Fishing down Canadian aquatic food webs

TLDR

The mean trophic level of fish landed in Canadian fisheries is declining by 0.03–0.10 per decade, mirroring global trends. The authors used FAO and Canadian fisheries data from 1873–1997 and developed length‑ and age‑based models to correct species TL estimates for size changes due to fishing mortality. Even after excluding key species, mean trophic level declined while inland fisheries showed no decline, and the small corrections from size models suggest that mean TL can serve as a sustainability index, contingent on data quality and time‑series length.

Abstract

The mean trophic level (TL) of fish landed in fisheries on the east and west coasts of Canada is declining by 0.03–0.10·decade –1 , similar to global trends. This finding is based on data from United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans and other Canadian sources for the period 1873–1997. Significant rates of decline in mean TL were obtained even when key species — Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) on the east coast and Pacific herring (Clupea pallasi) and Pacific hake (Merluccius productus) on the west coast — were omitted from the analysis. Fish taken in inland water fisheries did not exhibit a decline in mean TL. Two models were developed, based on length and age, respectively, for correcting TL estimates of individual species for the effects of changes in body size due to changes in fishing mortality. Both produced corrections that were small relative to changes in mean TL that resulted from changes in species composition of the catch over time. Overall, these results suggest that the mean TL of fish landed can be used as an index of sustainability in multispecies fisheries and that its reliability will depend on the quality of the data and length of the time series available for analysis.