Fisheries play a key role in providing food, income and employment in many parts of the world and effective fisheries management requires clear objectives and a decision making process supported by the best scientific advice. This course will give a broad understanding of biological, economic, and social aspects of fisheries science and the interplay between them. Specifically, from fisheries ecology, production processes, life histories and distributions to population structures. We will also examine fishing gears and techniques, socioeconomics and stock assessments as well as freshwater fisheries and conservation management.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module, students will be able to:
1. Discuss how physical and biological processes drive the production of fished species and why the abundance of these species changes in space and time.
2. Describe the scale, social and economic significance of global fisheries , the species that are caught and the gears that are used to catch them
3. Discuss the factors that motivate and limit human fishing activities and why fishers behave as they do
4. Outline the economic, social and biological reasons why fished species tend to be overexploited
5. Explain how to make basic quantitative assessments of single and multi species fisheries and estimate the parameters needed for these assessments
6. Discuss the key strengths and failings of different fisheries assessment methods
7. Discuss the impacts of fishing on marine ecosystems, birds, mammals, non-target species and habitats
8. Demonstrate the ability to critically evaluate and interpret data sets and other sources of information.
- Module Supervisor: Leanne Hepburn