The COVID-19 pandemic has altered illegal fishing activities inside and outside a marine protected area

Abstract

The global COVID-19 pandemic has presented a unique opportunity to explore the consequences of illegal exploitation on wildlife communities, as it continues to have wide-reaching impacts on multiple sectors, including local and national economies, international trade, and conservation enforcement¹. The ongoing reductions in monitoring and enforcement during the pandemic have allowed increased opportunities for illegal, unreported, and unregulated activities, particularly for small-scale fisheries². Even before the pandemic, policymakers and fisheries managers intent on controlling illegal fishing activities established marine protected areas (MPAs) that restrict or prohibit fishing³. Unfortunately, non-compliance with MPAs is often the rule rather than the exception, and less than 10% of the world's MPAs have managed to effectively reduce infringement⁴. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these management challenges: a recent review of MPAs worldwide has revealed a general decline in tourism revenue to operate park services during the pandemic, especially revenue needed for supporting personnel to monitor, patrol, and enforce restrictions². Here, we compile infraction records of illegal fishing activities by both professional (commercial) and amateur (recreational) boats inside and outside of the Tupinambás Ecological Station and the Alcatrazes Wildlife Refuge (Figure 1A), notable for its high reef-fish biomass and diversity in the Southwestern Atlantic⁵. We show that illegal exploitation has shifted since the onset of the pandemic, targeting larger, higher-value species that contribute disproportionately to the structure and function of reef-fish communities in the region.

Figure 1

Illegal fishing in the Alcatrazes Archipelago 2017–2021. (A) The spatial distribution of illegal fishing records within the Alcatrazes Archipelago between 2017 and 2021. The red dashed polygon represents the Marine Protected Area. (B,C) Plots of the multidimensional functional space occupied by species captured (B) before and (C) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The polygon in black represents the total functional space comprised by all species captured during both periods; the cyan polygon represents the functional space captured before and during the pandemic; the orange polygons represent the species captured by professional boats; the blue polygons represent the species captured by amateur boats. (D,E) The first and second axes derived from a Principal Coordinate Analysis (PCoA) performed on six traits showing the major axes of trait variation before (D) and during (E) the pandemic. Diet abbreviations: HD, herbivores-detritivores; HM, macroalgae-feeder; IM, mobile invertebrate feeders; PS, piscivores; OM, omnivores. Size group abbreviations: Small G, small group; Medium G, medium group; Large G, large group.