Conference presentation
Relationships between Zooplankton production, pelagic fish production and commercial finfish catch in tropical shelves
The 10th Indo-Pacific Fish Conference (IPFC10) (Tahiti, French Polynesia, 02/10/2017 - 06/10/2017)
10/2017
Metrics
5 File views/ downloads
26 Record Views
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to review Ecopath model results for six tropical shelves (Christensen and Pauly, 1993, Bulman, 2006) to investigate the role of zooplankton production to pelagic fish production as a fundamental process to inform acceptable levels of fish catch in these fishery areas, at the trophic ecosystem level. The investigation of the relationships between productions of pelagic fish with acceptable levels of catch was prompted by Allen’s 1971 paper on the ”Relation between Production and Biomass”. Zooplankton production transfers to small pelagic fish, and from them to pelagic finfish production, was investigated using trophic transfer efficiencies in the six tropical shelf fishery areas. These relationships were then used at Heron Island to estimate the potential acceptable level of fish catch from measurements of zooplankton biomass and estimates of production near Heron Island, in the southern area of the Great Barrier Reef marine park. The six tropical shelves were reviewed for the following productivity and fish catch relationships: Estimating Trophic Transfer Efficiencies from zooplankton to fish; Determining relationships between fish production and the commercial pelagic fish catches; Considering the role of fish production in the various fishery areas in relation to acceptable levels of fish catches; Estimating pelagic fish production at Heron Island from the trophic transfer efficiencies and potential fish catch from the tropical shelf relationships between fish production and catch. The close-fitting relationships between the tropical shelf zooplankton production, pelagic fish production and fish catch data suggests that the fish catches across all these areas are strongly related to the productivity of the fisheries. This suggests that fish catches are at acceptable levels because they keep pace with the available production inputs from zooplankton production, into the fishery. Subject to further investigation, the potential benefits of this approach for fishery management could include consideration of production based fish catches as acceptable levels in marine parks and surrounding areas, with protection of appropriate areas (eg. spawing areas) that generate the fish production supporting the fish catch.
Details
- Title
- Relationships between Zooplankton production, pelagic fish production and commercial finfish catch in tropical shelves
- Creators
- Bruce Hodgson (Author)
- Conference
- The 10th Indo-Pacific Fish Conference (IPFC10) (Tahiti, French Polynesia, 02/10/2017 - 06/10/2017)
- Identifiers
- 991012942200402368
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Science and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Conference presentation