Drivers and dynamics of commercial coral-reef fisheries footprint expansions and implications for stocks, ecosystems, and societies

Coral-reef fisheries have provided food security and recreation for societies across the tropics for countless generations, and are also estimated to provide nearly $6 billion USD in net benefits to the world an nually while supporting the livelihood of over 6 million fishers and their families. Yet, unsustainable fisheries regimes with ensuing impacts to coral-reefs and societies that depend on them have been reported over the last decades across most tropical regions. Alongside, management frameworks continue to struggle to ensure sustainable fishing regimes in the face of limited evidence-based guidance and the prevalent context of limited capacity and resources. This thesis aimed to advance on the field of small-scale multi-species fisheries by enhancing our understanding of exploitation and stock dynamics, the drivers behind those dynamics, and potential novel management paths towards sustainable fishing regimes. Within, it focuses on poorly understood coral-reef fisheries and on the drivers and progressive dynamics associated to increased commercialization of those fisheries, ensuing localized depletions and fisheries expansions, and inevitable impacts to stocks and societies.