The impact of economics and urbanization on marine fisheries sustainability in Atlantic coastal Africa

The sustainability and management of marine environment and resources, especially fish stocks and fisheries, are issues drawing considerable attention internationally because fishing is the most direct anthropogenic factor affecting the ocean's structure, function and biodiversity. As the impacts of fisheries on ecosystems cannot be fully assessed by examining catches of only a single species, this paper incorporates mean trophic level (TLm), relative primary production required (%PPR), and loss in secondary production index (L index) to quantify fisheries expansion and limitation and to measure the ecological footprint of fisheries. It also constructs a pathway model based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis to assess ecosystem-level impacts by analyzing how economic growth and urbanization affect the structural diversity of marine ecosystems to examine the more complete processes associated with marine resource depletion. Our results indicate that increased urbanization and biodiversity conservation are compatible goals, but economic growth would degrade marine ecosystems. These results raise important questions about the abiotic factors that influence overexploitation and biodiversity decline and highlight the importance of considering social and economic factors in developing sustainable fisheries management policy.