Fisheries Oceanography SIO 270B

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Fisheries Oceanography
SIO 270A 22 Sep 05 D Checkley
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Introduction

• Administrative matters
• General Comments
• History

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Administrative Matters

• Tuesday/Thursday 1100-1220 Vaughn Hall
  300
• No assigned text. I will be referring to material
  in Jennings, Kaiser, and Reynolds 2001 Marine
  Fisheries Ecology and other books, but primarily
  the open literature, especially journal articles.
  Most, if not all, assigned readings will be
  available in pdf format on the library website
  linked to the class website
• http//iod.ucsd.edu/courses/sio270a/
• Grading Class participation 20, Outside work
  40, Final exam 40

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Fisheries Oceanography

• What is it? (pause)
• The study of oceanic processes affecting the
  abundance and availability of commercial fishes.
  Wooster (1961)
• This course
• Not only the oceanic processes, but the
  abundance, availability, and exploitation of
  those fishes.
• A major challenge is to distinguish the effects
  of nature and man on fish stocks and their
  environment.

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Fisheries Oceanography in Context
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Fisheries Oceanography in Context
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Fisheries Oceanography in Context
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Fisheries Oceanography in Context
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Fisheries Oceanography in Context
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Fisheries Oceanography in Context
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Motivation

• Leon Panetta, chair of the Pew Oceans Commission,
  put it succinctly (25 Sep 03)
• to act so as to optimize the lives of our
  children in regard to the ocean
• we govern either by leadership or by crisis and
  to lead means taking a risk.

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Motivation (cont.)

• To lead is to make decisions, usually from
  choices.
• One must be able to predict the consequences of
  those decisions hence choices.
• Optimal prediction, one could argue, is based on
  understanding, particularly in a time of
  unprecedented change.
• Prediction implies a model, be it conceptual,
  analytical, or numerical, of how the world works.
  
• Models can be based on the statistics of the past
  behavior of a system (classical fisheries
  science) or on a true understanding of its
  dynamics (the grand challenge).

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Motivation (cont.)

• Fishery science has until recently relied largely
  on correlation.

N Sea Cod
Recruitment at age 2.5 y
Spawning Stock Biomass
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Motivation (cont.)

• Fishery science has until recently relied largely
  on correlation.
• In times of unprecedented change due, for
  example, to overfishing or climate change,
  extrapolation from correlation is unwise.
• The challenge is to achieve an understanding
  sufficient to allow wise choices.
• Our current laws were created decades ago to
  protect US resources from foreign exploitation,
  and to encourage our exploitation of our
  resources.
• We must change to a governance predicated on
  sustained and conserved populations, in an
  ecosystem context.

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Motivation (cont.)

• We are at a special, if not critical, time
• Climate change is upon us
• Overfishing and ecosystem effects are common
• Ecosystem-based management will be mandated
• US ocean governance is under scrutiny and may
  change in the near future (see links to Pew and
  US Commission oceans reports)
• Ocean observation and prediction capabilities are
  developing rapidly to meet these needs

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Motivation (concluded)

• Hence, to accomplish what Leon Panetta said, to
  act so as to optimize the lives of our children
  in regard to the ocean, will require us to
  develop an understanding sufficient to make wise
  choices, i.e. predict the consequences of our
  actions.
• Fisheries oceanography is integral to this
  process.

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Course Organization

• Introduction, Philosophy, History
• Life history (egg, larva, juvenile, adult)
• Population estimation and dynamics density
  dependence
• Environmental effects on fish populations
  density independence
• Effects of fisheries on the environment
• Global issues
• Management and Policy

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History

• Govoni, J. J. 2005. Fisheries oceanography and
  the ecology of early life histories of fishes A
  perspective over fifty years. Sciencia Marina 69
  125-137.
• Jennings et al. 2001. Marine Fisheries Ecology.
  Chap. 1, pages 1-20.
• Kendall, A. W., and G. J. Duker. 1998. The
  development of recruitment fisheries oceanography
  in the United States. Fisheries Oceanography
  769-88.
• Wooster Warren, S. 1987. Immiscible
  investigators oceanographers, meteorologists and
  fisheries scientists. Bioscience 37728-730

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US Chronology (Kendall and
Duker 1998)

• 1791 Thomas Jefferson
• 1823-1887 Spencer Baird, 1st US Fish
  Commissioner
• 1969-1948 Johan Hjort
• 1879-1967 Henry Bigelow
• 1900-1972 Oscar Sette
• 1888-1965 W F Thompson
• 1905-1967 L A Walford

JH
HB
OS
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Chronology
Thomas Jefferson declining fish stocks
1800 1850 1900 1950 2000
Spencer Baird 1st Fish Commissioner
Johan Hjort (ICES, Canada)
ICES founded
William Francis Thompson (UW)
Oscar Sette (CA)
Henry Bigelow (NE US)
Lionel Alford Walford (E Coast)
CalCOFI
Reuben Lasker (CA)
Elbert Ahlstrom (CA)
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Global Landings of Marine Fishes and Invertebrates
(Jennings et al. 2001 Fig. 1.3)
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World Marine Fish Landings (from FAO)
(Pauly et al. 2005)
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Landings vs year for dominant marine species
(Jennings et al. 2001 Fig. 1.4)
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Whales
(Jennings et al. 2001 Fig. 1.9)
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Typical time courses of fisheries
(Jennings et al. 2001 Fig. 1.8)
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Homework Due Tues 4 Oct 05
For two species of marine fish (fin or shell )
or mammal (only one of the two, please) with
disparate characteristics, (a) describe the
species (common and Latin names) and stock (b)
list year, stock size, and recruitment (c) plot
stock size f(time) (d) plot recruitment
f(time) (e) plot recruitment f(stock size) (f)
write a paragraph to a page on what might cause
the data (c, d, and e) to appear as they do,
particularly in the context of fisheries
oceanography speculate, ask questions, pose
hypotheses, suggest research, be willing to
discuss in class. Label axes and source(s) of
data and other information. Give me either a
hardcopy on Tues 4 Oct 05 or e-mail me a document
( preferably a Word doc).
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Homework Information Sources
http//ram.biology.dal.ca/myers/data.html
http//fishbase.org/search.php Jacobson, L.
D. and A. D. MacCall. 1995. Stock recruitment
models for Pacific sardine (Sardinops sagax) Can
J Fisheries Aquat Sci 52 566-577. Schwartzlose,
R. A., et al. 1999. Worldwide large-scale
fluctuations of sardine and anchovy populations.
S Afr J Marine Sci 21 289-347. Google stock
recruitment data, or a species name (Latin or
common) and key words (e.g. stock, recruitment,
data, and so on) and see what you get Ditto
using UC search engine, e.g. ISI Web of Knowledge
or Science at http//scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/