Life history parameters

Abstract

[Extract] Identification of fish stocks is necessary to fisheries management for allocation of catch between competing fisheries, recognition and protection of nursery and spawning areas, and for development of optimal harvest and monitoring strategies (Kutkuhn, 1981; Grimes et al., 1987; Smith et al., 1990; Begg et al., 1999a). A fish “stock” can be considered to be a group of randomly mating, reproductively isolated individuals with temporal or spatial integrity (Ihssen et al., 1981), which may exhibit differences in vital population or life history parameters compared to other stocks of the same species (Begg and Waldman, 1999). Differences in these life history parameters among groups of fish have long been used as a basis for the identification of fish stocks because of the relative ease of assessing these parameters and their dual functionality as input into fisheries stock assessment and management strategies. In this chapter, I review and critique the range of life history parameters that have typically been used in stock identification studies and provide guidance for the effective protocol of the use of life history parameters in fish stock identification.