Abstract
The paradigm of a general inverse relationship between size of an individual fish and its risk of mortality is widely held among fishery scientists. This inverse relationship is believed to be particularly strong during the early life stages. This has been accepted as more or less axiomatic, both on theoretical grounds (Cushing, 1974; Rothschild, 1986) and because field observations demonstrate that mortality decreases with the age of the fish (Zijlstra et al., 1982; Beverton and Iles, 1992). The underlying mechanisms are thought to be a combination of higher resistance to starvation at larger size and a reduced risk of predation.
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Van der Veer, H.W., Ellis, T., Miller, J.M., Pihl, L., Rijnsdorp, A.D. (1997). Size-selective predation on juvenile North Sea flatfish and possible implications for recruitment. In: Chambers, R.C., Trippel, E.A. (eds) Early Life History and Recruitment in Fish Populations. Chapman & Hall Fish and Fisheries Series, vol 21. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1439-1_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1439-1_10
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