Dynamics of Multiple Fish Species Under Variable Levels of Exploitation

Abstract

Marine fish populations are among the most heavily exploited populations on Earth. Fish populations are subject to the fluctuations of numerous environmental factors and to economic changes within the fishing industry that are all but steady over time. The cumulative effect of these influences upon fish populations has left commercial fisheries around the globe struggling to adjust to precipitously declining fish populations, while simultaneously striving to maintain economic viability and cultural identity in the fishing communities involved (World Resources Institute 1994).

It is within the power of industry to increase productivity while protecting biological diversity, and to proceed in a way that one leads to the other. Edward O. Wilson, from The Diversity of Life