Plain Language Summary: Uniting fishers’ knowledge and science to better understand the role of kelp forests in supporting local fisheries: a Norwegian story.

By Zina Kebir, Vera Helene Hausner, Francisco Javier Ancin Murguzur, Vetle Lunde Ommundsen, and Ann Eileen Lennert.

Read the full paper here.

Kelp forests grow on rocky shores from cold to mild climates and provide multiple services to humans worldwide. They are especially important for coastal communities because they offer places for fish to grow and feed, thereby supporting local fisheries. As climate change and human activities along the coast intensify, coastal ecosystems are changing rapidly, and local fisheries need to adapt.

Spawning season is a crucial period for local fisheries, yet little is known about how and to what extent different fished species use coastal habitats, such as kelp, during this time. We argue that local fishers possess highly valuable knowledge, which, when combined with scientific data, can help us locate where fished species spawn. That knowledge will contribute to more effective fisheries and coastal ecosystem management.

To achieve this, we combined data on kelp distribution with fishers’ knowledge of spawning areas for 29 fished species along the Norwegian coastline. Since the 80’s, the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries has conducted interviews with fishers to identify and map these spawning areas. Here we used this rich and valuable dataset to estimate the distance between the spawning areas fishers identified and kelp forests, exploring how the spawning areas of the different species overlap with kelp.

Our findings reveal that fishers’ knowledge offers important marine spatial information that would otherwise require costly and time-consuming large-scale research surveys. Their insights enhance scientific research, highlighting the value of their expertise and the importance of collaboration. We found that many species might spawn near kelp, with some more closely tied to these habitats than others. This connection, along with the vital role kelp forests play in providing food and shelter for young fish, underscores the importance of protecting and restoring kelp forests. By doing so, we can better support fisheries, coastal ecosystems, and the communities that rely on them. We stress the need for more research on how fish spawning relates to coastal habitats and encourage collaboration among fishers, researchers, and managers to expand knowledge to ensure the sustainable use of marine ecosystems.