overlap. Variability in δ 13 C was inversely related to littoral-benthic dependence, with pelagic species demonstrating more δ 13 C variability than littoral-benthic species. A mixed effects model suggested that space (sampling location) had a greater impact than time (collection year) on both δ 13 C and δ 15 N variability. The observed variability in Lake Hovsgol was generally greater than isotopic variability documented in other large, oligotrophic lakes, similar to isotopic shifts attributed to introduced species, and less than isotopic shifts attributed to anthropogenic chemical changes such as eutrophication. This work complements studies on isotopic variability and changes in other lakes around the world.

In the 1979-1988 water budget (Fig. Ic), which is representative of current conditions, evapotranspiration (541 mm/y) and streamflow (538 mm/y) each account for about 45% of precipitation (1180 mm/y). Diversions leaving the basin (143 mm/y) are greater than diversions entering the basin (33 mm/y). The change in storage (-9 mm/y) is small. However, in this study, we ignored the absolute value of the storage component because it is highly dependent on the evapotranspiration estimate, which is the least accurate component of any large-scale water budget; only the temporal variation is considered. During the summer months (Fig. Id), the change in storage is most negative, due to increasing evapotranspiration, and it is coincident with decreasing rainfall and streamflow. Diversions remain relatively constant hroughout the year, with high groundwater pumping during the summer balanced by surface water withdrawals into reservoirs during the rest of the year. The effect of diversions should be most apparent during the summer months because streamflow is lowest at this time. With increasing water demands, diversions have become a major component of the water budget-they currently represent 15%20% of the streamflow. Our analyses of the water budget did not reveal any significant long-term trend in change in storage or in streamflow. This suggests that to understand the impact of diversions on the system we ought to reduce the time step (to daily or hourly) to examine changes in streamflow; focus the study area on the upper Ipswich basin where low flows occur and the river dries up most frequently; and look at different indices of hydrological change, such as the number of days of low flow and groundwater levels. Low streamflow is detrimental not only to the river ecosystems, but also to the downstream estuary, where alterations in salinity during the summer months could increase the stress on estuarine communities, a topic that requires further research. This research has been supported by the NSF-BUMP REU program, the Cox Charitable Trust, and the NSF grants: OCE9726921, DEB-9726862, and EAR-9807632. We thank the water departments of those towns that provided data and assistance, the Ipswich River Watershed Association, the Department of Environmental Protection, and Gil Pontius and colleagues at Clark University.