Review of World literature on Water Chestnut with implications for management in North America

Water chestnut (Trapa natans L.,sensu lato) is an annual, floating-leaved aquatic plant of temperate and tropical freshwater wetlands, rivers, lakes, ponds, and estuaries. Native to Eurasia and Africa, water chestnut has been widely gathered for its large nutritious seed since the Neolithic and is cultivated for food in Asia. Water chestnut is now a species of conservation concern in Europe and Russia. Introduced to the northeastern United States in the mid-1800s, the spread of water chestnut as a nuisance weed was apparently favored by cultural eutrophication. Water chestnut is considered a pest in the U.S. because it forms extensive, dense beds in lakes, rivers, and freshwater-tidal habitats.

Tunas and tuna fisheries of the World: an annotated bibliography, 1930-1953

This bibliography attempts to list, with descriptive annotations and a subject index, important literature published between 1930 and 1953 dealing with the tunas and their fisheries in all parts of the world. It is thus a continuation of Corwin's (1930) work, which extended with similar scope through 1929, and an extension of Shimada's (1951), which was limited to the biology of Pacific tunas. The tunas with which it deals are those fishes customarily so-called in commercial parlance and usually classified in the genera Thunnus, Neothunnus, Parathunnus, Germo, Katsuwonus, Euthynnus and Auxis and their various synonyms. All aspects of the biology of the tunas are dealt with, as are descriptions and histories of all types of tuna fisheries, commercial and exploratory tuna fishing methods and results, fishing gear, catch statistics, and fishery management, but processing technology, economics and marketing, folklore, and purely literary references have been excluded.

Approaches and frameworks for management and research in small-scale fisheries in the developing world

Commonly adopted approaches to managing small-scale fisheries (SSFs) in developing countries do not ensure sustainability. Progress is impeded by a gap between innovative SSF research and slower-moving SSF management. The paper aims to bridge the gap by showing that the three primary bases of SSF management--ecosystem, stakeholders’ rights and resilience--are mutually consistent and complementary. It nominates the ecosystem approach as an appropriate starting point because it is established in national and international law and policy. Within this approach, the emerging resilience perspective and associated concepts of adaptive management and institutional learning can move management beyond traditional control and resource-use optimization, which largely ignore the different expectations of stakeholders; the complexity of ecosystem dynamics; and how ecological, social, political and economic subsystems are linked. Integrating a rights-based perspective helps balance the ecological bias of ecosystem-based and resilience approaches. The paper introduces three management implementation frameworks that can lend structure and order to research and management regardless of the management approach chosen. Finally, it outlines possible research approaches to overcome the heretofore limited capacity of fishery research to integrate across ecological, social and economic dimensions and so better serve the management objective of avoiding fishery failure by nurturing and preserving the ecological, social and institutional attributes that enable it to renew and reorganize itself. (PDF contains 29 pages)

Parasitology and pathology of marine organisms of the world ocean

The Symposium in which the communications, as they were called during the meeting, comprising this volume were presented was held at the Zoological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. in Leningrad during 13 to 16 October 1981. Conducted as part of the cooperative program of the U.S.A.-U.S.S.R. Working Group on Biological Productivity and Biochemistry of the World Ocean, the Leningrad meeting was sponsored by the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. (the Zoological Institute) and the Ministry of Fisheries of the U.S.S.R. (The Scientific Council on Fish Diseases of the Ichthyological Commission). It was an extremely interesting and successful Symposium, offering all participants the opportunity to describe the results of their studies and reviews during the course of the formal presentations and direct interchange between scientists during breaks in the program and the organized and casual social activities. The facilities provided by the Zoological Institute were quite adequate and the assistance offered by its Director, O. A. Scarlato and his staff in organization,logistics, and translation was excellent. Several of our Soviet colleagues presided over the proceedings, as did I. All were businesslike and efficient, yet graceful and accommodating. To O. N. Bauer Jell the brunt of programmatic detail and follow-up. He bore his burdens well and, with Director Scarlato and his staff, including A. V. Gussev and others of the professional and technical staffs of the Zoological Institute, helped make our stay pleasant and the Symposium productive. These organizations and individuals deserve much credit and praise as well as the thanks of their American and British colleagues. (PDF file contains 141 pages.)

"Future fit your catalog" Panel [Presentation]:World Cat Local Implementation as part of a Consortia of Libraries within the University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutitons

Power Point from Panel presentation giving implementation and search result displays and linking (17 slides)

A photographic record of a pre- and post-lake creation event from World War II at Valley, Isle of Anglesey, UK

The article compares a recent aerial photograph of the lowlands of the Isle of Anglesey area with a German surveillance photograph from 1941. The authors aim to infer the environmental changes made to this sand dune and lake system as a direct consequence of constructing the airfield. Part of Tywyn Trewan, the extensive sand dune system, was completely destroyed in order to create runways and the technical and domestic accommodation to house a strategic airfield. As part of the dredging, six new water bodies with a combined surface area of approximately 6 ha were created.

Chydoridae of the world's fauna. [Translation from: Fauna SSSR, Crustacea 1 (2), Nauka, Leningrad, 1971. ]

This translation presents identification keys to the subfamilies, genera, species and subspecies of Chydoridae of the USSR. Chydoridae are a family in the order of Cladocera.

World meeting on stock assessment of bluefin tunas: strengths and weaknesses

The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) hosted a meeting, sponsored jointly by the IATTC and the Australian Fisheries Service, to discuss and report on the strengths and weaknesses of stock assessment techniques used on bluefin tuna stocks in the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea. The meeting was held in La Jolla, California, on Mat 25-31, 1990.

Proceedings of the first world meeting on bigeye tuna

The annual catches of big eye are exceeded by those of only two other species of tuna, skipjack, Katsuwonus pelamis, and yellowfin, Thunnus albacares. However, because most of the bigeye caught are consumed fresh, whereas most of the skipjack and yellowfin caught are canned, the economic value of big eye exceeds that of any other species of tuna. Despite its importance, less is known of the biology of bigeye than of the biology of any of the other principal market species of tunas. Historically, bigeye have been harvested mostly by longlines, which take only medium to large fish. During recent years, however, greater amounts of small bigeye have been caught by purse seines and other surface gear. This is a matter of concern for several reasons. First, long line fishermen are concerned that the harvesting of small bigeye will decrease the amounts of medium to large bigeye available to them. Second, since small bigeye are canned, rather than eaten fresh, consumers are concerned about the possible decrease in the supply of high-quality fresh fish. Third, economists are concerned about the possible economic loss associated with harvesting fish at less than their maximum economic value. Fourth, biologists are concerned about the possibility that harvesting of small bigeye could decrease the overall catches of that species. These concerns cannot be properly addressed until more knowledge of the biology of big eye is available. The purposes of the meeting were to review and discuss the information available and to make recommendations for further research.

Symposium on World tuna fisheries: commemorating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission

The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (lA TTC) came into existence in 1950, after its convention, signed by representatives ofCosta Rica and the United States in 1949, was ratified. It was the first international tuna organization, and only the third international fisheries organization, whose staff has had the responsibility for performing scientific research, the others being the International Pacific Halibut Commission, established in 1923, and the International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission, established in 1937. The current members of the IATTC are Costa Rica, Ecuador, EI Salvador, France, Guatemala, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, the United States, Vanuatu, and Venezuela. The first Director ofthe IATTC was Dr. Milner B. Schaefer, who was in that position from 1950 to 1963. He was followed by Dr. John L. Kask (1963-1969), Dr. James Joseph (1969-1999), and Dr. Robin L. Allen (1999-present). The success ofthe IATIC showed that it was possible to carry out research and management on an international, high-seas fishery successfully. Since then other international organizations for tuna management, including the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (1969), the Forum Fisheries Agency (1979), the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (1994), and the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (1996), were established. Appropriately, the 50th anniversary celebration was held in Costa Rica, one of the two charter members of the IATTC. Persons who have held important positions in international fishery management in various parts ofthe world spoke at the celebration. Their presentations, except for that describing the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, are reproduced in this volume.

Fish production, catches and the carrying capacity of the world oceans

A brief review of the status of the world fisheries is presented with emphasis on the differences between catches (= landings + bycatch), biological production of fish, and predation (= production - catches). The ECOPATH II approach implemented as a new, Windows-based software is then shown to allow construction of a stratified world model accoutinng for global catches, production of and predation on fishes, and thus improved estimates of global potentials. A newly initiated, cooperative project is described through which the foundation for such a global model could be constructed, based on a stratified database with more than 100 trophic models. Collaborators are invited to join in this, and will be assisted in constructing models covering their areas of interest.

Lanternfish heaven: the future of world fisheries?

The differences between fishes in their size, behavior and food make them more or less vulnerable to fishing pressure. Large predators, long-lived fish, most trawl species and pelagic schooling fishes will possibly become extinct, to be replaced by small nonschooling unpalatable species such as lanternfish.

Application of Suction-cup-attached VHF Transmitters to the Study of Beluga, Delphinapterus leucas, Surfacing Behavior in Cook Inlet, Alaska

Suction-cup-attached VHF radio transmittes were deployed on belugas, Delphinapterus leucas, in Cook Inlet, Alaska, in 1994 and 1995 to characterize the whales' surfacing behavior. Data from video recordings were also used to characterize behavior of undisturbed whales and whales actively pursued for tagging. Statistics for dive intervals (time between the midpoints of contiguous surfacings) and surfacing intevals (time at the surface per surfacing) were estimated. Operations took place on the tidal delta of the Susitna and Little Susitna Rivers. During the 2-yr study, eight whales were successfully tagged, five tags remained attached for >60 min, and data from these were used in the analyses. Mean dive interval was 24.1 sec (interwhale SD=6.4 sec, n=5). The mean surfacing interval, as determined from the duration of signals received from the radio transmitters, was 1.8 sec (SD=0.3 sec, n=125) for one of the whales. Videotaped behaviors were categorized as "head-lifts" or "slow-rolls." Belugas were more likely to head-lift than to slow-roll during vessel approaches and tagging attempts when compared to undisturbed whales. In undisturbed groups, surfacing intervals determined from video records were significantly different between head-lifting (average = 1.02 sect, SD=0.38 sed, n=28) and slow-rolling whales (average = 2.45 sec, SD=0.37 sec, n=106). Undisturbed juveniles exhibited shorter slow-roll surfacing intervals (average = 2.25 sec, SD=0.32 sec, n=36) than adults (average = 2.55 sec, SD=0.36 sec, n=70). We did not observe strong reactions by the belugas to the suction-cup tags. This tagging method shows promise for obtaining surfacing data for durations of several days.