The distribution of fishes is influenced by a host of physico-chemical and biological variables, including temperature and oxygen, prey abundance, feeding or assimilation rates, and predation risk. We used hydroacoustics and midwater trawls to measure the vertical distribution of pelagic fishes during a series of research cruises on Lake Superior’s western arm in 2001 and 2004. Our objective wa...

Ecosystem indicators were investigated through the study of the trophic structure of reef fish assemblages, in separate coral reef ecosystems of the south-west lagoon of New Caledonia. In a first step, a fractional trophic level was assigned for each fish species. Abundances profiles along trophic levels were subsequently plotted in order to search for trophic changes under various level of fis...

Science-based approaches for selecting among single-species, community-, and ecosystem-based recovery plans are needed to conserve imperilled species. Selection of recovery plans has often been based on past success rates with other taxa and systems or on economic cost, but less on the ecology of the system in question. We developed a framework for selecting a recovery plan based on the distrib...

We used a one-dimensional, spatially explicit model to simulate the community of small fishes in the freshwater wetlands of southern Florida, USA. The seasonality of rainfall in these wetlands causes annual fluctuations in the amount of flooded area. We modeled fish populations that differed from each other only in efficiency of resource utilization and dispersal ability. The simulations showed...

To reduce mortality in the by-catch of commercial salmon fisheries, techniques are being explored to revive fish before live release and improve survival. By measuring blood and muscle variables, we demonstrated that capture of coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) by commercial trolling methods resulted in severe exhaustion and stress, e.g., muscle lactate reached 46.1 mmol·kg–1 while muscle phos...