Sustainable Management of Invasive Fishes: Two Sides of the Coin

Dear Colleagues,

Summary: Options for achieving sustainable management of invasive fishes are very diverse, ranging from eradication to utilization. Research, opinions, and best practices addressing the methodology and philosophy of this topic make the local and global knowledge harmonized into an interchangeable environment.

The focus and scope:

Invasive fishes can cause adverse and complex ecological and socio-economic impacts worldwide. Management actions are always needed to minimize these impacts. These actions include the containment of existing populations to prevent their further spread, population control by suppression through removal programmes, and eradication attempts from specific waters or well-defined spatial areas. On the other side of the coin, they are frequently used to enhance aquaculture and fisheries within the context that they are valued by the public. When an introduced invasive fish has minimal socioeconomic value to that recipient society, the implementation of management programmes should be in accordance with the assessed level of environmental risk, whereby decisions should be made on risk management principles that identify, evaluate, select, and implement commensurate actions.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to collect high-standard papers that identify the methods and approaches to the sustainable management of risks posed by non-native fishes in the environment, in the balance of their proper economic use/utilization, making the two sides of the same coin. We also welcome inquiries of possible submissions addressing the best practices in the related special topic (i.e. implementation and/or the economic costs), either as research articles or short case reports.     

The specific questions that we wish to address are as follows: What are the management tools and options available for managing non-native fishes in the environment? How can we describe their use and efficacy in management programmes around the world? How can risk management principles be incorporated into the sustainable management of non-native fish? What are the estimated economic costs of control and management? Finally, how can we evaluate the efficacy of the utilization approaches and methodologies for managing non-native fish in the environment?

Dr. Baran Yoğurtçuoğlu
Dr. Ali Serhan Tarkan
Guest Editors

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