Evolution and Ecology Program
Evolutionary Fisheries Management
Overview • Illustrations • Publications
 
Overview
Commercial exploitation is altering the genetic composition of fish stocks around the world. This evolutionary dimension of fisheries has been overlooked or downplayed for decades, so that fisheries scientists and managers are just now awakening to the formidable risks posed by further unmanaged fisheries-induced evolution.

More background information

In a broadly based research effort, the EEP Program has assembled empirical evidence that (i) fisheries-induced evolution in life-history traits, especially in characters determining maturation, has been with us for the past fifty years without having been recognized; (ii) fisheries-induced evolution is occurring much faster than was previously believed; and (iii) fisheries-induced evolution will be difficult and slow to reverse through managerial interventions. These findings highlight serious economic and ecological implications for sustainable yield, stock stability, and recovery potential.

Over the next few years, the Program will work on documenting the worldwide extent of fisheries-induced evolution, and on aiding fisheries scientists and managers in coping with the resultant challenges for the sustainable exploitation of living marine resources.

Detailed research agenda

Illustrations

Please click on images to view the enlarged version.

Likely fisheries-induced evolution in the maturation schedule of northern cod. (a) Geographic range of northern cod off the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland (yellow region). (b) Collapse of northern cod: since 1992, this stock is commercially extinct and, despite a moratorium on directed offshore cod fishing, has not yet recovered. (c) Temporal trends in the lengths at with 5-year-old female cod in NAFO Division 3L reach 50% maturation probability.
 
Publications

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