Jellyfish blooms and management implications in the Northeast Atlantic

• Main Author: Kennerley, Adam
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Northeast Atlantic
• Online Access: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/69555/; https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/69555/1/2018KennerleyASPhD.pdf

Jellyfish blooms are known to impact adversely a variety of industries, including fishing and tourism. A review of scientific literature indicates that blooms and their impacts may intensify in the Northeast Atlantic. There are also indications that the public perceive that blooms are becoming more common in this region. This research aimed to identify whether blooms and their increases across the Northeast Atlantic are a possibility, and, if so, generate an understanding of the potential economic impacts to fishing and tourism. GIS based maps of jellyfish presence and bloom occurrence were developed using current understanding of physiological thresholds for a variety of jellyfish species. The maps indicated that increases in bloom occurrence in the future is a possibility for several species, particularly in waters to the southwest of the UK. Based on these results, case study locations associated with coastal tourism (St Ives) and fishery activity (Brixham and Newlyn) were selected to assess whether and how blooms could cause impacts to these, applying an ecosystem services approach to measure potential economic and welfare changes. Survey responses from fishers and tourists were used to explore future hypothetical bloom scenarios, and quantitative indications of how the industries would operate and respond were derived. Fishers envisaged displacement effort as the main impact, with additional operational costs coming from increased fuel use while fishing during blooms. Tourists reported blooms would impede leisure activities, resulting in less beach visits. These findings enabled quantification of welfare impact due to loss of recreational activities, as well as subsequent decreases in holiday expenditure that impacts the local economy. Management options were explored during the tourism survey (anti-jellyfish nets) and mitigation considerations were made in relation to the fishery findings (informing skippers of the costs certain bloom responses). Based on the study results, policy and management ...