The Fate of Fisheries Oceanography: Introduction to the Special Issue

Fisheries Oceanography: The first 30 years and new challenges in the 21st century

“…Motivated by an interest in understanding the effects of migratory behavior and fishing on the abundance of key European fisheries, Hjort found that changes in migration had a minimal effect on the number of spawning adults, but that year‐class strength was largely (environmentally) driven by the success of first‐feeding larvae and eventual recruitment into the spawning stock (Hjort, 1914, 1926). This “critical period hypothesis,” that survival of fishes at the early larval stage is the primary driver of year‐class variability (Houde, 2008), remains a core research theme in fisheries oceanography more than a century after Hjort, reflecting the persistent challenges of understanding how changes in the ocean environment impact marine populations and the critical ecosystem services they provide to society (Barange et al, 2014; Bograd et al, 2014; Hare, 2014).…”

“…hypothesis," that survival of fishes at the early larval stage is the primary driver of year-class variability (Houde, 2008), remains a core research theme in fisheries oceanography more than a century after Hjort, reflecting the persistent challenges of understanding how changes in the ocean environment impact marine populations and the critical ecosystem services they provide to society (Barange et al, 2014;Bograd et al, 2014;Hare, 2014).…”

“…By seeking to elucidate mechanistic relationships between fish species and their surrounding oceanic habitats, the field of fisheries oceanography aims to provide a solid understanding of fish behavior, population dynamics, and life history with an ecosystem perspective (Bograd et al, 2014). As it has for 30 years, Fisheries Oceanography aims to provide a global forum for fisheries scientists and oceanographers to understand how marine ecosystems, and the services they provide to society are structured and shaped by environmental variability and climate change.…”

Linking Ocean Observation and Fisheries - Relevance to Deep Ocean Living Resources

“…It sustains a great variety of habitats and life forms and is host to potentially valuable resources such as minerals, oil and gas and more traditionally food. Harnessing the full potential of deep ocean resources, whilst mitigating and managing environmental impacts, requires in-depth knowledge and understanding of the complexities of deep sea ecosystem and interconnection of the physical environment and the life forms within it [5].…”

Ontogenetic spatial constraints of sub‐arctic marine fish species

“…A focal point in the study of fisheries oceanography is to understand and predict how fish populations respond to climate change, and to regional-and local-scale oceanographic variability (Bograd et al, 2014;Cury et al, 2008;Kendall & Duker, 1998). Within this framework, one of the remaining great challenges is to quantitatively characterize the adaptive potential of marine organisms (Merilä & Hendry, 2014).…”