Fish Ecology
- Submitted by: iaingrieve
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- Category: Science
- Date Submitted: 07/21/2010 07:52 AM
- Pages: 10
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Abstract
Numerous groundfish stocks in both the Atlantic and Pacific are considered overfished, resulting in large-scale fishery closures. Fishing, in addition to simply removing biomass, also truncates the age and size structure of fish populations and often results in localized depletions. We summarize recent research suggesting that an old-growth age structure, combined with a broad spatial distribution of spawning and recruitment, is at least as important as spawning biomass in maintaining long-term sustainable population levels. In particular, there is evidence that older, larger female rockfishes produce larvae that withstand starvation longer and grow faster than the offspring of younger fish, that stocks may actually consist of several reproductively isolated units, and that recruitment may come from only a small and different fraction of the spawning population each year. None of these phenomena is accounted for in current management programs. We examine alternative management measures that address these specific issues and conclude that the best and perhaps only way to ensure old-growth age structure and complex spatial structure in populations of groundfish is through interconnected networks of marine reserves.
Cited by
Mark R. Terwilliger, Tamal Reece, and Douglas F. Markle. (2010) Historic and recent age structure and growth of endangered Lost River and shortnose suckers in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon. Environmental Biology of Fishes
Online publication date: 13-Jul-2010.
CrossRef
C. M. Greene, J. E. Hall, K. R. Guilbault, and T. P. Quinn. (2010) Improved viability of populations with diverse life-history portfolios. Biology Letters 6:3, 382-386
Online publication date: 23-Jun-2010.
CrossRef
Anthony John Fowler, and John K. Ling. (2010) Ageing studies done 50 years apart for an inshore fish species from southern Australia—contribution towards determining current stock status. Environmental Biology of Fishes
Online publication date:...
Numerous groundfish stocks in both the Atlantic and Pacific are considered overfished, resulting in large-scale fishery closures. Fishing, in addition to simply removing biomass, also truncates the age and size structure of fish populations and often results in localized depletions. We summarize recent research suggesting that an old-growth age structure, combined with a broad spatial distribution of spawning and recruitment, is at least as important as spawning biomass in maintaining long-term sustainable population levels. In particular, there is evidence that older, larger female rockfishes produce larvae that withstand starvation longer and grow faster than the offspring of younger fish, that stocks may actually consist of several reproductively isolated units, and that recruitment may come from only a small and different fraction of the spawning population each year. None of these phenomena is accounted for in current management programs. We examine alternative management measures that address these specific issues and conclude that the best and perhaps only way to ensure old-growth age structure and complex spatial structure in populations of groundfish is through interconnected networks of marine reserves.
Cited by
Mark R. Terwilliger, Tamal Reece, and Douglas F. Markle. (2010) Historic and recent age structure and growth of endangered Lost River and shortnose suckers in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon. Environmental Biology of Fishes
Online publication date: 13-Jul-2010.
CrossRef
C. M. Greene, J. E. Hall, K. R. Guilbault, and T. P. Quinn. (2010) Improved viability of populations with diverse life-history portfolios. Biology Letters 6:3, 382-386
Online publication date: 23-Jun-2010.
CrossRef
Anthony John Fowler, and John K. Ling. (2010) Ageing studies done 50 years apart for an inshore fish species from southern Australia—contribution towards determining current stock status. Environmental Biology of Fishes
Online publication date:...