Global fisheries provide humanity with tremendous food and livelihood, yet the majority of major stocks are in a state of reduced productivity. This is largely due to overfishing, where stocks are driven below the biomass level that provides maximum productivity (i.e. the maximum sustainable yield MSY). However, piecemeal evidence suggests that both environmental change and the biological effects of prolonged overfishing are causing more permanent declines in stock productivity, beyond that which is caused by reduced biomass alone. Using the RAM Legacy Stock Assessment Database, which is the most comprehensive collection of global fisheries time series, I am combining fundamental population models with modern methods of time series analysis to track productivity parameters over time. By first controlling for the effects of reduced biomass, I am looking at how fundamental rates of population growth and recruitment are changing in time and space, and what it means for modern productivity and the rebuilding of overfished stocks.

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Gregory L. Britten - Ph.D. student, Dept. of Biology, Dalhousie University Halifax

Email: greg.britten@dal.ca[/dt_benefit] [dt_benefit title="PROJECT LEADS" header_size="h4" content_size="normal" target_blank="true" image_link="" hd_image="" image=""]
Principal Investigator – Gregory L. Britten (M.Sc. Candidate)

Supervisors - Boris Worm (Professor, Biology, Dalhousie University)

Mike Dowd (Professor, Mathematics and Statistics, Dalhousie University)

[/dt_benefit] [dt_benefit title="PROJECT STATUS" header_size="h4" content_size="normal" target_blank="true" image_link="" hd_image="" image=""]In progress[/dt_benefit] [dt_benefit title="TYPE OF PROJECT" header_size="h4" content_size="normal" target_blank="true" image_link="" hd_image="" image=""]Scientific research[/dt_benefit]

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Global fisheries provide humanity with tremendous food and livelihood, yet the majority of major stocks are in a state of reduced productivity. This is largely due to overfishing, where stocks are driven below the biomass level that provides maximum productivity (i.e. the maximum sustainable yield MSY). However, piecemeal evidence suggests that both environmental change and the biological effects of prolonged overfishing are causing more permanent declines in stock productivity, beyond that which is caused by reduced biomass alone. Using the RAM Legacy Stock Assessment Database, which is the most comprehensive collection of global fisheries time series, I am combining fundamental population models with modern methods of time series analysis to track productivity parameters over time. By first controlling for the effects of reduced biomass, I am looking at how fundamental rates of population growth and recruitment are changing in time and space, and what it means for modern productivity and the rebuilding of overfished stocks.

Some more stuff