IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v443y2006i7113d10.1038_nature05232.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fishing elevates variability in the abundance of exploited species

Author

Listed:
  • Chih-hao Hsieh

    (University of California, San Diego)

  • Christian S. Reiss

    (National Marine Fisheries Service)

  • John R. Hunter

    (University of California, San Diego)

  • John R. Beddington

    (Imperial College London)

  • Robert M. May

    (University of Oxford)

  • George Sugihara

    (University of California, San Diego)

Abstract

What fishing does to fish Fishing depletes fish stocks by removing fish from the sea. Clear enough, but in the late 1970s, theorists suggested that it also reduces the resilience of fish populations in the face of change. Discussion on the topic has remained theoretical until now: the availability of a 50-year larval fish survey of waters off California, begun when sardine populations there collapsed in the 1940s, provides the data. And it seems that fishing does magnify population variability (reducing resilience) in ways that extend beyond the removals themselves. A truncated age structure, with larger and older fish being removed first, is the likely cause. This suggests that to avoid collapse, fisheries must be managed not only to sustain total biomass, but also to maintain the age structure of a population.

Suggested Citation

  • Chih-hao Hsieh & Christian S. Reiss & John R. Hunter & John R. Beddington & Robert M. May & George Sugihara, 2006. "Fishing elevates variability in the abundance of exploited species," Nature, Nature, vol. 443(7113), pages 859-862, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:443:y:2006:i:7113:d:10.1038_nature05232
    DOI: 10.1038/nature05232
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature05232
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature05232?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hugo C. Mendes & Alberto Murta & R. Vilela Mendes, 2015. "Long Range Dependence And The Dynamics Of Exploited Fish Populations," Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 18(07n08), pages 1-14, November.
    2. Andreas Sundelöf & Valerio Bartolino & Mats Ulmestrand & Massimiliano Cardinale, 2013. "Multi-Annual Fluctuations in Reconstructed Historical Time-Series of a European Lobster (Homarus gammarus) Population Disappear at Increased Exploitation Levels," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(4), pages 1-10, April.
    3. Frisman, E.Y. & Neverova, G.P. & Revutskaya, O.L., 2011. "Complex dynamics of the population with a simple age structure," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(12), pages 1943-1950.
    4. Bidegain, Gorka & Bárcena, Javier Francisco & García, Andrés & Juanes, José Antonio, 2013. "LARVAHS: Predicting clam larval dispersal and recruitment using habitat suitability-based particle tracking model," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 268(C), pages 78-92.
    5. Engen, Steinar, 2017. "Spatial synchrony and harvesting in fluctuating populations:Relaxing the small noise assumption," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 18-26.
    6. Ricouard, Antoine & Lehuta, Sigrid & Mahévas, Stéphanie, 2023. "Are maximum yields sustainable? Effect of intra-annual time-scales on MSY, stability and resilience," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 479(C).
    7. Violaine Tarizzo & Eric Tromeur & Olivier Thébaud & Richard Little & Sarah Jennings & Luc Doyen, 2018. "Risk averse policies foster bio-economic sustainability in mixed fisheries," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2018-07, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    8. Laura S Storch & Sarah M Glaser & Hao Ye & Andrew A Rosenberg, 2017. "Stock assessment and end-to-end ecosystem models alter dynamics of fisheries data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(2), pages 1-11, February.
    9. Worden, Lee & Botsford, Louis W. & Hastings, Alan & Holland, Matthew D., 2010. "Frequency responses of age-structured populations: Pacific salmon as an example," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 78(4), pages 239-249.
    10. Alistair Hobday & Karen Evans, 2013. "Detecting climate impacts with oceanic fish and fisheries data," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 119(1), pages 49-62, July.
    11. John M Halley & Kyle S Van Houtan & Nate Mantua, 2018. "How survival curves affect populations’ vulnerability to climate change," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(9), pages 1-18, September.
    12. Simonetta Fraschetti & Giuseppe Guarnieri & Stanislao Bevilacqua & Antonio Terlizzi & Ferdinando Boero, 2013. "Protection Enhances Community and Habitat Stability: Evidence from a Mediterranean Marine Protected Area," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(12), pages 1-13, December.
    13. Nonaka, Etsuko & Kuparinen, Anna, 2023. "Limited effects of size-selective harvesting and harvesting-induced life-history changes on the temporal variability of biomass dynamics in complex food webs," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 476(C).
    14. Thanassekos, Stéphane & Scheld, Andrew M., 2020. "Simulating the effects of environmental and market variability on fishing industry structure," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    15. Kokkonen, Eevi & Kuisma, Mikael & Hyvärinen, Pekka & Vainikka, Anssi & Vuorio, Kristiina & Perälä, Tommi & Härkönen, Laura S. & Estlander, Satu & Kuparinen, Anna, 2024. "Effects of top predator re-establishment and fishing on a simulated food web: Allometric Trophic Network model for Lake Oulujärvi," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 492(C).
    16. Keith Brander, 2013. "Climate and current anthropogenic impacts on fisheries," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 119(1), pages 9-21, July.
    17. Florian Diekert, 2012. "Growth Overfishing: The Race to Fish Extends to the Dimension of Size," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 52(4), pages 549-572, August.
    18. Nye, Janet A. & Gamble, Robert J. & Link, Jason S., 2013. "The relative impact of warming and removing top predators on the Northeast US large marine biotic community," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 264(C), pages 157-168.
    19. Wikström, Anders & Ripa, Jörgen & Jonzén, Niclas, 2012. "The role of harvesting in age-structured populations: Disentangling dynamic and age truncation effects," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 82(4), pages 348-354.
    20. Sethi, Suresh Andrew & Reimer, Matthew & Knapp, Gunnar, 2014. "Alaskan fishing community revenues and the stabilizing role of fishing portfolios," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 134-141.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:443:y:2006:i:7113:d:10.1038_nature05232. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.