Title: HISTORICAL REVIEW OF THE OCEANOGRAPHIC APPROACH TO FISHERY RESEARCH
Abstract:For the last 70 years either one or both of the major clupeoid stocks off the Californias (the Pacific sardine and the northern anchovy) have been the subjects of almost continual study. This attentio...For the last 70 years either one or both of the major clupeoid stocks off the Californias (the Pacific sardine and the northern anchovy) have been the subjects of almost continual study. This attention was stimulated by the need for information to manage the local harvest of these fishes and by the realization that the successful management of clupeoid stocks was a goal with worldwide implications. During the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) conducted field studies in cooperation with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), the California Academy of Sciences (CAS), and the U.S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries (USBCF, now known as the National Marine Fisheries Service-NMFS) . In the late 1940s, when the future of the sardine fishery became problematic, the industry funded a more intensified program of research. Endowed with an infusion of money and political support, agency scientists laid out an ambitious plan of attack. Their plan became known as the oceanographic approach to fishery research (today we might call it an ecosystem approach) and was made synonymous with the CalCOFI program. Monthly cruises were conducted to collect plankton and water samples from a grid of stations; laboratory studies were undertaken to describe developmental stages of the young and behavior of the adults; the fishery was sampled to determine adult demography and vital rates; and new instruments and techniques were developed to enhance data collection and analyses. A more detailed understanding of the physical dynamics of the California Current and of the population dynamics of the sardine began to emerge, and the central question of the “sardine problem” came into clearer focus: What was the relative influence of exploitation versus the environment on the productivity of the sardine population? In spite of this new understanding, the abundance of sardines declined steadily, while that of anchovies increased. The original focus of the CalCOFI program tended to diffuse, and major program reviews were conducted in 1957, 1961, and 1966. As the objectives changed, so did the field-sampling protocols. When the state charter for the CalCOFI program ended in 1979, CDFG, SIO, and NMFS entered into an agreement to continue the field surveys, albeit on a smaller scale; to continue sponsoring annual conferences; and to continue publishing the CulCOFZ Reports and Atlas series. The extensive time series of ichthyoplankton data, together with complementary measurements of the physical environment, constitute a major portion of the CalCOFI legacy. On-line computer display and extraction of these data is now available to the research community interested in the pelagic ecology of the California Current.Read More
Publication Year: 1988
Publication Date: 1988-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 68
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