Environmental Factors and Natural Resource Stock: Atlantic

Abstract. Herring is an important stock as bait for lobster fisheries and a component of the food web of the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. However, herring is very vulnerable to environmental variables such as temperature, food supply, and to the type of sediment on the bottom floor. Egg and larval stag...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jung-hee Cho, John M. Gates
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Subjects:
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.152.7546
http://www.orst.edu/Dept/IIFET/2000/papers/cho.pdf
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Summary:Abstract. Herring is an important stock as bait for lobster fisheries and a component of the food web of the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. However, herring is very vulnerable to environmental variables such as temperature, food supply, and to the type of sediment on the bottom floor. Egg and larval stage herring are hypothesized to be very sensitive to low temperatures. This paper will analyze the correlation between temperature and two year-old recruitment stock, using satellite sea surface temperature (SST) data and stock size data from Northeast Fishery Science Center. Temperature is measured for specific areas that are defined as Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) designated habitat for Atlantic herring eggs. The preliminary results suggest that including environmental factors is necessary to understand the cycle of fluctuating stock and is a necessary variable in the production model for a fishery.