Fish stocks are subpopulations of a particular species of fish, for which intrinsic parameters (growth, recruitment, mortality and fishing mortality) are the only significant factors in determining population dynamics, while extrinsic factors (immigration and emmigration) are considered to be insignificant.

The stock concept

All species have geographic limits to their distribution, which are determined by their tolerance to environmental conditions, and their ability to compete successfully with other species. In marine environments this may be less evident than on land because there are fewer topographical boundaries, however, discontinuities still exist, produced for example by mesoscale and sub-mesoscale circulations that minimize long-distance dispersal of fish larvae

For fishes, it is rare for an individual to reproduce randomly with all other individuals of that species within its biological range. There is a tendency to form a structured series of discrete populations which have a degree of reproductive isolation from each other in space, in time, or in both. This isolation is reflected in the development between sub-populations of genetic differences, morphological variations and exposure to different chemical regiemes and parasitic species. Sub-populations also respond to fishing in such a way that fishing on one population appears to have no effect on the population dynamics of an neighbouring population.

The currently accepted definition of a stock in fisheries science, is that of Begg et al. (1999), “…[a “stock”] describes characteristics of semi-discrete groups of fish with some definable attributes which are of interest to fishery managers.”.

Stock identification is a field of fisheries science which aims to identify these subpopulations, based on a number of techniques.

References

Begg, G.A., Friedland, K.D. & Pearce, J.B. (1999) Stock identification and its role in stock assessment and fisheries management: an overview. Fisheries Research 43:1-8

Booke, H.E. (1999) The stock concept revisited: perspectives on its history in fisheries. Fisheries Research 43:9-11

Stock Identification Methods : Applications in Fishery Science.(2004) S.X. Cadrin, K.D. Friedland, J.R. Waldman. ISBN:012154351X

External Links

• Identification of stocks of horse macekerel, Trachurus trachurus
• Identification of stocks of herring, Clupea harengus