Temperate marine rocky habitats may be alternatively characterized by well vegetated macroalgal assemblages or barren grounds, as a consequence of direct and indirect human impacts (e.g. overfishing) and grazing pressure by herbivorous organisms. In future scenarios of ocean acidification, calcifying organisms are expected to be less competitive: among these two key elements of the rocky subtid...

The North Sea cod (Gadus morhua, L.) stock has continuously declined over the past four decades linked with overfishing and climate change. Changes in stock structure due to overfishing have made the stock largely dependent on its recruitment success, which greatly relies on environmental conditions. Here we focus on the spatio-temporal variability of cod recruitment in an effort to detect chan...

The regionally endemic Galapagos Grouper, locally known as bacalao, is one of the most highly prized finfish species within the Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR). Concerns of overfishing, coupled with a lack of fishing regulations aimed at this species raises concerns about the current population health. We assessed changes in population health over a 30-year period using three simple indicators: ...

The Isostichopus fuscus fishery in Mexico was heavily exploited until 1994, when it was closed due to overfishing. However, no information existed on the status of the populations. The fishery was evaluated through an age structured simulation model, and according to our analysis of the stock, the fishery can be feasible and sustainable as long as fishing mortality and age of first catch are op...

(Pelagia noctiluca) — a well-known summer problem off Spain’s Mediterranean beaches – thriving through the winter. Joseph Maria Gili, leading the survey, said that these animals developed last autumn and will themselves reproduce in the spring in readiness for what is expected to be another massive summer population around Spain’s beaches this year. While measures are now being considered to pr...

Portuguese commercial Elasmobranch landings were analysed for the period 1986 2009 and revealed that some species may be in danger of overfishing. Landings totalled 122,515 mt, with an average of 5,105 mt landed yearly, with captured sharks, skates and rays representing 8 orders, 14 families and 44 species. Annual landings for the fishery generally decreased over time, with a corresponding incr...

Oyster populations in Virginia’s waters of Chesapeake Bay were lightly exploited until the early 1800s, when industrial fishery vessels first arrived, driven south from New England due to the collapse of northeastern oyster fisheries. Early signs of overexploitation and habitat degradation were evident by the 1850s. The public fishery, where oyster fishers harvest on state-owned bottom, rapidly...

Adaptive management implies a continuous knowledge-based decision-making process in conservation. Yet, the coupling of scientific monitoring and management frameworks remains rare in practice because formal and informal communication pathways are lacking. We examined 4 cases in Micronesia where conservation practitioners are using new knowledge in the form of monitoring data to advance marine c...

the bottom trawl selectivity parameters (22mm cod-end mesh size) were determined for saurida undosquamis , mullus barbatus , upeneus pori , and pagellus erythrinus along karatas coasts of turkey in northeastern mediterranean waters during fishing season for the year 2002-2003. the lengths at first capture (l 50 ) values for s. undosquamis , m. barbatus , u. pori and p. erythrinus were 12.57, 9....