Fishery Science

FW8448, Fall Semester, 2007

Welcome and Course Outline

Welcome to Fishery Science, an introductory course exploring the foundations of the practice of fisheries resource management. Fishery science is grounded in basic population biology, with an emphasis on the dynamics of fishery exploitation. The central subject matter is assessment of the status of fish stocks and the capacity of the fishery to exert fishing-induced mortality on the target species. The objectives of this endeavor are to provide vital information to management authorities to enhance the opportunities to utilize fishery resources while protecting the long-term renewal capacity of target species and the aquatic communities in which they live.

The subject matter of fishery science is invariably quantitative, deriving its rigor from mathematics and statistics. Professional development involves mastering fundamental skills of mathematical analysis, computation and problem-solving. Delivery of the results of fishery analysis to managers, policy specialists and the general public requires parallel development of skills in communication and exposition of quantitative results. This course assumes that students have been introduced to the basic principles of population dynamics in prior study of biology, ecology, resource management or other applied sciences. Our overall objective is to challenge students to further develop the skills of inquiry and application necessary to contribute to resource management or research in fishery management.

Student performance objectives
The Fishery Science course is intended to broaden the student's depth of knowledge about some of the processes that determine the status of valuable fisheries. Students will actively engage in analysis of example data sets and reporting of their results. We include here both senses of "fisheries", i.e. the human interfaces with wild stocks, and the stocks themselves.
In completing the course, students will:
1)  Recognize theoretical bases and philosophies underlying fisheries management practices;
2)  Analyze the sensitivity of fish community structure to environmental alterations (including, especially, fishing) and management policies;
3)  Understand design requirements for fisheries investigations;
4)  Understand estimation procedures for selected vital parameters of fish populations.
5)  Demonstrate modest proficiency in use of one or more programming environments to solve quantitative problems and develop scientific reports

Topics for the 2007 class:
1) Fishery yield models: surplus production, age-structured models, catch series models, morphoedaphic models
2) Spreadsheet modelling, ADAPT and Lowestoft VPA, Wolfram's NKS
3) Models for individual body growth: LVB, Schnute & Richards, growth increment models
4) Gear selectivity and efficiency: inferring population characteristics from biased sampling
5) Fishery management philosophies; policy development; common property problems
6)Discrete distribution statistics; censusing aquatic organisms
7)Stock-recruitment functions, mark- recapture methods, Kay paradigm, writing technologies

Required text:
Haddon, Malcolm. 2001. Modelling and Quantitative Methods in Fisheries. Chapman & Hall/CRC., New York. 406 pages.

Supplemental references:
Clark, Colin W. 1985. Bioeconomic Modelling and Fisheries Management. John Wiley & Sons, N. Y.: 291 pp.
Elliott, J. M. 1977. Some methods for the statistical analysis of samples of benthic invertebrates. Freshwater Biol. Assoc. Sci. Publ. No. 25.
Getz, Wayne M. and Robert G. Haight. 1989. Population Harvesting: demographic models of fish, forest, and animal resources. Monographs in population biology; no. 27. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. 391 pp.
Gulland, J. A. 1983. Fish Stock Assessment: A Manual of Basic Methods. John Wiley & Sons, N. Y.: 223 pp.
Hilborn, Ray, and Marc Mangel. 1997. The Ecological Detective: Confronting Models with Data. Monographs in Population Biology 28. Princton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. 315 pages.
Hilborn, Ray, and Carl J. Walters. 1992. Quantitative Fisheries Stock Assessment: Choice, Dynamics, and Uncertainty. Chapman and Hall, New York.
Pauly, Daniel. 1984. Fish population dynamics in tropical waters: a manual for use with programmable calculators. Int. Center for Living Aquatic Res. Mgt. (ICLARM) Manila, Philippines: 325pp.
Quinn, Terrance J. II, and Richard B. Deriso. 1999. Quantitative Fish Dynamics. Oxford University Press, New York. 542 pp.
Ricker, W. E. 1975. Computation and interpretation of biological statistics of fish populations. Bull. Fish. Res. Board Canada, 191: 382 pp.
Walters, C. J. 1986. Adaptive Management of Renewable Resources. MacMillan Publ. Co., New York: 374 pp.
Wolfram, Stephen. 2002. A New Kind of Science. Wolfram Media, Inc. ISBN 1-57955-008-8, 1197 pages.

Required text (one copy on reserve in EFW library):
Haddon, Malcolm. 2001. Modelling and Quantitative Methods in Fisheries. Chapman & Hall/CRC., New York. 406 pages.

Required computer: Students are required to have access to a modern desktop computer equipped with Microsoft Word®, Microsoft Excel®, an email program, and a web browser. If you do not own a personal computer, please make sure that you will have regular access to a computer in your own research environment, or elsewhere in the university.

Evaluation procedures:
A-F grade assignment will require individual participation in every aspect of the course.  Problem sets will generally require students to report to the class on a reading assignment or on their approach to solving a specific problem. Most assignments will require a team approach with your classmates. Students will be required to demonstrate modest proficiency in using digital computing tools for analysis and report generation. Most of our statistical analyses will be done in R, or in a spreadsheet environment (See this link for a rationale for learning a programming language). Students will be prepared to explain the features and operation of your programs/analyses in a discussion session with the rest of the class.  This will include, at least, a rationale for solving the problem in the language you chose, descriptions of the data structures and inputs, explanations of the major algorithmic features of the analysis, and choice of outputs for the results of the program.

Course Format:
We will meet twice weekly for a 75-minute period each day (Wednesday at 4:15, Thursday at 3:15) in 326 Green Hall. The course will be Web-supported, with student's work regularly contributing to the development of the course Web Site.

This will be a reading-intensive and analytically-intensive class. Each student will be required to keep a journal/analytical logbook during the quarter. These will be turned in for evaluation at three-week intervals. See the document "Keeping a Journal" in the class notes for FW5601.

Each week after the first week of the quarter, the sessions will consist of a brief lecture-style introduction of the topic of the week's assigned readings, followed by student discussion/presentation/summary of the readings.  Each student will read all of the assigned papers unless otherwise indicated. When students present analyses to the class, copies of the analysis, together with supporting files, will be e-mailed to the instructor for inclusion in the class website.

The tentative schedule of events is subject to change as guest lecturers or visitors may attend class from time to time during the semester.  This website will be the authoritative source for the class schedule, assignments, news bulletins related to class activities (e-mail contact will also be used to notify students of changes), and repository for student-contributed analyses of problems.