dc.contributor.author | McHugh, John L. | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2009-01-08T12:04:33Z | |
dc.date.issued | 1969 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11250/114514 | |
dc.description.abstract | The Pacific sardine resource, which once supported an important
American fishery, declined abruptly in the late 1940's and early 1950's,
and the fishery is now defunct. Scientific research during the peak of the
sardine fishery and subsequent to the decline has demonstrated fairly
clearly that the cause was overfishing, fluctuations in abundance from
natural causes, and invasion of the vacated niche by the Pacific northern
anchovy. It has been concluded that it may not be possible to harvest a
sustainable yield from a highly fluctuating resource like the Pacific
sardine, for the reduced population will yield available energy to other
ecologically similar species. Thus, the concept of a broad resource base
made up of several species may be essential to the economic viability of
most fishing industries. Perhaps the best documented example of the effect
of selective fishing on the ecology of a large body of water is the history of
the fishery resources of Lake Michigan (SMITH 1968).
About twenty years later the Atlantic menhaden fishery went through
a remarkably similar cycle. The northern fishery is virtually defunct, but
the southern fishery is still in operation. The total annual catch now is a
little more than one-third as large as the average catch from 1953 to 1962.
Although it has not been demonstrated that the Atlantic menhaden resource
is overfished, it might be prudent to borrow from the experience
of the sardine industry and develop management plans accordingly. An
important consideration would be to determine as soon as possible which
species in the environment of the menhaden are utilizing the energy
released by the decline of the resource. It is unlikely that fishery management
in the ocean will ever be generally successful if action is postponed
until absolute proof of overfishing is available. | |
dc.format.extent | 602650 bytes | |
dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | |
dc.language.iso | eng | en |
dc.publisher | [Fiskeridirektoratets havforskningsinstitutt] | en |
dc.relation.ispartofseries | Fiskeridirektoratets skrifter, Serie Havundersøkelser | en |
dc.relation.ispartofseries | vol 15 no 3 | en |
dc.title | Comparison of Pacific sardine and Atlantic menhaden fisheries | en |
dc.type | Research report | en |
dc.source.pagenumber | s. 356-367 | en |