by Thomas P. Quinn LONG-TERM RESEARCH As we conduct fieldwork and process samples in the lab afterwards, we often ponder what the real sample size is. We measured hundreds or thousands of fish, shrimp, clams, or whatever it is that we work on. These seem like adequate sample sizes until we remember that they were... Read More
by Manuel Mendoza-Carranza and Alejandro Espinoza-Tenorio (Fisheries magazine: February 2015) Despite the conspicuous character of sawfish (Pristis spp.) in shallow estuarine waters, current records in the southern Gulf of Mexico are so scarce that they have been declared locally extinct from many areas where they formerly occurred (Fernandez-Carvalho et al. 2013). In Mexican waters of... Read More
Pacific Lamprey (Entosphenus tridentatus) have been an important part of the ecological community and co-evolved with aquatic species of the western rivers of the United States. Scarce information on Pacific Lamprey has hindered conservation and management efforts. To assess and conserve Pacific Lamprey, we developed a conservation initiative composed of three parts: assessment, conservation agreement,... Read More
Learning to Manage and Managing to Learn: Sustaining Freshwater Recreational Fisheries in a Changing Environment ABSTRACT: Freshwaters are being transformed by multiple environmental drivers, creating uncertainty about future conditions. One way of coping with uncertainty is to manage for resilience to unanticipated events while facilitating learning through adaptive management. We outline the application of these... Read More
Geographic information systems (GIS) are powerful tools for analysis and interpretation of spatial data commonly encountered in fisheries science. We presented details of GIS use in fisheries management in a prior study and found cost to be a factor limiting GIS use. This article introduces fisheries managers to free or open-source GIS. Free or open-source... Read More
Monitoring of fishing activities is an essential component of successful fisheries management that can provide verifiable fishery-dependent data on fishing activities and help assess performance and success of fisheries management plans. Fishery managers and stakeholders have often struggled in developing and implementing effective monitoring programs due to lack of information, funding, and peer-to-peer learning from... Read More
Ecosystems that change through time impose new scientific challenges for fisheries management advice. We present a case study to illustrate our view on how to face such challenges. The Pink Shrimp fishery in the Southern Gulf of Mexico has collapsed. Annual yields were about 24,000 metric tons during the mid-1950s to early 1970s; currently, they are about 1,200... Read More
The global proliferation of dams within the last half century has prompted ecologists to understand the effects of regulated rivers on large-river fishes. Currently, much of the effort to mitigate the influence of dams on large-river fishes has been focused on downriver effects, and little attention has been given to upriver effects. Through a combination of field observations... Read More
ABSTRACT: Bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix), a highly migratory cosmopolitan predator, is the only extant representative of the family Pomatomidae. It has been the subject of many studies due to its commercial and recreational value, but much less research has been conducted on its global population structure. Here we investigate the population structure of this species and... Read More
ABSTRACT: This article contributes to the ongoing debate regarding the sustainability of fishmeal and fish oil in aquaculture diets. It demonstrates why the “Fish In, Fish Out” metric, which is frequently used to show how many units of wild fish is needed to produce one unit of farmed fish, is not a valid tool for... Read More
