Fishery management methods comprise the suite of scientific, regulatory, and operational tools used to maintain fish populations and associated ecosystems at or near defined biological and socioeconomic reference points. They include stock assessment methodologies (e.g., age-structured or surplus-production models), harvest control rules, effort and catch limitations (quotas, size limits, gear restrictions), spatial and temporal closures, rights-based systems (ITQs, TURFs), and ecosystem-based approaches that integrate multispecies interactions and environmental variability. These methods rely on monitoring programs, statistical modeling, and adaptive management frameworks to adjust exploitation rates in response to observed stock status, uncertainty, and management objectives such as maximum sustainable yield or precautionary conservation targets.
For decades, fisheries managers have struggled to restore recruitment in wild lake trout populations across the Great Lakes region, with limited success. Returning this species to its former abundance is hampered by overfishing, ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 5, 2026
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New research has shown that a "floating scarecrow" developed by U.K.-based scientists and a repurposed bird-scaring kite can help save threatened seabirds from getting caught in fishing nets.
Plants & Animals
Sep 30, 2026
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175
Spiny lobster larvae spend six to nine months drifting in the open ocean, feeding within the plankton community, before eventually settling into shallow-water habitats such as mangroves, seagrass beds or coral reefs. This ...
Ecology
Sep 29, 2026
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11
From the 13th to the 16th century, herring from the Sound—the strait in the Baltic Sea between Denmark and Sweden—was one of northern Europe's most important trade goods. Salted herring from the so-called Skanör-Falsterbo ...
Ecology
Sep 28, 2026
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143
While the Discovery Channel's annual Shark Week event has given the public greater familiarity with sharks, much about them—from their mysterious love lives to how their eating habits bring them into conflict with recreational ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 21, 2026
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37
Marine scientists have been amazed to discover an endangered sea cucumber can live for decades, with some animals living more than 100 years, in a first-of-its-kind genetic mark-recapture study. Australian Institute of Marine ...
Ecology
Sep 21, 2026
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18
Atlantic menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus), which supports a major commercial fishery along the U.S. East Coast and serves as essential prey for fish, seabirds and marine mammals, may be less able to sustain fishing pressure ...
Ecology
Sep 17, 2026
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41
The nutritional value of aquatic invertebrates such as oysters, mussels and crabs has been significantly overlooked, according to a new study led by researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). ...
Ecology
Sep 10, 2026
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113
New research shows that larval Antarctic krill could be carried far from their birthplace by drifting sea ice, linking distant ecosystems in ways conventional models may miss.
Plants & Animals
Sep 8, 2026
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13
I spent six days on a small fishing boat in the middle of the English Channel in July trying to catch a thresher shark. The weather was fickle, even at the height of summer. My colleague, ecologist Lucy Hawkes, and I were ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 8, 2026
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