Marine Fisheries Enhancement and Management Strategies

Marine fisheries enhancement and management strategies encompass a suite of interventions aimed at sustaining and rebuilding wild fish stocks while safeguarding ecosystem integrity. Central to this endeavour are stock enhancement programmes, which involve the hatchery rearing and subsequent release of juveniles into target fisheries, and marine ranching, where habitat restoration and artificial structures are used to promote natural recruitment. These approaches operate in concert with ecosystem-based management frameworks that account for the interdependence of species, habitats and human activities. Advances in site selection, release timing and post-release conditioning have improved survival and integration of cultured individuals. Complementary measures include adaptive quotas, real-time monitoring and the application of ecological risk assessments to balance socio-economic objectives with biodiversity conservation. Emerging techniques such as flow-stimulation training and fatty-acid profiling inform the optimisation of release protocols and habitat suitability assessments. Collectively, these strategies aim to bolster fishery yields, enhance resilience to climatic and anthropogenic pressures, and support the livelihoods of coastal communities through evidence-driven, scalable interventions.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have demonstrated that flow-stimulation training markedly improves the swimming performance and migratory behaviour of hatchery-reared fish upon release. Experiments conducted in annular flumes reveal that juveniles exposed to controlled current regimes develop heightened sensitivity to flow cues, enabling them to locate and occupy low-energy refugia and to conserve energy during dispersal. Such conditioning not only enhances immediate post-release survival but also contributes to more efficient integration into wild populations. This work establishes a novel methodology for pre-release training that can be incorporated into stock enhancement programmes to maximise the adaptive capacity of cultured fish in dynamic marine environments.

Marine Fisheries Enhancement and Management Strategies publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in marine fisheries enhancement and management strategies across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Stock enhancement: The practice of rearing juveniles in captivity and releasing them into the wild to supplement declining fish populations.

Marine ranching: The construction and management of artificial habitats or enhancement structures to promote natural recruitment and biomass accumulation.

Ecosystem-based management (EBM): An integrated approach that considers ecological, social and economic objectives and the interactions among species, habitats and human activities.

Post-larvae capture, culture and release (PCCR): A fisheries enhancement technique involving the collection of naturally occurring larvae, their short-term rearing and subsequent release to support wild stocks.

Flow-stimulation training: A pre-release conditioning method in which hatchery-reared fish are exposed to controlled water currents to improve swimming performance and habitat selection skills.

References

1. Building adjustment capacity to cope with running water in cultured grass carp through flow stimulation conditions. Scientific Reports (2024).
2. Marine Ranching Construction and Management in East China Sea: Programs for Sustainable Fishery and Aquaculture. Water (2019).
3. Optimization of a Marine Fish Release Strategy: A Case Study of Black Sea Bream Acanthopagrus schlegelii in the Zhanjiang Estuary, Northern South China Sea. Frontiers in Environmental Science (2021).
4. Examining current best-practices for the use of wild post-larvae capture, culture, and release for fisheries enhancement. Frontiers in Marine Science (2023).
5. Appropriateness Evaluation of Releasing Area for Four Marine Organisms in Stock Enhancement: A Fatty Acid Approach. Fishes (2023).