Atlantic Salmon and Brown Trout in Lake Vänern: A proposal for a co-management system
Keywords:
fishery, barriers, bi-national ecosystem, scientists, managing authorities, stakeholderAbstract
Co-management is of increasing interest for fisheries management. We explore possibilities for, and barriers to, developing a co-management system, using threatened populations of landlocked Atlantic Salmon and Brown Trout as examples. Good management of natural resources requires not only knowledge about the resource, but also suitable tools to collect information and make decisions. In large ecosystems this can be difficult because many actors are involved, and various societal borders and traditions become barriers. Vänern is the largest lake in the European Union and it holds several distinct populations of large-bodied landlocked Atlantic Salmon and Brown Trout. The lake is used for commercial, subsistence, and sport fishing as well as for other recreational activities; in Klarälven, the largest river entering Vänern, sport fishing is popular. These salmonid populations were at critically low levels during the 1960s, but a stocking program since then has maintained the fishery. At least one wild stock appears to be recovering since being protected in 1993. Ecosystem users all have different needs: in the lake, sport fishermen say that catches of hatchery fish have declined, and commercial fishermen have focused on other species. In the river, wild salmon may be recovering: sport fishing is popular and an ongoing project investigates the possibilities for salmon to be able to circumvent hydro-electrical plants and reach historical Norwegian spawning areas. Not only do we lack information about the salmonids’ different life stages, we also lack a suitable socio-political organization to find sustainable solutions to the different needs of diverse user groups. We argue that a co-management system that enfranchises user groups in the Vänern-Klarälven ecosystem will improve sustainable management of wild and hatchery fish.
References
AL control, 2012. Norra Vänern 2010, Norra Vänerns intressenter. (North Lake Vänern 2010, North Lake Vänerns stakeholders. In Swedish.). AL control laboratories, Karlstad, Sweden.
Behnke, R. J., 2002. Trout and salmon of North America
. The Free Press, New York.
Bottom, D. L.
, Jones, K. K.
, Simenstad, C. A.
, Smith, C. L., 2009. Reconnecting social and ecological resilience in salmon ecosystems. Ecology and Society 14, 5.
Brendan, T. O.
, Jones, M. L.
, Ebner, M. P., 2010. Sensitivity of tag-recovery mortality estimates to inaccuracies in tag shedding, handling mortality, and tag reporting. J. Great Lakes Res. 36, 100–109.
Degerman, E., 2008. Vänern–hur många laxar och öringar är vildproducerade–en spekulation. (Lake Vänern–how many salmon and trout are wild produced–a speculation. In Swedish). PM Fiskeriverkets Sötvattenslaboratorium, 2008-08-04.
Eriksson, L.-O.
, Rivinoja, P.
, Östergren, J.
, Serrano, I
, Larsson, S., 2008. Smolt quality and survival of compensatory stocked Atlantic Salmon and Brown Trout in the Baltic Sea. Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Environmental studies, Umeå, Sweden. Report 62.
Finlayson, A. C., 1994. Fishing for truth. A sociological analysis of northern cod stock assessments from 1977–1990. Social and Economic Studies No 52, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Fiskeriverket, 1993. Fiskeriverkets föreskrifter för vissa sötvattensområden. (Regulations form some freshwater areas by the Board of Fisheries. In Swedish). FIFS 1993:32.
Fiskeriverket, Länsstyrelsen i Värmlands län, 1998. Lax- och öringfisket i Vänern. (Salmon- and trout fishery in Lake Vänern. In Swedish). Fiskeriverket Information nr 8.
Hållén, A., 2008. Hur stor del av Vänerns lax är vild? En undersökning av andelen vild respektive odlad lax i Vänern. (What proportion of the Vänern salmon is wild? An investigation of the proportion wild and hatchery reared salmon in Vänern. In Swedish). Länsstyrelsen i Västra Götalands län, Rapport 2008, 78.
Jacobsen, R. B.
, Wilson D. C. K.
, Ramirez-Monsalve, P., 2011. Empowerment and regulation–dilemmas in participatory fisheries science. Fish and Fisheries 13(3), 291–302.
Jentoft, S., 2003. Co-management–the way forward. In Wilson, D. C.
, Nielsen, J. R.
, Degnbol, P. (Eds.) The fisheries co-management experience. Accomplishments, challenges and prospects
, pp. 1–14. Kluwer Academic Publishers, the Netherlands.
Johansson, M.
, Andersson, M., 2011. Trollingtävlingarna Kinnekulle och Sunnanå 2010 samt en skattning av trollingfisket i Vänern perioden 1997–2009. (Trolling competition at Kinnekulle and Sunnanå 2010 and an estimation of the trolling fishery in Vänern during 1997–2009. In Swedish). Fiskeriverket, Stockholm, Sweden. Dnr 26-2011, 11 sidor.
Johansson, M.
, Degerman D.
, Steénson, S.-G., 2009. Vänerns bestånd av odlad lax och öring 1997–2008 – data från Kinnekulleträffen. (Vänern stock of reared salmon and trout. In Swedish). PM 2009-04-09.
Jonsson, B.
, Jonsson, N., 2011. Ecology of Atlantic Salmon and Brown Trout-Habitat as a template for Life Histories
. Fish and Fisheries Series. Springer, New York.
Lans, L.
, Greenberg, L. A.
, Karlsson, J.
, Calles, O.
, Schmitz, M.
, Bergman, E., 2011. The effects of ration size on migration by hatchery-raised Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) and Brown Trout (S trutta). Ecology of Freshwater Fish 20, 548–557.
Link, J., 2010. Ecosystem-based fisheries management, Confronting tradeoffs
. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Mackinson, S.
, Wilson, D. C.
, Galiay P.
, Deas, B., 2011. Engaging stakeholders in fisheries and marine research. Marine Policy 35, 18–24.
Nilsson, N.-A., 1979. Food and habitat of the fish community of the offshore region of Lake Vänern, Sweden. Report for the Institute for Freshwater Research, Drottningholm, 50, 133–167.
Nordberg, P. O., 1977. Laxplan för Klarälven. (Salmon plan for Klarälven. In Swedish). Sundsvall. 354.
Norrgård, J. R.
, Greenberg, L. A.
, Piccolo, J. J.
, Schmitz, M.
, Bergman, E., 2012. Multiplicative loss of landlocked Atlantic Salmon Salmo salar L. Smolts during Downstream Migration through Multiple Dams. River Research Applications 29, 1306–1317.
Olsson, P.
, Folke, C., 2001. Local ecological knowledge and institutional dynamics for ecosystem management: a study of Lake Racken Watershed, Sweden. Ecosystems 4, 85–104.
Palm, S.
, Dannewitz, J.
, Johansson D.
, Laursen, F.
, Norrgård, J. R.
, Prestegaard, T.
, Sandström A., 2012. Populationsgenetisk kartläggning av Vänerlax. (Population genetical mapping of Vänern salmon. In Swedish). Aqua reports 2012, 4.
Parrish, D. L.
, Behnke R. J.
, Gephard S. R.
, McCormick S. D.
, Reeves G. H., 1998. Why aren’t there more Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar)? Can. J. Fish. Aq. Sci. 55(l), 281–287.
Piccolo, J. J., 2011. Challenges in the conservation, rehabilitation and recovery of native stream salmonid populations: A letter from Luarca, 2010. Ecology of Freshwater Fish 20, 346–351.
Piccolo, J. J.
, Norrgård, J. R.
, Greenberg, L. A.
, Schmitz, M.
, Bergman, E., 2012. Conservation of endemic landlocked salmonids in regulated rivers: a case-study from Lake Vänern, Sweden. Fish and Fisheries 13, 418–433.
Pitcher, T. J.
, Hart, P. J. B., 1982. Fisheries ecology
. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Netherlands.
Runnström, S., 1940. Vänerlaxens ålder och tillväxt. (Age and growth of Vänern salmon. In Swedish). Meddelanden från Statensundersöknings- och försöksanstalt för sötvattensfisket No. 18.
Smith, T. D., 1994. Scaling fisheries: the science of measuring the effects of fishing 1855–1955.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Stöhr, C.
, Lundholm, C.
, Crone, B.
, Chabay, I., 2014. Stakeholder participation and sustainable fisheries: an integrative framework for assessing adaptive comanagement processes. Ecology and Society 19(3), 14.
Vänerns vattenvårdsförbund, 2011. Årsskrift 2011. (Yearbook 2011. In Swedish). Vänerns vattenvårdsförbund, Mariestad. Report No 66.
Walters, C. J., 1986. Adaptive management of renewable resources
. Macmillan Publ. Company, New York.
Willén, E., 2001. Four decades of research on the Swedish large lakes Mälaren, Hjälmaren, Vättern and Vänern: significance of monitoring and remedial measures for a sustainable society. Ambio 30, 458–466.
Published
Issue
Section
License
Manuscripts must be original. They must not be published or be under consideration for publication elsewhere, in whole or in part. It is required that the lead author of accepted papers complete and sign the MSU Press AEHM Author Publishing Agreement and provide it to the publisher upon acceptance.
