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Fishery Stability, Local Extinctions, and Shifts in Community Structure in Skates by Nicholas K. Dulvy; Julian D. Metcalfe; Jamie Glanville; Mike G. Pawson; John D. Reynolds is a Environmental Science article available to read on EtoBox.

What is Fishery Stability, Local Extinctions, and Shifts in Community Structure in Skates about?

**Abstract:** Skates are arguably the most vulnerable of exploited marine fishes. Their vulnerability is often assessed by examining fisheries catch trends, but these data are not generally recorded on a species basis except in France. Aggregated skate catch statistics tend to exhibit more stable trends than those of other elasmobranch fisheries. We tested whether such apparent stability in aggregated catch trends could mask population declines of individual species. We examined two time series of species‐specific surveys of a relatively stable skate fishery in the northeast Atlantic. These surveys revealed the disappearance of two skate species, long‐nose skate ( __Dipturus oxyrhinchus__) and white skate ( __Rostroraja alba__) and confirmed a previously documented decline of the common skate ( __D. batis__). Of the remaining five skate species, the three larger ones have declined, whereas two smaller species have increased in abundance. The increase in abundance and biomass of the smaller species has resulted in the stability of the aggregated catch trends. Because there is significant dietary overlap among species, we suggest the increase in abundance of the smaller species ma

Who reads Fishery Stability, Local Extinctions, and Shifts in Community Structure in Skates?

Author

Nicholas K. Dulvy; Julian D. Metcalfe; Jamie Glanville; Mike G. Pawson; John D. Reynolds

Publisher

John Wiley and Sons; Wiley (Blackwell Publishing); Blackwell Publishing Inc.; Wiley (ISSN 0888-8892)

Published

2000

Language

EN

Field

Environmental Science (Physical Sciences)