Mismanagement of Marine Fisheries

A critique of the central assumption that marine ecosystems produce surplus fish that can be taken by commercial fishing.

Alan Longhurst (Author)

9780521896726, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 April 2010

334 pages, 26 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.9 x 2 cm, 0.66 kg

'A highly readable and insightful analysis of prominent failures in world fisheries management from an eminent marine scientist.' Peter Koeller, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

Longhurst examines the proposition, central to fisheries science, that a fishery creates its own natural resource by the compensatory growth it induces in the fish, and that this is sustainable. His novel analysis of the reproductive ecology of bony fish of cooler seas offers some support for this, but a review of fisheries past and present confirms that sustainability is rarely achieved. The relatively open structure and strong variability of marine ecosystems is discussed in relation to the reliability of resources used by the industrial-level fishing that became globalised during the 20th century. This was associated with an extraordinary lack of regulation in most seas, and a widespread avoidance of regulation where it did exist. Sustained fisheries can only be expected where social conditions permit strict regulation and where politicians have no personal interest in outcomes despite current enthusiasm for ecosystem-based approaches or for transferable property rights.

Preface
1. From certainty to doubt in fishery science
2. The ecological consequences of the extraordinary fecundity of teleosts
3. Indeterminate growth, negative senescence and longevity
4. Marine ecosystems: their structure and simulation
5. The natural variability of fish populations and fisheries
6. Has sustainability in fishing ever been achieved?
7. What is the real state of global fish populations?
8. The mechanics of fish population collapse
9. Why do some fish populations not recover after depletion?
10. Is the response of the fishery science community appropriate?
11. Conclusion: sustainability can be achieved rarely, and only under special conditions.

Subject Areas: Environmental management [RNF], Animal ecology [PSVS], Fisheries & related industries [KNAF]