Large scale, synchronous variability of marine fish populations driven by commercial exploitation

Synchronous variations in the abundance of geographically distinct marine fish populations are known to occur across spatial scales on the order of 1,000 km and greater. The prevailing assumption is that this large-scale coherent variability is a response to coupled atmosphere–ocean dynamics, common...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2016-07, Vol.113 (29), p.8248-8253
Main Authors: Frank, Kenneth T., Petrie, Brian, Leggett, William C., Boyce, Daniel G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal populations
Animals
Atlantic Ocean
Biological Sciences
Biomass
Climate Change
Commerce
Exploitation
Fish populations
Fish stocking
Fisheries
Fishing
Gadus morhua
Marine
Marine fish
Mortality
Population Dynamics
Spatial analysis
Spawning
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Summary:Synchronous variations in the abundance of geographically distinct marine fish populations are known to occur across spatial scales on the order of 1,000 km and greater. The prevailing assumption is that this large-scale coherent variability is a response to coupled atmosphere–ocean dynamics, commonly represented by climate indexes, such as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and North Atlantic Oscillation. On the other hand, it has been suggested that exploitation might contribute to this coherent variability. This possibility has been generally ignored or dismissed on the grounds that exploitation is unlikely to operate synchronously at such large spatial scales. Our analysis of adult fishing mortality and spawning stock biomass of 22 North Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) stocks revealed that both the temporal and spatial scales in fishing mortality and spawning stock biomass were equivalent to those of the climate drivers. From these results, we conclude that greater consideration must be given to the potential of exploitation as a driving force behind broad, coherent variability of heavily exploited fish species.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1602325113