Now a new book – Advances in Fisheries Science: 50 years on from Beverton and Holt – provides ample evidence that science is taking on board those concerns and providing evidence that will be invaluable to policy- and decision-makers wrestling with them.
This timely book brings fisheries science up to date since the publication, more than 50 years ago, of On the Dynamics of Exploited Fish Populations, by Raymond J H Beverton and Sidney J Holt. Many regard their 1957 publication as seminal and one of the most important books on fisheries ever published.
Advances in Fisheries Science builds on that important base, and draws on a diverse range of international authors – many of whom are based at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas), where Beverton and Holt’s original work was carried out.
Traditional fishery subjects are covered in the new publication, alongside a broad sweep of topics far beyond the examples of North Sea plaice and haddock on which the previous book was based.
Considering the increasing importance now given to ecological approaches to fishery management, chapters span the related subjects of
- benthic ecology
- ecosystem changes linked to fishing
- life-history theory
- the effects of chemicals on fish reproduction, and
- the use of sounds in the sea by marine life.