15
Fish Population Responses
to Sea Floor Habitat Alteration
Implications for the Design of Marine
Protected Areas
1
James Lindholm, Peter Auster, Matthias Ruth,
and Les Kaufman
It is time to make the decision in a more deliberate, moral, and precautionary way. We cannot expect to prevent all anthropogenic extinctions, given the major influence our mere presence has upon life on
Earth. However, we should try to prevent all those we can, recognizing
that we will sometimes fail.
Boyce Thorne-Miller, from The Living Ocean
In this chapter you will:
• Use the ARRAY function in STELLA to construct a spatial model of juvenile fish survivorship;
• Export data from STELLA to a spreadsheet program for display as threedimensional response surface;
• Link survivorship of juvenile cod to the structure of sea floor habitat.
15.1. Introduction
Attention to the role of sea floor habitat in the dynamics of fish populations
has increased recently in both the management and scientific communities
around the globe. For example, the U.S. Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996
(the reauthorized Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act)
requires that the federal Fishery Management Councils identify essential
fish habitat (EFH) for all the fish and shellfish species for which fishery
management plans are enacted (50 CFR 600 et seq.) . The effective designa'Previously published in expanded form as: Lindholm,]., P.]. Auster, M. Ruth, and 1.
Kaufman. (2001). Modeling the effects of fishing and implications for the design of
marine protected areas: juvenile fish responses to variations in sea floor habitat.
Conseruation Biology 15: 424-437 .
342
M. Ruth et al. (Eds.), Dynamic Modeling for Marine Conservation
© Springer-Verlag New York, Inc. 2002
Fish Population Responses
to Sea Floor Habitat Alteration
Implications for the Design of Marine
Protected Areas
1
James Lindholm, Peter Auster, Matthias Ruth,
and Les Kaufman
It is time to make the decision in a more deliberate, moral, and precautionary way. We cannot expect to prevent all anthropogenic extinctions, given the major influence our mere presence has upon life on
Earth. However, we should try to prevent all those we can, recognizing
that we will sometimes fail.
Boyce Thorne-Miller, from The Living Ocean
In this chapter you will:
• Use the ARRAY function in STELLA to construct a spatial model of juvenile fish survivorship;
• Export data from STELLA to a spreadsheet program for display as threedimensional response surface;
• Link survivorship of juvenile cod to the structure of sea floor habitat.
15.1. Introduction
Attention to the role of sea floor habitat in the dynamics of fish populations
has increased recently in both the management and scientific communities
around the globe. For example, the U.S. Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996
(the reauthorized Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act)
requires that the federal Fishery Management Councils identify essential
fish habitat (EFH) for all the fish and shellfish species for which fishery
management plans are enacted (50 CFR 600 et seq.) . The effective designa'Previously published in expanded form as: Lindholm,]., P.]. Auster, M. Ruth, and 1.
Kaufman. (2001). Modeling the effects of fishing and implications for the design of
marine protected areas: juvenile fish responses to variations in sea floor habitat.
Conseruation Biology 15: 424-437 .
342
M. Ruth et al. (Eds.), Dynamic Modeling for Marine Conservation
© Springer-Verlag New York, Inc. 2002