Stabilization of an Exploited Fish Population

Evidence for harvest-induced maternal influences on the reproductive rates of fish populations.

Knowledge of the relationship between the number of offspring produced (recruitment) and adult abundance is fundamental to forecasting the dynamics of an exploited population. Although small-scale experiments have documented the importance of maternal quality to offspring survival in plants and animals, the effects of this association on the recruitment dynamics of exploited populations are lar...

An Expanded Multispecies Virtual Population Analysis Approach (MSVPA- X) to Evaluate Predator-Prey Interactions in Exploited Fish Ecosystems

Evolutionary response to size-selective mortality in an exploited fish population.

Many collapsed fish populations have failed to recover after a decade or more with little fishing. This may reflect evolutionary change in response to the highly selective mortality imposed by fisheries. Recent experimental work has demonstrated a rapid genetic change in growth rate in response to size-selective harvesting of laboratory fish populations. Here, we use a 30-year time-series of ba...

Length-Based Assessment of Coral Reef Fish Populations in the Main and Northwestern Hawaiian Islands

The coral reef fish community of Hawaii is composed of hundreds of species, supports a multimillion dollar fishing and tourism industry, and is of great cultural importance to the local population. However, a major stock assessment of Hawaiian coral reef fish populations has not yet been conducted. Here we used the robust indicator variable "average length in the exploited phase of the populati...

Exploitation as a driving force of life histor methods and empirical analyse

Today, fishing is the dominant source of mortality in most com fish stocks. Life-history theory predicts that, under most circum mortality at potential ages and sizes at maturation selects for ear deed, commercially exploited fish stocks often show trends towa tion. However, another plausible explanation exists: earlier matu reflect phenotypic plasticity. Because of this ambiguity in disent and...