Is scientific inquiry incompatible with government information control?

1997 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 1198-1210 ◽  
Author(s):  
J A Hutchings ◽  
C Walters ◽  
R L Haedrich

Government-administered science in Canada, and its potential for bureaucratic and political interference, merits examination in the wake of the biological and socioeconomic catastrophes associated with recent fishery collapses. We cite specific research on Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) and Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) habitat to illustrate how nonscience influences can interfere with the dissemination of scientific information and the conduct of science in the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans. The present framework for linking fisheries science with fisheries management has permitted, intentionally or unintentionally, a suppression of scientific uncertainty and a failure to document comprehensively legitimate differences in scientific opinion. We suggest that the conservation of natural resources is not facilitated by science integrated within a political body. The formation of a politically independent organization of fisheries scientists, or some such reorganization of the link between scientific research and the management of natural resources, merits serious and open debate.


2014 ◽  
Vol 71 (6) ◽  
pp. 1356-1365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas R. Zemeckis ◽  
William S. Hoffman ◽  
Micah J. Dean ◽  
Michael P. Armstrong ◽  
Steven X. Cadrin

Rebuilding the Gulf of Maine stock of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) has been much slower than expected. An important source of scientific uncertainty contributing to the difficulties in managing rebuilding has been the lack of understanding of cod population structure. Previous research indicates that the stock functions as a metapopulation that is made up of multiple subpopulations and many finer-scale spawning components. This study investigated fine-scale, multiyear spawning site fidelity by a spring-spawning component of Atlantic cod in the western Gulf of Maine. Movements of acoustically tagged cod (n = 63) with respect to a known spawning site were tracked using passive acoustic telemetry. A large proportion (38–67%) of tagged cod exhibited spawning site fidelity between 2010 and 2012. After adjusting for fishing mortality, natural mortality, and skipped spawning, the estimated rate of spawning site fidelity ranged between 47 and 95% in 2011. Multiyear spawning site fidelity was also observed, with individuals being tracked for up to four consecutive spawning seasons. Spawning site fidelity serves as one of the multiple mechanisms that contribute to the formation and maintenance of the observed metapopulation structure. Spawning site fidelity also reduces the reproductive connectivity among spawning sites, thus delaying both recolonization of abandoned spawning sites and stock rebuilding. Future stock assessment models and fishery management plans that incorporate the metapopulation structure of cod in the Gulf of Maine are expected to be more effective at preventing continued declines in spawning diversity and promoting rebuilding.



2012 ◽  
Vol 69 (7) ◽  
pp. 1150-1163 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Keith ◽  
Jeffrey A. Hutchings

The recovery of depleted species depends on their population dynamics at low abundance. Classical population growth models, applied widely in fisheries science, assume that per capita offspring production increases as abundance declines (compensation). However, slow or absent recovery by many depleted fishes might reflect unexpectedly weak compensation or the presence of Allee effects (depensation). Using meta-analytical techniques to describe reproductive dynamics, we find considerable variability among 207 exploited marine fish stocks (104 species) in how standardized per capita population growth changes with abundance. Although many species exhibit strong compensatory dynamics (negative density dependence), others show much weaker compensation than expected, and some exhibit evidence of an Allee effect, such as Atlantic cod ( Gadus morhua ) and Alaskan walleye pollock ( Theragra chalcogramma ). As data at low levels of abundance become increasingly available, it appears that compensation, while strong in some species, is comparatively weak or nonexistent in others, thus providing an explanation for why the recovery of some depleted stocks, despite reductions in exploitation, has been considerably less than what classic models of population growth would otherwise suggest.



2014 ◽  
Vol 514 ◽  
pp. 217-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
HY Wang ◽  
LW Botsford ◽  
JW White ◽  
MJ Fogarty ◽  
F Juanes ◽  
...  


2009 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 883-891 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlo C. Lazado ◽  
Christopher Marlowe A. Caipang ◽  
Sanchala Gallage ◽  
Monica F. Brinchmann ◽  
Viswanath Kiron


Author(s):  
Sayyed Mohammad Hadi Alavi ◽  
Azadeh Hatef ◽  
Ian A.E. Butts ◽  
Olga Bondarenko ◽  
Jacky Cosson ◽  
...  


2000 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 826-836 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Denis Dutil ◽  
Yvan Lambert

The extent of energy depletion was assessed in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) in spring and early summer (1993-1995) to assess relationships between poor condition and natural mortality. Several indices of condition were compared in wild fish in the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence and in fish exposed to a prolonged period of starvation in laboratory experiments. Discriminant analyses classified only a small fraction of the wild fish as similar to cod that did not survive and a much larger fraction as similar to cod that survived starvation. This percentage increased from April to May and peaked in June 1993 and 1994. Condition factor and muscle somatic index allowed a clear distinction between live and dead fish. Muscle lactate dehydrogenase activity suggested that cod had experienced a period of negative growth early in 1993, 1994, and 1995. Fish classified as similar to starved individuals were characterized by a higher gonad to liver mass ratio than others. Reproduction may have a negative impact on survival not only in spring but also later into summer, as some individuals were found not to have recovered by late summer. This study shows that natural mortality from poor condition contributed to lower production in the early 1990s.



2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Bagi ◽  
Even Sannes Riiser ◽  
Hilde Steine Molland ◽  
Bastiaan Star ◽  
Thomas H. A. Haverkamp ◽  
...  


2010 ◽  
Vol 70 (5) ◽  
pp. 383-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonnich Meier ◽  
H. Craig Morton ◽  
Gunnar Nyhammer ◽  
Bjørn Einar Grøsvik ◽  
Valeri Makhotin ◽  
...  


Aquaculture ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 272 ◽  
pp. S276
Author(s):  
A. Kettunen ◽  
G. Kauric ◽  
S. Peruzzi


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