Fisheries Ecology

By

Tony J. Pitcher and Paul J. B. Hart

Preface

This book is about the ecology of fish which are caught by man. Its aim is to set out the processes which must be identified, described, measured, analysed and ultimately predicted in order to provide optimal management of exploited fisheries. The text is designed for under-graduates and masters level courses in biology, ecology and zoology and attempts to provide a self-contained account of one of the major areas of applied ecology.

 A major stumbling block for potential students of fisheries science is the mathematics; many students are dismayed at first meeting a yield equation. In order to ease this problem, we have attempted to reduce the mathematics to a necessary minimum, have avoided calculus where possible, and have explained most equations in words as well as symbols.

We have written this book in the belief that existing fishery treatments are usually too specialised and restricted in their outlook. Consequently, we have endeavoured to consider fish as components of delicately balanced ecosystems, and have included sections on nutrition, evolution, fish farming, energy use, and fishery economics as well as covering the main types of fishery models and the methods of fishery management.

One major omission enforced through lack of space is the impact of fish behaviour on fisheries, notably the reactions of fish to gear and the effect of fish migrations on the location, duration, and yields to man.

We hope that the broader outlook of our approach will make it easier for students, still at a relatively undifferentiated stage of their careers, to fit fisheries science more easily into its biological context. However, we hope too that we have shown that fisheries ecology is one area where ecology is directly connected with the daily activities of man.

Contents

1 – Fish Design Plans and Fish Communities

2 – World Fisheries

3 – The Structure of Fish Populations in Space and Time

4 – Fish Nutrition, Growth and Production

5 – Evolutionary Effects of Mortality

6 – Recruitment

7 – Prediction of Fishery Yields: Surplus Yield Models

8 – Dynamic Pool Models and Fishery Management

9 – Fishery Economics

10 – Fish Farming

11 – Fisheries and the Ecology of Man

   ***for more please visit the library***

 Prep. / Ayman Ashry

Manage. / Mona Mahmoud