Most fishing is inherently size‐selective, in that fishers preferentially select a subset of the population for harvest based on economic incentives associated with different‐sized fish. Size‐selective fishing influences the targeted population and fishery performance in multiple ways, including changing the reproductive capacity of the target population and altering fishery yield. Understanding how social–ecological variability, including size selectivity, affects target species populations is critical for fisheries management to optimize the benefits of fisheries and the ecological impacts on target populations. In this study, we used yield per recruit, spawning stock biomass per recruit, and length‐based spawning potential ratio models to explore how a range of size selectivity scenarios affect fishery and population productivity for Mexican chocolate clams, Megapitaria squalida, in Loreto, Baja California Sur, Mexico. We found that alternate slot limits result in trade‐offs between fishery yield and reproductive productivity of the target population. A more restrictive slot limit reduced the proportion of the population available to harvest, resulting in higher reproductive capacity of the population, compared to a less restrictive slot limit, conditional on the rate of fishing mortality. In the long run, a more restrictive slot limit will likely lead to a higher number of recruits, larger stock size, and higher long‐term fishery yield relative to a less restrictive scenario. Our findings highlight that how people fish matters, perhaps as much as the quantity of fish harvested; size‐selective fishing that aligns with the life history of target populations and stakeholders’ goals is critical to sustaining fisheries and the valuable food and livelihoods they provide.

中文翻译：

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大小选择捕捞导致渔业生产率与生殖能力之间的权衡

大多数捕捞本质上是大小选择的，因为渔民会根据与不同大小鱼相关的经济诱因，优先选择一部分人口进行捕捞。大小选择捕捞以多种方式影响目标种群和渔业绩效，包括改变目标种群的繁殖能力和改变渔业产量。了解社会生态变异性（包括大小选择性）如何影响目标物种种群对于渔业管理以优化渔业效益和对目标种群的生态影响至关重要。在这项研究中，我们使用了每个新兵的产量，每个新兵的产卵生物量，角鲨，位于墨西哥下加利福尼亚州苏尔州的洛雷托。我们发现，替代的档位限制会导致渔业产量与目标人群的生殖生产力之间的取舍。与狭缝限制较少相比，限制更大的狭缝限制会减少可用于收获的种群的比例，从而提高种群的繁殖能力，这取决于捕捞死亡率。从长远来看，与限制性较小的情况相比，限制性更强的狭缝限制可能会导致新兵数量增加，种群规模增大以及长期渔业产量提高。我们的发现表明，人们的捕鱼方式至关重要，也许与所捕捞的鱼类数量一样重要。