Management strategies to minimize the dredging impacts of coastal development on fish and fisheries

Accelerating coastal development and shipping activities dictate that dredging operations will intensify, increasing potential impacts to fishes. Coastal fishes have high economic, ecological, and conservation significance and there is a need for evidencebased, quantitative guidelines on how to miti...

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Main Authors: Wenger, A., Rawson, Christopher, Wilson, S., Newman, Stephen, Travers, M., Atkinson, S., Browne, Nicola, Clarke, D., Depczynski, M., Eftermeijer, P., Evans, R., Hobbs, J., McIlwain, Jennifer, McLean, D., Saunders, Ben, Harvey, Euan
Format: Journal Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell 2018
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/69822
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author Wenger, A.
Rawson, Christopher
Wilson, S.
Newman, Stephen
Travers, M.
Atkinson, S.
Browne, Nicola
Clarke, D.
Depczynski, M.
Eftermeijer, P.
Evans, R.
Hobbs, J.
McIlwain, Jennifer
McLean, D.
Saunders, Ben
Harvey, Euan
author_facet Wenger, A.
Rawson, Christopher
Wilson, S.
Newman, Stephen
Travers, M.
Atkinson, S.
Browne, Nicola
Clarke, D.
Depczynski, M.
Eftermeijer, P.
Evans, R.
Hobbs, J.
McIlwain, Jennifer
McLean, D.
Saunders, Ben
Harvey, Euan
author_sort Wenger, A.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Accelerating coastal development and shipping activities dictate that dredging operations will intensify, increasing potential impacts to fishes. Coastal fishes have high economic, ecological, and conservation significance and there is a need for evidencebased, quantitative guidelines on how to mitigate the impacts of dredging activities. We assess the potential risk from dredging to coastal fish and fisheries on a global scale.We then develop quantitative guidelines for two management strategies: threshold reference values and seasonal restrictions. Globally, threatened species and nearshore fisheries occur within close proximity to ports. We find that maintaining suspended sediment concentrations below 44 mg/L (15–121 bootstrapped CI) and for less than 24 hours would protect 95% of fishes from dredging-induced mortality. Implementation of seasonal restrictions during peak periods of reproduction and recruitment could further protect species from dredging impacts. This study details the first evidence-based defensible approach to minimize impacts to coastal fishes from dredging activities.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T10:42:53Z
publishDate 2018
publisher Wiley-Blackwell
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-698222019-01-08T06:25:54Z Management strategies to minimize the dredging impacts of coastal development on fish and fisheries Wenger, A. Rawson, Christopher Wilson, S. Newman, Stephen Travers, M. Atkinson, S. Browne, Nicola Clarke, D. Depczynski, M. Eftermeijer, P. Evans, R. Hobbs, J. McIlwain, Jennifer McLean, D. Saunders, Ben Harvey, Euan Accelerating coastal development and shipping activities dictate that dredging operations will intensify, increasing potential impacts to fishes. Coastal fishes have high economic, ecological, and conservation significance and there is a need for evidencebased, quantitative guidelines on how to mitigate the impacts of dredging activities. We assess the potential risk from dredging to coastal fish and fisheries on a global scale.We then develop quantitative guidelines for two management strategies: threshold reference values and seasonal restrictions. Globally, threatened species and nearshore fisheries occur within close proximity to ports. We find that maintaining suspended sediment concentrations below 44 mg/L (15–121 bootstrapped CI) and for less than 24 hours would protect 95% of fishes from dredging-induced mortality. Implementation of seasonal restrictions during peak periods of reproduction and recruitment could further protect species from dredging impacts. This study details the first evidence-based defensible approach to minimize impacts to coastal fishes from dredging activities. 2018 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/69822 10.1111/conl.12572 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Wiley-Blackwell fulltext
spellingShingle Wenger, A.
Rawson, Christopher
Wilson, S.
Newman, Stephen
Travers, M.
Atkinson, S.
Browne, Nicola
Clarke, D.
Depczynski, M.
Eftermeijer, P.
Evans, R.
Hobbs, J.
McIlwain, Jennifer
McLean, D.
Saunders, Ben
Harvey, Euan
Management strategies to minimize the dredging impacts of coastal development on fish and fisheries
title Management strategies to minimize the dredging impacts of coastal development on fish and fisheries
title_full Management strategies to minimize the dredging impacts of coastal development on fish and fisheries
title_fullStr Management strategies to minimize the dredging impacts of coastal development on fish and fisheries
title_full_unstemmed Management strategies to minimize the dredging impacts of coastal development on fish and fisheries
title_short Management strategies to minimize the dredging impacts of coastal development on fish and fisheries
title_sort management strategies to minimize the dredging impacts of coastal development on fish and fisheries
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/69822