SMS-100

Class 27

Tuesday
December 9, 2014

Fish and Fisheries…

Some definitions and Clarifications:

1. Fisheries (plural of Fishery) catch fish; and

sometimes they catch too many fish;
2. The word ‘Fishery’ refers to the business of catching
fish: which can be ‘commercial’ or ‘recreational’;

3 ‘Fishery’
3. Fishery can also refer to the species
species, or group of
species, being fished; e.g., the “tuna” fishery, or
the “ground fish fishery”;

4. The key point here:

Fisheries involve the extraction of living marine 
resources, and the replacement of those resources by 
natural oceanographic, ecological and biological 
processes.

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 New Bedford, Massachusetts; August 3, 2011

How Commercial Fisheries Work:  
1. Fisheries Production Problems: the food chains are not always equal
…stuff grows in the ocean; we take it out, and eat it…
Nutrient Fluxes

Cell Sizes

How Commercial Fisheries Work: 
The Amount depends on the number of trophic linkages:

Number of
Trophic
Steps

= 1.5

=3

=5

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 This all means that:

• Low Nutrients Lower Overall Pprod AND

Smaller Cells More Grazer Intermediates
Longer Food Chain Low Fish Production;

• High Nutrients Higher Overall Pprod & Larger

Cells Fewer Grazer Intermediates Shorter
Food Chain High Fish Production;

Short food chains (in nutrient-

rich waters) can have greater
fish production...and vice versa

All of this also means that:

The oceans can produce only so many tons of fish – a

fifinite
i quantity
i – because
b primary
i production
d i iis “fi
“fixed”
d” b
by
solar energy & nutrient availability, etc.

Therefore, based on what we know about oceanography

in different regions of the world ocean, we can estimate
the theoretical amount of fish production possible…

These ideas formed the

basis of a classic study
published in 1969 – by
John Ryther:

He showed:

Theoretical Max. Fish Production in

world ocean ~240 MMT per year.

And he warned:

Cannot catch all those fish…

We have to leave enough fish to

produce the next generation or else the
Fishery will Collapse.

And that: Maximum we can catch, he

calculated, is ~100 MMT per year

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 Statistics on
World Fisheries
Landings are kept by
the United Nations:

(Food and Agriculture

Organization FAO)
Organization,

Most recent data from FAO:

World Marine Fisheries Landings, 1950-2012:

100 MMT = Maximum predicted by Ryther in 1969

100

Maximum was ~ 86 MMT

in mid 1990s
Millions of Metric Tons

1969

Freshwater Landings ~ 11MMT in 2012

Year

The Fertile Crescent:

ca. 11,000 years ago:
The birth of agriculture, 
and the beginnings of  
world population growth…

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World Population Growth:  From 11,000 years ago to today

Agriculture

Fisheries and Fishing Pressure:
The California Sardine Fishery:

Fisheries and Fishing Pressure:
Landings of Anchovy and Sardines: Boom and Bust

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John Steinbeck’s Novel:
Cannery Row (1945)

Nobel Prize
Literature (1962)

Steinbeck’s friend, marine

biologist Ed Rickets (“Doc”
First Edition cover in Cannery Row) and his
1939 book.

Fisheries and Fishing Pressure:
The Gulf of Maine Redfish Fishery:

Fisheries and Fishing Pressure:
Landings of Redfish off New England: Boom and Bust

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History: Commercial Fisheries:

Baiting  hooks 
on long lines, or 
tub trawls

The Atlantic Cod Fishery: A Rich History

Basics of Fishing Methods:  Fish nets
Gill Nets:

Purse Seines:

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Basics of Fishing Methods:  Fish nets

The Otter Trawl:

Mid‐20th Century:
New Trawlers 
and Trawls

Trawlers and The Benthos:
Before

After

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 “Rock Hoppers”

The Fishing Banks of North America:  
The Grand Banks of Newfoundland, 
New England, and Georges Bank

New England & Georges Bank:  Landings Crash

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The Foreign Fleet:  
Trawlers and “Factory” Ships

The Foreign Fleet:  
Trawlers and “Factory” Ships
on Georges Bank in the 1960s

Trawlers and their 
capacity to catch fish: 
(modern examples)

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 The Magnusen Fisheries Conservation and 
Management Act of 1976:
500x103
Fisheries Landings
450x103 New England & Georges Bank
onnes

400x103
Metric To

1976
350x103

300x103

250x103

200x103
1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000

Look what happened after 1976:

Passage of 
MFCMA (1976)
500x103
Fisheries Landings
450x103 New England & Georges Bank
Metric Tonnes

400x103

350x103

300x103

250x103

200x103
1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000

Look what happened after 1976:

Passage of 
MFCMA (1976)
500x103
Fisheries Landings
450x103 New England & Georges Bank
Metric Tonnes

400x103

350x103

300x103

250x103

200x103
1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000

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Species composition flipped:
Cod Haddock Yellowtail
From
desirable
species

Skate
From 67% Cod, Haddock To
and Flounders in 1963 less-
To desirable
14% in 1986 Dogfish species

Solutions?
1. Reduce Fishing Pressure…  it worked during two wars…
…but not in Newfoundland…not yet, anyway

The North Sea

2. Ecosystem‐based Management?
e.g., the current approach isn’t working…

Magnuson‐Stevens Fishery 
Conservation and 
Management 
Reauthorization Act of 2006

Passed by Congress Dec. 9, 
2006
– 240 pages in length

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And then, even they were targeted:

Georges Bank:  Haddock: 1904 ‐ 2004

Cod & Haddock Landings 
Last Century:

Haddock

Cod: 1893 ‐ 2004

Cod

Northeast Fisheries Science Center Reference

Document 05-13, August 2005

New Bedford Fishing Fleet:  (still waiting)

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 Principles of Fishery Science:

1. Young fish grow; but many die young, before we

can catch them;
2. Fish mortality includes: starvation and predation;

3. Fish that don’t die early may grow large enough

to be caught, to enter the fishery, to be ‘recruited’;
recruited ;
4. Recruitment is highly variable among years and
difficult to predict;
5. Fisheries catch fish, sometimes too many fish; the
goal of Fishery Scientists and Managers:
To be able to predict how many fish can be safely 
caught, without depleting the stocks.

1.  Young fish grow ─ but many die young, before we 
can catch them; 
Cod:  Growth in Length Cod:  Growth in Weight

1.  Young fish grow ─ but many die young, before we 
can catch them; 

Weight

Number
of Fish

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So:  For each age group of fish (1 yr‐olds, 2 yr‐olds, etc.):
We multiply number of fish times their weight…  giving a
Stock Biomass. 
This line is Mortality.
One hopes that it is
offset , or matched, by
Recruitment…
For example:  European Plaice

Log Biomass (units unimportant)

Stock Biomass
(for each age group)

Age Group

A hypothetical Stock‐Recruitment Curve:

Biomass
of This point, at some positive value of
Recruits Stock biomass, is also obvious…
Stock biomass, is also obvious…

Stock Biomass (all ages)
This point, at the origin, is obvious:
At zero stock biomass, there can be no recruits

A hypothetical Stock‐Recruitment Curve:

Biomass
of
Recruits ?

Stock Biomass (all ages)

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The Principle of Maximum Sustainable Yield:

The problem with this approach?

It doesn’t always work …
─ that is, more often than not, it doesn’t work.
This is because of Recruitment Variability…
─ recruitment is highly variable
from year to year…

Critical
Period?

Recruitment Variability: Evolving Ideas

Johan Hjort and the
Critical Period Concept

D.H. Cushing and the 
Match‐Mismatch 
Hypothesis

Johan Hjort
1869 ‐ 1948

David H. Cushing
1920 ‐ 2008

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One conclusion of all this:
These two graphs tell it all: 

Our population growth rate far exceeds the oceans’ capacity to 
supply commercially‐harvested food fish… 

World Population Marine Fish Landings

World Aquaculture Production, as of 2008:
It continues to rise fast:

Two basic types of aquaculture:
Extractive Additive

e.g., Shellfish Aquaculture e.g., Salmon Pens

Oysters & Mussels

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Mussel & Oyster Farming:

Maine Salmon Aquaculture Landings

Salmon Farm in Eastern Maine

Courtesy C. Bartlett, Univ. Maine Sea Grant

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The Future of Aquaculture…
A call for action:
…to get serious
about Aquaculture

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