Several studies have demonstrated non‐stationarity in marine fish maximum per capita recruitment rate, which may be linked to regional environmental drivers. Exploring relationships between environmental drivers and time‐varying recruitment rate will provide insight into recruitment processes, and suggest how fisheries managers may adapt biological reference points and adjust harvest‐control rules in response to changes in the...

Pollution of the environment by microscopic fragments of plastic is a growing environmental concern. A category of this pollution is fiber fragments from textiles, a source of which is believed to be fibers released by clothing made of synthetic fibers during laundering. These fragments could enter the environment at the end of the textile’s useful life if it is not re-used or recycled. Disposal of biodegradable fibers could b...

Continental shelves experience many human pressures with demersal fisheries central to disturbing the ocean floor. However, ecological processes such as predation rates of benthos and their relationship with bottom fishing are often unknown for large marine ecosystems. We examined the amount of benthos consumed by 14 benthivorous fishes, the overlap between benthos predation and bottom fishing (dredge and trawl gear), and temp...

Several previous studies of marine fish stocks have demonstrated time‐varying recruitment productivity and indicated that including time‐varying parameters can track process variation in recruitment. Few studies have synthesized signal‐to‐noise ratios and underlying reasons for time‐variation across stocks and regions. Using Peterman's productivity method (PPM), we provide a broad synthesis of time‐varying density‐independent...

As the impacts of climate change become more severe throughout the global oceans, fisheries managers will be increasingly challenged to rebuild stocks exhibiting declining productivity. In such cases, detailed knowledge of species life history will be necessary to both restrict harvest and manage other environmental conditions, where possible, that impact survivorship. A current example of these challenges, the Southern New En...

Summary A clone encoding carboxymethyl cellulase activity was isolated during functional screening of a human gut metagenomic library using Lactococcus lactis MG1363 as heterologous host. The insert carried a glycoside hydrolase family 9 (GH9) catalytic domain with sequence similarity to a gene from Coprococcus eutactus ART55/1. Genome surveys indicated a limited distribution of GH9 domains among dominant human colonic anaerob...

Bottom trawling accounts for almost one quarter of global fish landings but may also have significant and unwanted impacts on seabed habitats and biota. Management measures and voluntary industry actions can reduce these impacts, helping to meet sustainability objectives for fisheries, conservation and environmental management. These include changes in gear design and operation of trawls, spatial controls, impact quotas and ef...

Bottom‐contact fishing gears are globally the most widespread anthropogenic sources of direct disturbance to the seabed and associated biota. Managing these fishing disturbances requires quantification of gear impacts on biota and the rate of recovery following disturbance. We undertook a systematic review and meta‐analysis of 122 experiments on the effects‐of‐bottom fishing to quantify the removal of benthos in the path of th...

Climate change has altered the oceanographic environment and subsequently the habitats of marine species. Fish and invertebrate populations’ responses to habitat include movement with latitude and depth to remain within their fundamental niches. The northwest Atlantic mackerel ( Scomber scombrus ) population has fluctuated over the last century due in part to changes in the environment. We used species distribution models to u...

A combination of dietary guild analysis and nitrogen ( δ 15 N ) and carbon ( δ 13 C ) stable‐isotope analysis was used to assess the trophic structure of the fish community in Rhode Island and Block Island Sounds, an area off southern New England identified for offshore wind energy development. In the autumn of 2009, 2010 and 2011, stomach and tissue samples were taken from 20 fish and invertebrate species for analysis of diet...

Management and technical approaches that achieve a sustainable level of fish production while at the same time minimizing or limiting the wider ecological effects caused through fishing gear contact with the seabed might be considered to be ‘best practice’. To identify future knowledge‐needs that would help to support a transition towards the adoption of best practices for trawling, a prioritization exercise was undertaken wit...

The advent of an ecosystem‐based approach dramatically expanded the scope of fisheries management, creating a critical need for new kinds of data and quantitative approaches that could be integrated into the management system. Ecosystem models are needed to codify the relationships among drivers, pressures and resulting states, and to quantify the trade‐offs between conflicting objectives. Incorporating ecosystem consideration...

Survival was estimated for shortfin mako Isurus oxyrinchus in the north‐west Atlantic from tag‐recapture data. The data used in this study were collected by the National Marine Fisheries Service Cooperative Shark Tagging Programme from 1962 to 2003. In total, 6309 shortfin mako sharks were tagged, of which 730 were recaptured. The high recapture rate of 11·6% for this species provided adequate recapture data to carry out survi...

Fishing affects the seabed habitat worldwide on the continental shelf. These impacts are patchily distributed according to the spatial and temporal variation in fishing effort that results from fishers' behaviour. As a consequence, the frequency and intensity of fishing disturbance varies among different habitat types. Different fishing methodologies vary in the degree to which they affect the seabed. Structurally complex habi...

Exploited marine fish and invertebrate stocks fluctuate in a myriad of complex patterns, exhibiting variability on interannual, decadal, and longer time scales. To characterize various patterns of variation, time series of catch, catch per unit effort, or biomass from 30 stocks were examined with a variety of statistical methods including autocorrelation analysis and Lowess smoothing. A hierarchical cluster analysis classified...