Fisheries Science Discussion Questions from Readings

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MSCI 458/558 - R. Young, Coastal Carolina University

For April 4:

Management and Conservation

For the next class, read these web page accounts of the history and mission of the National Marine Fisheries Service (or NOAA Fisheries) and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Besides the obvious marine vs. freshwater distinction, do you sense any other differences in the history and focus of these two agencies? They both claim the same starting point – when did they split?

Spencer Fullerton Baird and the early history of the National Marine Fisheries Service

History and Contributions of the Woods Hole Fisheries Laboratory - a longer summary than above. If you like, you can skim the central section, but read up through the part about Henry Bigelow and read the last bit, as well.
(these articles and more are available from the Historical Articles page of the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center)

Read these sites on the History and Mission of the US Fish and Wildlife Service : 1, 2

For Feb. 28:

Go to the site Chaos in the Pond for a clear and easy-to-follow graphical tutorial on chaos and the logistic equation (they use a simplistic version of the logistic equation, but it functions the same).

Do models always lead to obvious predictions?
What’s the difference between "chaos" and "random"?

Optional, but if interested, the following sites have more information on the logistic equation

· A derivation of the logistic equation (by Heiser and Martin) - a simple derivation for your information.

· The logistic equation and integration by partial fractions - More complex examination of the logistic equation and its integrated forms (their notation is somewhat different from mine)

For Feb. 19: Questions from Ch 1 and 2:

· The last 2 lines on p. 12 begin a new paragraph. Read that sentence up to the first comma. What’s your take on that statement?

· How does equation 1.1 on p. 13 compare with the equation on p. 8 that we discussed in class?

· In Box 1.1, can you explain to me the conceptual difference between discrete time and instantaneous rate equations, and why one might be more useful in a variety of situations?

· What’s the point for figure 1.2?

· In chapter 2, what’s the role of a scientist in setting fishing policies?

· Can you give an example of a concave, convex, and linear set of trade-offs?

· Chapter 2 continues to force us to put various concepts into graphical form. Can you explain each figure in chapter 2?

For Feb. 5: Fishing Gear and Methods:

What’s a haul seine? Purse seine? Floatline? Leadline?
What is a longline? A gangion?
What is the difference between trawling and trolling?
What is a codend? An otterboard? A bobbin? A tickler chain?
What’s the difference between an otter trawl and a beam trawl and a midwater trawl?
What is pair trawling?
What’s the difference between a trawl and a dredge? What are some types of dredges?
What's a fyke net?
When is a trap a pot?
What are some differences between a gill net and a trammel net and a tangle net?
What is "soak time?"
What's the difference between a hook, lure, and jig?
Can you find these terms?: trotline, trap net, pound net, weir, circle hook, gigging

For Jan. 19: Some quick vocabulary – you may need to look these up.

· What are groundfish? Demersals? Pelagics? Diadromous/anadramous fish?

Go to the FAO Fisheries web page. Click on “Statistics” from the menu bar on the left. Look down that page for the link to the “FAO Yearbook of Fishery Statistics Summary Tables.” From that link, answer the following questions (if you like, you can just print out the appropriate tables):

For 2004, what are top 20 capture fisheries (species) worldwide, by weight?
For 2004, what are the top 15 capture fisheries “groups” worldwide, by weight? Do you know what these groups look like? Could you draw their basic shape? If not, try looking them up on Fishbase (http://www.fishbase.org/search.php) and then once you get to a species page, click on “pictures.” Do you know where they live and how you would fish for them?

Now, let’s look at some US statistics. Go to the NOAA Fisheries page (http://www.noaa.gov/fisheries.html), then click on “Fisheries Statistics” just a little way down the page. Click “Commercial Fisheries” along the left menu bar. Click “Annual Landings” in the left menu bar and then read the directions carefully in order to perform searches of their database to answer the following questions.

For 2004, what are the top 20 fished species for the entire US? Rank this list both by weight and by dollar amount. How well do these 2 lists compare? (Once you’ve done a query, you can drag and copy the on-line table and paste it into Excel in order to sort the data to more easily rank them. If you don’t know how to sort data using Excel, check their help menu.)
Same question, but this time narrow your search to the South Atlantic states.
Same question, but this time narrow your search to South Carolina.
Look at the total landings by weight for SC fisheries vs. US fisheries. What percent of the total US fisheries come through SC?
Does the list of the top US fisheries agree with the list of the top world fisheries?

Still on the NOAA Commercial Fisheries statistics page, instead of “Annual Landings,” now click (but finish reading the questions first) “Total Commercial Fishery Landings At Major US Ports Summarized By Year and Ranked By Dollar Value.” Also check the link below it which ranks ports by weight.

Before you check these sites, guess which ports are the largest for US fisheries. If you don’t know ports, guess areas of the country.
Now, check out the top ports, both by earnings and by weight. Were your predictions correct? How many South Carolina ports are on the list?

Reading assignments for Wed, Jan. 17

Case for trawl ban 'overwhelming'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6147896.stm

General Assembly urges action to protect world’s fish stocks

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20912&Cr=fish&Cr1=

Worm, B. et al. 2006. Impacts of biodiversity loss on ocean ecosystem services. Science 314 (3 Nov 2006): 787-790.

(emailed to students)

Fisheries Trends and Resources:

Read “Part 1” of the most recent State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) report, produced by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) and answer the following questions:

What is an approximate value for the annual global capture fishery landings (by weight)? How do capture fishery landings compare to aquaculture production? How do marine capture fishery landings compare to freshwater capture fishery landings?

Let’s look at the data on different scales. What has been the general global production trend for capture fisheries over the last 50 years? Over the last 20? Over the last 10? For each, what are the likely reasons behind these trends?

What country has the highest annual fishery take (capture fisheries)? How about for aquaculture? Where does the US rank in these 2 categories? Have these patterns been similar for a long time?

What proportion of the world population’s diet comes from fisheries? Are fisheries the answer to feeding a growing global population? Can a hungry growing population afford to abandon fisheries? Explain.

Do all fishery products go primarily toward human consumption?

The state of fishing resources: Roughly what percent of marine fisheries stocks are considered underexploited? Fully exploited? Overexploited? Severely depleted?

What is the general situation for fishers and fishing fleets?

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