Commercial fishing utilizes a variety of gears, all of which are selective with respect to at least some phenotypic characteristics of individuals such as body size or girth. Empirical evidence is mounting that such fishing induces rapid evolutionary changes, with consequences for the size structure and dynamics of the exploited stocks. Here we present the results of life-history models designe...

In many cases in large urban centers, which have appropriate waterbodies, small-scale fisheries are the only source of cheap protein for the poor. In Lago Paranoá, located in Brasília, the capital city of Brazil, fishing was studied by conducting interviews with 53 fishers filling in logbooks from March, 1999 to March, 2000 in three fishing communities. The fishers come from the poorest towns a...

The possibility for fishery-induced evolution of life history traits is an important but unresolved issue for exploited fish populations. Because fisheries tend to select and remove the largest individuals, there is the evolutionary potential for lasting effects on fish production and productivity. Size selection represents an indirect mechanism of selection against rapid growth rate, because i...

Fishing impacts on marine food webs are predicted by simulations of a size spectrum community model. In this model, predation is determined by predator and prey size and abundance, and drives predator growth and prey mortality. Fishing amplifies temporal oscillations in the biomass flow. Oscillations appear at lower fishing intensity and have wider amplitude when fishing is selective (removes a...

We identify changes in the pelagic fish community of the tropical Pacific Ocean by comparing recent data collected by observers on longline fishing vessels with data from a 1950s scientific survey when industrial fishing commenced. A major shift in size composition and indices of species abundance and community biomass accompanied the start of fishing. The largest and most abundant predators, s...

The present study aims to recognize dhow prawn trawl by-catch from Hormuzgan coastal waters (Northeast Persian Gulf). Sampling was carried out of 36 hauls by using traditionally wooden dhow among prawn fishing season in 2011. The catch composition consisted of 31.66% target species prawns, mainly banana prawn (Penaeus merguiensis) and 68.34% by-catch. The total by-catch was 4,622.67kg com...

Over the last decades, views on fisheries management have oscillated between alarm and trust in management progress. The predominant policy for remedying the world fishing crisis aims at maximum sustainable yield (MSY) by adjusting gear selectivity and fishing effort. Here we report a case study on how striving for higher yields from the Eastern Baltic cod stock by increasing selectivity has be...

Both theoretical and experimental studies have shown that fishing mortality can induce adaptive responses in body growth rates of fishes in the opposite direction of natural selection. We compared body growth rates in European eel (Anguilla anguilla) from three Mediterranean stocks subject to different fishing pressure. Results are consistent with the hypotheses that i) fast-growing individuals...