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Daniel E. Duplisea - et al.
"...many things can affect a population and therefore when there is a decline in standing stock of an exploited population it could be both because of the current fishing level or other factors. This concept is usually called "productivity regime" nowadays and it is generally accepted that they occur and can alter change the stock biomass and its productivity. Fishery allowable yield may be based on assessing the stock in one productivity regime (i.e. a carrying capacity of K1 and growth rate r1) giving a maximum sustainable yield Y1."
Yes Sir! Presuming anything like a constant or even continuous MSY woupd be sheer denial of what is known. The 'concept' of MSY was built around a long-term Equilibrium Process that simply does not exist in Nature.
You have correctly identified the situation with respect to defining 'overfishing' within the naturally occuring 'Productivity Regime' changes.
Recognizing the dozen or so major production fisheries in the world cycle continuously in response to such processes, as pointed out for several decades (even centuries) now by various folks, it is really time for 'management theory' to be adjusted to these same patterns and invoke better monitoring of population 'status' via careful measurement of growth/age parameters, fat content, and egg production be applied as the basis for fisheries management decisions.
The webpage Linked below starts off with the description of the recent 70 plus years, and some basic understanding of what we have observed.
<http://sharpgary.org/21stCenturyFish.html>
Then, of course, where the data sets allow, the continuous Cyclical rises and falls of many regional ecosystem components are linked to basic regime Changes, as per the California Current example from Gerrold Norton and Jan Mason's analysis efforts:
<http://sharpgary.org/Nort_Mas_%2304.jpeg>
The basic image should IMHO be tattooed onto the forehead of every person involved in fisheries resource management - as a reminder every morning that 'equilibrium theories', 'Means' and 'Constants' are inappropriate to understanding what to expect from any living Ecosystems.
And, no, it should not be a surprise to anyone with a small sheet of paper and the landings data for such dynamic forage species as Chesapeake Bay's menhaden that their coming and going is also 'in tune with' the records of those species within the last Warm Bloom epoch, that had started its mass decent in and around 1991 -
Colleagues from JJ Magnuson's lab and John Miller et al., who looked into menhaden recruitment successes vs not so good periods had already linked the survival and transport from the northern spawning areas and wind-driven transport into the mouths of the various juvenile grow-out refuges back in the late 1980s... Pretending that a fishery that does not target the smaller stages is the problem is really missing the point.
Meanwhile, as the NE Atlantic coast of Canada and USA are experiencing a grand cooling process, that started from Labrador in the late 1980s, and has recently reached well into and beyond Cape Hatteras - one should not be pointing fingers, but learning what to do, as the next two or so decades of Ecosystem Regime proceeds,.
There are hints about that in both webpages' imagery.
It is time to rethink the entire approach, including the role of all those recent immigrees to the various Bay Ecosystems. The Milford Connecticutt NMFS lab spent decades documenting the consequences of simlar human effluent issues around Long Island - and the consequences were simply malformation of chromosomes in early life history stages of aquatic species - zero survival nearshore, and a near linear improvement the farther away from human effluents the samples were collected.
Overfishing?
Only if you still believe everyone is made of stone - and that we don't leave 'footprints'.
Ignorance and Denial are usually linked, as well.
Meanwhile, life goes on - and those toities keep on flushing.
Cheers, -- Gary D. Sharp Center for Climate/Ocean Resources Study PO Box 2223, Monterey, CA 93940 <http://sharpgary.org> 831-449-9212 [log in to unmask]
"The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin." Thomas H. Huxley
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