Goals and Strategies for Rebuilding New England Groundfish Stocks

摘要

Goals and strategies for rebuilding New England groundfish stocks were investigated. Rebuilding depleted fishery resources was a worldwide problem. Maximum sustainable yield and associated reference points were difficult to estimate directly without knowledge of the stock recruitment relationship over the full dynamic range of stock biomass. Changes in trophic dynamics, ecosystem structure, essential fish habitat, and oceanographic conditions could present substantial challenges. It was observed that estimates of fishing mortality for the entire Southern New England-Mid-Atlantic yellow tail stock increased in the 1970s and 1980s. It was concluded that nonstationarity in the processes that influenced biomass dynamics presented a fundamental challenge for the implementation of an ecosystem approach to rebuilding depleted fishery resources.