Marine protected areas (MPAs), ideally, manage human uses that threaten ecosystems, or components of ecosystems. During several recent MPA designation processes, concerns have arisen over the scientific justification for no-take MPAs, particularly those that restrict recreational fishing for pelagic species. An important question is: under what conditions might recreational pelagic...
The Northern California Current (NCC) is a seasonally productive and open ecosystem. It is home to both a diverse endemic community and to seasonally transient species. Productivity and food web structure vary seasonally, interannually, and decadally due to variability in coastal upwelling, climate-scale physical processes, and the migratory species entering...
The problem of extinction in the sea has been recognized
only recently by the scientific community (Roberts and
Hawkins 1999). For the last decade, the American Fisheries
Society (AFS) has pursued an initiative to identify marine
fish stocks that may be at risk of extinction in North America
(Musick 1998;...
Fishery dependent data--length distributions, sex ratios, maturity schedules, and species composition of landed catches--are necessary for stock assessments. These data are currently collected by state port biologists using a sampling design that randomly selects samples from a small percentage of a very large target population. Sampling programs may need to...
The 20-year US GLOBEC (Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics)
program examined zooplankton populations and their predators in four coastal
marine ecosystems. Program scientists learned that environmental controls on
zooplankton vital rates, especially the timing and magnitude of reproduction, growth,
life-cycle progression, and mortality, determine species population dynamics,
seasonal and spatial distributions,...
Estimating the stock proportions of mixed-stock fishery samples by means of genetic stock identification has played an important role in the management of salmon fisheries. In addition, stock identification of individual fish has applications for population studies, forensic cases, and management issues. We examined 11 microsatellite DNA loci in 84...
In multispecies fisheries managed with individual fishery quotas (IFQs), fishers targeting certain species often have
insufficient quota to cover other jointly caught species. New Zealand employs a unique dual price-quantity system to
address this problem. In lieu of acquiring quota, fishers can opt to pay a fee per unit of...
The role of science in marine policy, and environmental policy in general, is a debated topic. Currently, there is an increasing desire for transparent and participatory democracy that involves more input from local residents and other non-experts. These demands often conflict with the increasing complexity of problems and the real...