Partnership between Scientists-Stakeholders-Managers
Current postdoctoral position
Governance of small-scale fisheries in the South: challenges associated with spatial and temporal socio-ecological scales
Jan. 2023- Jan. 2025
Funding: IRD – CoSav Littoral et Océan
Co-Pi: Marc Léopold (IRD) and Olivier Thébaud (Ifremer)
Drawing upon two case studies covering the Indo-Pacific Ocean, this project analyzes the challenges associated with co-management, stakeholder participation and transdisciplinarity at multiple scales for achieving sustainable small-scale fisheries (SSF) in the South. Specifically, the development and mobilization of social capital, that are major issues to promote sustainable management of SSF, will be investigated in Vanuatu and Madagascar in the context of small-scale vs large-scale research intervention, subsistence vs commercial fisheries, presence vs absence of traditional marine tenure and local management rules, and locally- vs regionally-based learning processes, respectively. Overall these two different cases will highlight challenges and opportunities associated with operationalizing SSF co-management through a transdisciplinary approach across temporal and spatial scales. This project is therefore at the core interface between governance and fisheries research and highlights how action research can be used to transform and/or improve co-management of SSF in the South through learning processes.
Past postdoctoral positions
FishAdapt: Enhancing fishery sustainability through adaptation of socio-ecological systems to global changes
Oct. 2020- Dec. 2022
Funding: ISblue
Co-Pi: Olivier Thébaud (Ifremer) and Tony Charles (St Mary’s University)
This project investigates how fishers and fishery management institutions have responded to large-scale changes (ecological, economic and/or political driven changes). We expect that adaptations of fishers and of fishery governance occur at different temporal and spatial scales, having different adaptive capacity. One specific question that this research aims to answer is how institutional and governance mechanisms can facilitate or limit fisher’s adaptation to changes. A balanced-method approach formed of conceptual bio-economic models and institutional analyses will allow for a more comprehensive assessments of the long-term responses of fisheries systems, identifying key adaptation processes at the sector, community and institutional levels. The research focuses on a comparative analysis of two case studies on the North Atlantic Ocean coasts that have experienced dramatic changes in their fisheries and are in the middle of one at the moment. The first one includes the analysis of the anchovy fishery in the Bay of Biscay that collapsed in 2004 and was closed from 2005 to 2010. The second case study involves the response of communities to the collapse of the cod fishery and the resulting development of the lobster fishery in Nova Scotia, Canada. Based on combined natural and social sciences methods, this research framework enables conceptualizing global change adaptation processes, as experienced by fishers and management institutions, with a focus on the role of response timing.
Evaluating economic impacts to the commercial surfclam fishing industry from offshore wind energy development.
Feb. 2020 to Sep. 2020:
Funding: BOEM
Co-Pi: Munroe (Rutgers University, USA), E. Powell (University of Southern Mississippi, USA), J. Klinck (Old Dominion University, USA), E. Hofmann (Old Dominion University), A. Scheld (Virginia Institute of Marine Science, USA)
An agent-based modeling framework has been developed to assess the economic impacts of the proposed offshore wind energy development on the surfclam fishery. The model simulates the uniquely consolidated and vertically-integrated surfclam fishery, under a variety of offshore wind energy development and fishery management scenarios by integrating spatial dynamics in surfclam stock biology, fishery captain and fleet behavior, federal management models and decisions, fishery economics, and port structure. Combinations of proposed wind farm array configurations that prevent fishery access or transit within wind energy areas were simulated to estimate effects on fishing costs, revenues from landings at major fishery ports, and stock abundance dynamics.
Selected Conference Presentations
Beckensteiner J., Charles A., Villasante S., Petitgas P., Le Grand C., Thébaud O. “Resilience for whom and according to what criteria?” Oral presentation, PICES/ICES Small Pelagic Fish Symposium, Lisbon, Portugal, November 2022.
Beckensteiner J., Boschetti F., Thébaud O. “Making the most of the best (and the least of the worst) in adapting to climate change: a stylized fishery example” Oral presentation, the International Institute of Fisheries Economics & Trade Biennial Conference, Vigo, Spain, July 2022.
Beckensteiner J., Charles T., Villasante V., Petitgas P., Le Grand C., Thébaud O. “Adaptations of a fishery socio-ecological system in the face of large-scale changes: opportunities and barriers learned from the Bay of Biscay’s anchovy fishery” Oral presentation, ICES Symposium on Decadal Variability of the North Atlantic and its Marine Ecosystems: 2010-2019, Bergen, Norway, June 2022.
Beckensteiner J., Scheld A.M., Kaplan D.M., “Use and non-use of private oyster leases in the lower Chesapeake Bay”. Oral presentation, North American Association of Fisheries Economists Forum, Halifax, Nova Scotia, May 2019. Best student presentation award.
Beckensteiner J., Scheld A.M., Fernández M., Kaplan M. “The Chilean Territorial User Rights for Fisheries (TURFs) network and catch of benthic resources in open access areas” Oral presentation, 3rd World Small-Scale Fisheries Congress, Chiang Mai, Thailand, Oct. 2018. Best student presentation award
Publications
Beckensteiner J., Villasante S., Charles A., Petitgas P., Le Grand C., Thébaud O. (2024) A systemic approach to analyzing post-collapse adaptations in the Bay of Biscay anchovy fishery. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, in press. Publisher’s official version : https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2023-0087 , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00883/99495/
Beckensteiner J., Boschetti F., Thébaud O. (2023) Adaptive fisheries responses may lead to climate maladaptation in the absence of access regulation, NPJ Ocean Sustainability, 2 (3) https://www.nature.com/articles/s44183-023-00010-0
Garraud L., Beckensteiner J., Thébaud O., Claudet J. (2023) Ecolabel certification in multi-zone marine protected areas can incentivize sustainable fishing practices and offset the costs of fishing effort displacement. Earth System Governance, 17. 10.1016/j.esg.2023.100184
Le Floc’h P.,Beckensteiner J., Thébaud O., Alban F., Duhamel E., Merzéréaud M. (2023) Explaining technical change and its impacts over the very long term: the case of the Atlantic
sardine fishery in France from 1900 to 2017. Research Policy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2023.104864
Melbourne-Thomas J., Tommasi D., Gehlen M., Murphy E., Beckensteiner J., Bravo F., Eddy T.D, Fischer M., Fulton E., Hofmann E., Ito M., Mynott S., Ortega-Cisneros K., Osiecka A.N., Payne M., Lucio R.S., Scherrer K. (2022) Integrating human dimensions in decadal-scale prediction for marine social-ecological systems: lighting the grey zone. ICES Journal of Marine Science. DOI: 1093/icesjms/fsac228
Munroe, D., Powell, E., Hofmann, E., Scheld, A., Borsetti S., Beckensteiner J., Klinck, J. (2022) The Atlantic surfclam fishery and offshore wind energy development: 1. Model development and verification ICES Journal of Marine Science, fsac108, https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsac108
Scheld, A., Beckensteiner J., Munroe D., Powell E., Borsetti S., Hofmann, E., Klinck J. (2022) The Atlantic surfclam fishery and offshore wind energy development: 2. Assessing economic impacts. ICES Journal of Marine Science, fsac109, https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsac109
Beckensteiner J., Scheld A.M., St-Laurent P., Friedrichs M.A.M., Kaplan D.M. (2021) Environmentally-determined production frontiers and lease utilisation in Virginia’s eastern oyster aquaculture industry, Aquaculture, 542. DOI: 10.1016/j.aquaculture.2021.736883
Beckensteiner J., Kaplan D.M, Scheld A.M. (2020) Barriers to eastern oyster aquaculture expansion in Virginia, Frontiers in Marine Science,7:53, DOI: 3389/fmars.2020.00053
Beckensteiner J., Scheld A.M, Fernández M., Kaplan D.M. (2020) Drivers and trends in catch of benthic resources in Chilean TURFs and surrounding open access areas, Ocean & Coastal Management, 183, DOI: 1016/j.ocecoaman.2019.104961
Huynh Q.C., Beckensteiner J., Carleton L.M., Marcek B.J., Nepal V.K.C., Peterson C.D., Wood M.A., Hoenig J.M. (2018) A comparison performance of the length-converted catch curve and Beverton-Holt total mortality estimator, Marine and Coastal Fisheries, 10, 298–313, DOI: 1002/mcf2.10027.
Nomura K., Scheld A.M., Beckensteiner J., and Kaplan D. M. (2017) Comparative analysis of factors influencing spatial distributions of marine protected areas and territorial use rights for fisheries in Japan, Marine policy, 82, 59-67. DOI: 1016/j.marpol.2017.05.005.
Beckensteiner J., Kaplan D.M, Potts W.M., Santos C.V. and O’Farrell M.R. (2016) Evaluation of population status from length frequency data of coastal marine fish species in southern Angola, PlosOne, DOI: 1371/journal.pone.0147834.
Léopold M., Beckensteiner J., Kaltavara J., Raubani J. and Caillon S. (2013) Community-based management of near-shore fisheries in Vanuatu: What works? Marine policy, 42, 167-176 DOI: 1016/j.marpol.2013.02.013.
Education
2014-2019: PhD at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (William & Mary, USA)
Dissertation title: Efficacy and unintended outcomes of spatial property rights for fisheries and aquaculture management in Chile and in Virginia, U.S.A.
2013: M2 Sciences halieutiques et aquacoles at Agrocampus-Ouest (France)
Thesis title: Evaluation of population status and potential for conservation with marine protected areas of coastal marine fish species in southern Angola.
2009-2011: M1-M2 Ingénierie en Écologie et Gestion de la Biodiversité at the University of Montpellier II (France)
Thesis title: Artisanal reef fisheries community-based management in Vanuatu.