The minimum landing size (MLS) is the smallest fish measurement at which it is legal to keep or sell a fish. The MLS depends on the species of fish. Sizes also vary around the world, as they are legal definitions which are defined by the local regulatory authority. Commercial trawl and seine fisheries can control the size of their catch by adjusting the mesh size of their nets. [1]
The idea behind this limitation is that only the older, mature fish get taken, leaving juveniles behind to continue breeding and propagating their species. There is some criticism of this legal requirement, however, as it applies selection pressure to the fish: as the larger fish get taken, the genes for larger size are reduced or removed from the gene pool, while fish that mature at a smaller size continue breeding. The average size of fish shrinks over time. This has led to a collapse in the amount of fish being caught in some fisheries. [2]
Aboriginal Australians around Moreton Bay had a practice based on traditional knowledge which avoided this pitfall. The mullet is a migratory fish, being present around different areas of Moreton Island at different times of the year. Traditional knowledge said that at some points of their migration path, people could only harvest smaller fish, since the larger (and older) fish needed to pass on their knowledge of the migration path. If the older fish were taken at this point, the mullet would swim away from the shore, to the open sea, and this food source would be lost forever. This explanation does not align with scientific knowledge of fish migration, however, the practice did sustain the fishery for several thousand years. Taking only smaller fish applied selection pressure which encouraged the fish to grow to a larger size faster. The area and season at which the traditional knowledge said that fish of all sizes could be taken just so happened to be a point after the mullets' annual spawn, and so did not have a detrimental effect on the future population size. [3]
Fish migration is mass relocation by fish from one area or body of water to another. Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few metres to thousands of kilometres. Such migrations are usually done for better feeding or to reproduce, but in other cases the reasons are unclear.
Trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. The net used for trawling is called a trawl. This principle requires netting bags which are towed through water to catch different species of fishes or sometimes targeted species. Trawls are often called towed gear or dragged gear.
Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally, resulting in the species becoming increasingly underpopulated in that area. Overfishing can occur in water bodies of any sizes, such as ponds, wetlands, rivers, lakes or oceans, and can result in resource depletion, reduced biological growth rates and low biomass levels. Sustained overfishing can lead to critical depensation, where the fish population is no longer able to sustain itself. Some forms of overfishing, such as the overfishing of sharks, has led to the upset of entire marine ecosystems. Types of overfishing include: growth overfishing, recruitment overfishing, ecosystem overfishing.
Gillnetting is a fishing method that uses gillnets: vertical panels of netting that hang from a line with regularly spaced floaters that hold the line on the surface of the water. The floats are sometimes called "corks" and the line with corks is generally referred to as a "cork line." The line along the bottom of the panels is generally weighted. Traditionally this line has been weighted with lead and may be referred to as "lead line." A gillnet is normally set in a straight line. Gillnets can be characterized by mesh size, as well as colour and type of filament from which they are made. Fish may be caught by gillnets in three ways:
The Atlantic salmon is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Salmonidae. It is the 3rd largest of the Salmonidae, behind Siberian Taimen and Pacific Chinook Salmon, growing up to a meter in length. Atlantic salmon are found in the northern Atlantic Ocean and in rivers that flow into this ocean. Most populations of this fish species are anadromous, hatching in streams and rivers but moving out to sea as they grow where they mature, after which the adult fish seasonally move upstream again to spawn.
Lobsters are widely fished around the world for their meat. They are often hard to catch in large numbers, but their large size can make them a profitable catch. Although the majority of the targeted species are tropical, the majority of the global catch is in temperate waters.
Oncorhynchus is a genus of fish in the family Salmonidae; it contains the Pacific salmon and Pacific trout. The name of the genus is derived from the Greek ὄγκος + ῥύγχος, in reference to the hooked snout that the males develop during mating season.
Drift netting is a fishing technique where nets, called drift nets, hang vertically in the water column without being anchored to the bottom. The nets are kept vertical in the water by floats attached to a rope along the top of the net and weights attached to another rope along the bottom of the net. Drift nets generally rely on the entanglement properties of loosely affixed netting. Folds of loose netting, much like a window drapery, snag on a fish's tail and fins and wrap the fish up in loose netting as it struggles to escape. However the nets can also function as gill nets if fish are captured when their gills get stuck in the net. The size of the mesh varies depending on the fish being targeted. These nets usually target schools of pelagic fish.
The gulper shark is a long and slender dogfish usually about three feet in length generally found in deep, murky waters all around the world. It is a light grayish brown, paler ventrally, with a long snout and large greenish eyes. This deep water shark has two dorsal fins with long, grooved spines and the second dorsal fin smaller than the first. Its upper teeth are blade-like and lower have finely serrated edges. This tertiary consumer feeds on mainly fish such as bony fish, but also cephalopods such as squid and other invertebrates like crustaceans. The gulper shark is currently a vulnerable species mainly because of exploitation by humans and their abnormally long gestation period and low fecundity, preventing their population from recovering.
The New Zealand longfin eel is a species of freshwater eel that is endemic to New Zealand. It is the largest freshwater eel in New Zealand and the only endemic species – the other eels found in New Zealand are the native shortfin eel, also found in Australia, and the naturally introduced Australian longfin eel. Longfin eels are long-lived, migrating to the Pacific Ocean near Tonga to breed at the end of their lives. They are good climbers as juveniles and so are found in streams and lakes a long way inland. An important traditional food source for Māori, longfin eels are threatened and declining but still commercially fished.
The lobed river mullet, also known as ludong or banak, is a freshwater mullet. While it is claimed to be endemic to Cagayan River and tributaries extending through the watersheds of Cagayan Valley and the Santa-Abra River Systems of Ilocos Sur and Abra in the Philippines, verifiable and reliable sources have listed Celebes, New Caledonia, New Hebrides, and Fiji as areas where the lobed river mullet may be found.
The sand whiting, also known as the summer whiting, yellowfin whiting or blue-nose whiting, is a common species of coastal marine fish of the family Sillaginidae, the smelt-whitings. It is a slender, slightly compressed fish that is very similar to other species of Sillago, with detailed spine, ray and lateral line scale counts needed to distinguish the species between its nearest relative Sillago analis. The sand whiting is distributed along the east coast of Australia from Cape York south to Tasmania, as well as Lord Howe Island and New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean.
Acanthopagrus butcheri, the black bream but also commonly known as the southern black bream, southern bream and blue-nosed bream, is a species of marine and freshwater fish of the porgy family, Sparidae. It is a deep-bodied fish, occasionally confused with other similar species that occur within its range, but is generally distinguished from these species by a lack of yellow ventral and anal fins. Southern black bream are endemic to Australia, inhabiting the southern coast from Shark Bay in Western Australia to Ulladulla, New South Wales, as well as Tasmania.
A fishery is an area with an associated fish or aquatic population which is harvested for its commercial or recreational value. Fisheries can be wild or farmed. Population dynamics describes the ways in which a given population grows and shrinks over time, as controlled by birth, death, and migration. It is the basis for understanding changing fishery patterns and issues such as habitat destruction, predation and optimal harvesting rates. The population dynamics of fisheries is used by fisheries scientists to determine sustainable yields.
This is a glossary of terms used in fisheries, fisheries management and fisheries science.
Forage fish, also called prey fish or bait fish, are small pelagic fish which are preyed on by larger predators for food. Predators include other larger fish, seabirds and marine mammals. Typical ocean forage fish feed near the base of the food chain on plankton, often by filter feeding. They include particularly fishes of the order Clupeiformes, but also other small fish, including halfbeaks, silversides, smelt such as capelin and goldband fusiliers.
The coastline of the Russian Federation is the fourth longest in the world after the coastlines of Canada, Greenland, and Indonesia. The Russian fishing industry has an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of 7.6 million km2 including access to twelve seas in three oceans, together with the landlocked Caspian Sea and more than two million rivers.
The eastern shovelnose ray is a species of guitarfish in the family Rhinobatidae of order Rhinopristiformes. The species is endemic to the east coast of Australia and inhabits subtropical and temperate waters from southern Queensland to southern New South Wales.
Ethnoichthyology is an area in anthropology that examines human knowledge of fish, the uses of fish, and importance of fish in different human societies. It draws on knowledge from many different areas including ichthyology, economics, oceanography, and marine botany.
Fisheries-induced evolution (FIE) is the microevolution of an exploited aquatic organism's population, brought on through the artificial selection for biological traits by fishing practices. Fishing, of any severity or effort, will impose an additional layer of mortality to the natural population equilibrium and will be selective to certain genetic traits within that organism's gene pool. This removal of selected traits fundamentally changes the population gene frequency, resulting in the artificially induced microevolution by the proxy of the survival of untargeted fish and their propagation of heritable biological characteristics. This artificial selection often counters natural life-history pattern for many species, such as causing early sexual maturation, diminished sizes for matured fish, and reduced fecundity in the form of smaller egg size, lower sperm counts and viability during reproductive events. These effects can have prolonged effects on the adaptability or fitness of the species to their environmental factors.