Fleet diversity and fisheries impacts: The ecology of fishermen

The last few decades have witnessed tremendous advances in our understanding of biodiversity’s impacts on ecosystem structure and function.  Despite strong theoretical parallels, the role of fishing fleet diversity in determining fisheries impacts is not widely appreciated.  I show that highly diverse fleets are likely to have lower yields and greater ecological impacts in un-managed fisheries, but higher yields and profits and lesser ecological impacts in well-managed fisheries.  These results highlight the importance of international cooperation to manage large high-seas fishing fleets, as well as the complementarity of research in ecology and the social sciences.