Seasonal Closure

A seasonal closure shuts a fishery for a defined part of the year, the time-based technical measure that protects spawning aggregations, migrating fish, or recovering stocks. It blocks fishing during the window when removals do most damage, such as a spawning season or a recruitment pulse, then reopens. RFMOs apply seasonal FAD closures in tropical tuna purse-seine fisheries to cut catches of juvenile bigeye and yellowfin. A seasonal closure differs from a time-area closure, which fixes both a place and a period, and from a quota-triggered in-season closure.