Withering syndrome is a chronic wasting disease of California abalone (Haliotis spp.) first observed in the Channel Islands in the mid-1980s. This fatal disease played a significant role in the demise of southern California black abalone and may also be contributing to the lack of recovery of other species following their severe depletion by overfishing. The causative agent of withering syndrom...

—We reviewed estimates of annual exploitation (u) and total mortality (Z) for populations of largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides and used a simulation model to explore how temporal changes in u have influenced those populations. The review produced 32 estimates of u and 30 of Z spanning 51 years. Fishing mortality was roughly parabolic through time, with a mean of 0.35 for 1976–1989 and a mea...

Many coral reefs have been degraded over the past two to three decades through a combination of human and natural disturbances. In Jamaica, the effects of overfishing, hurricane damage, and disease have combined to destroy most corals, whose abundance has declined from more than 50 percent in the late 1970s to less than 5 percent today. A dramatic phase shift has occurred, producing a system do...

Glass eel abundances are declining worldwide. This has mostly been attributed to direct impacts of human activities such as overfishing or habitat loss and degradation, whilst the potential influence of changes in oceanic conditions has received less attention. Eel are characterized by a complex and still enigmatic life cycle that includes a trans-oceanic spawning and larval migration. The appa...

Coral reefs are highly dynamic ecosystems that are regularly exposed to natural perturbations. Human activities have increased the range, intensity, and frequency of disturbance to reefs. Threats such as overfishing and pollution are being compounded by climate change, notably warming and ocean acidification. Elevated temperatures are driving increasingly frequent bleaching events that can lead...

– Decision tables provide a simple and systematic summary of the consequences of alternative management policies or decisions given various possible true, but generally unknown, states of nature. Decision tables are especially useful for evaluating the precautionary properties of those decisions, as they require explicit consideration of a variety of “what if” possibilities, some of which could...