© 2000 by ICES/CIEM International Council for the Exploration of the Sea/Conseil International pour l'Exploration de la Mer
Impact of fishing on size composition and diversity of demersal fish communities
Institute of Marine Research PO Box 1870 Nordnes, N-5817 Bergen, Norway [tel: +47 5523 8577; fax: +47 55238579; e-mail: gabri{at}imr.no
University of Copenhagen, c/o Danish Institute of Fisheries Research Charlottenlund Castle, DK-2920 Charlottenlund, Denmark
New South Wales Fisheries Research Institute Cronulla, Australia
IPIMAR Lisbon, Portugal
Marine Fisheries Research Division Tema, Ghana
National Autonomous University of Mexico, Institute of Marine Science and Limnology Mexico
Instituto de Fomento Pesquero Valparaiso, Chile
CSIRO, Marine Laboratory Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
INIDEP (Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Pesquero) Mar del Plata, Argentina
Yellow Sea Fishery Research Institute Qingdao, China
Marine Fish Division, Bedford Institute of Oceanography Dartmouth, N.S. Canada
By analysing data sets from different world regions we add evidence to documented changes in demersal fish community structure that may be related to fishing. Changes are analysed by community properties that might be expected to capture relevant overall changes – size spectra slopes and intercepts, Shannon-Wiener diversity, and dominance. Cross-system differences in the shape of the integrated community size spectra appear to be related to ecosystem productivity. The slope of size spectra appears to respond in a consistent way to changes in exploitation levels. In most areas studied, but particularly in high-latitude regions, we observe a decreasing trend in the slope, reflecting changes in size composition toward a relative decline in larger fish. The results from tropical regions are less conclusive, partly owing to the difficulty in obtaining consistent data series, but probably also because the generally higher growth rates of the constituent species make the slope less sensitive to changes in fishing. No evidence was found of any decline in species richness, while changes in diversity (richness and evenness) were caused either by changes in patterns of dominance or by changes in the number of species identified resulting from improved survey protocols.
Keywords: cross-system comparisons, diversity, fish community structure, size spectrum
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