A nursery site of the Alaska skate (Bathyraja parmifera) in the eastern Bering Sea

A nursery site for the Alaska skate (Bathyraja parmifera) was sampled seasonally from June 2004 to July 2005. At the small nursery site (~2 km2), located in a highly productive area near the shelf-slope interface at the head of Bering Canyon in the eastern Bering Sea, reproductive males and females dominated the catch and neonate and juvenile skates were rare. Seasonal samples showed summertime (June and July) as the peak reproductive time in the nursery although some reproduction occurred throughout the year. Timeseries analysis of embryo length frequencies revealed that three cohorts were developing simultaneously and the period of embryonic development was estimated at 3.5 years and average embryo growth rate at 0.2 mm/day. Estimated egg case deposition occurred mainly during summertime and hatching occurred during winter months. Protracted hatching times may be common for oviparous elasmobranch species and may be directly correlated with ambient temperatures as evident from a meta-data analysis. Evidence indicates that the Alaska skate uses the eastern Bering Sea outer continental shelf region for reproduction and the middle and inner shelf regions as habitat for immature and subadults. Skate nurseries may be vulnerable to disturbances because they are located in highly productive areas and because embryos develop slowly.

Emerging patterns of species richness, diversity, population density, and distribution in the skates (Rajidae) of Alaska

Six years of bottom-trawl survey data, including over 6000 trawls covering over 200 km2 of bottom area throughout Alaska’s subarctic marine waters, were analyzed for patterns in species richness, diversity, density, and distribution of skates. The Bering Sea continental shelf and slope, Aleutian Islands, and Gulf of Alaska regions were stratified by geographic subregion and depth. Species richness and relative density of skates increased with depth to the shelf break in all regions. The Bering Sea shelf was dominated by the Alaska skate (Bathyraja parmifera), but species richness and diversity were low. On the Bering Sea slope, richness and diversity were higher in the shallow stratum, and relative density appeared higher in subregions dominated by canyons. In the Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska, species richness and relative density were generally highest in the deepest depth strata. The data and distribution maps presented here are based on species-level data collected throughout the marine waters of Alaska, and this article represents the most comprehensive summary of the skate fauna of the region published to date.

Re-estimation of small-scale fishery catches for U.S. flag-associated island areas in the western Pacific: the last 50 years

Nearshore fisheries in the tropical Pacific play an important role, both culturally and as a reliable source of food security, but often remain under-reported in statistics, leading to undervaluation of their importance to communities. We re-estimated nonpelagic catches for Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), and summarize previous work for American Samoa for 1950−2002. For all islands combined, catches declined by 77%, contrasting with increasing trends indicated by reported data. For individual island entities, re-estima-tion suggested declines of 86%, 54%, and 79% for Guam, CNMI, and American Samoa, respectively. Except for Guam, reported data primarily represented commercial catches, and hence under-represented contributions by subsistence and recreational fisheries. Guam’s consistent use of creel surveys for data collection resulted in the most reliable reported catches for any of the islands considered. Our re-estimation makes the scale of under-reporting of total catches evident, and provides valuable baselines of likely historic patterns in fisheries catches.

Biodiversity as an index of regime shift in the eastern Bering Sea

Data collected from an annual groundf ish survey of the eastern Bering Sea shelf from 1975 to 2002 were used to estimate biomass and biodiversity indexes for two fish guilds: f latfish and roundfish. Biomass estimates indicated that several species of f latfish (particularly rock sole, arrowtooth flounder, and f lathead sole), several large sculpins (Myoxocephalus spp.), bigmouth (Hemitripterus bolini), and skates (Bathyraja spp.) had increased. Declining species included several f latfish species and many smaller roundfish species of sculpins, eelpouts (Lycodes spp.), and sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria). Biodiversity indexes were calculated by using biomass estimates for both guilds from 1975 through 2002 within three physical domains on the eastern Bering Sea shelf. Biodiversity trends were found to be generally declining within the roundfish guild and generally increasing within the f latfish guild and varied between inner, middle, and outer shelf domains. The trends in biodiversity indexes from this study correlated strongly with the regime shift reported for the late 1970s and 1980s.

A catch-free stock assessment model with application to goliath grouper (Epinephelus itajara) off southern Florida

Many modern stock assessment methods provide the machinery for determining the status of a stock in relation to certain reference points and for estimating how quickly a stock can be rebuilt. However, these methods typically require catch data, which are not always available. We introduce a model-based framework for estimating reference points, stock status, and recovery times in situations where catch data and other measures of absolute abundance are unavailable. The specif ic estimator developed is essentially an age-structured production model recast in terms relative to pre-exploitation levels. A Bayesian estimation scheme is adopted to allow the incorporation of pertinent auxiliary information such as might be obtained from meta-analyses of similar stocks or anecdotal observations. The approach is applied to the population of goliath grouper (Epinephelus itajara) off southern Florida, for which there are three indices of relative abundance but no reliable catch data. The results confirm anecdotal accounts of a marked decline in abundance during the 1980s followed by a substantial increase after the harvest of goliath grouper was banned in 1990. The ban appears to have reduced fishing pressure to between 10% and 50% of the levels observed during the 1980s. Nevertheless, the predicted fishing mortality rate under the ban appears to remain substantial, perhaps owing to illegal harvest and depth-related release mortality. As a result, the base model predicts that there is less than a 40% chance that the spawning biomass will recover to a level that would produce a 50% spawning potential ratio.

Rio, cenas decisivas: teatro entre televisão, patrocínio e política

Baseado em estudos de casos e em discussões teóricas, este trabalho analisa as relações entre a estética, a produção e a recepção de uma vertente do teatro produzido no Rio de Janeiro que se propõe manter-se além do entretenimento. O critério para a escolha dos casos estudados é o da inteligibilidade das relações entre estética e contexto sócio-econômico, a partir das próprias referências e vivências do pesquisador enquanto também artista e produtor teatral. A abordagem do teatro como fenômeno estético e cultural que interage com o meio sócio-econômico vale neste trabalho tanto para o teatro da contemporaneidade quanto em suas discussões históricas. A universalização da TV, a falta de público pagante para a arte e a ainda recente resposta do Estado como financiador universal da cultura aparecem aqui intimamente ligadas à proliferação e transformação de poéticas teatrais, principalmente no que concerne ao trabalho do ator em cena, sua formação, e a concepção que ele tem de sociedade e de seu papel dentro dela. Esta mirada a partir do fazer teatral questiona o valor de limites fixos entre arte e indústria cultural, ao sugerir como problemática a definição de arte e cultura na contemporaneidade. As relações de mútua legitimação entre a indústria da televisão e o teatro na cidade são acompanhadas desde a sua descoberta pelo Teatro dos Sete, seu apogeu nos anos 70 e 80, e sua subsequente crise no final da década de 80, quando a simbiose se transformou em competição e a TV passou a ditar as regras do mercado de atores. Os espetáculos escolhidos para análise nesta ótica são justamente O Mambembe de 1959 e A Maldição do Vale Negro, de 1988. Em seguida o texto apresenta um resumo de observações e pesquisas sobre sociologia da cultura, a sócio-economia do teatro e as políticas públicas na França. The Flash and Crash Days, de Gerald Thomas, é o espetáculo escolhido para abordar o início da era dos patrocínios no teatro carioca. A última parte da tese procura juntar os resultados obtidos nos estudos e algumas análises a discussões atuais sobre o teatro no Rio de Janeiro, ao comentar possíveis relações entre a estética e o contexto na cena experimental da zona sul da cidade, e a mudança ideológica e de valores que acompanha a ainda recente mudança de modos de produção. O olhar do teatro como negócio é confrontado por uma alternativa que sugere a abertura de novas perspectivas, através da inclusão de novos sujeitos, como oportunidade de renovação da cena carioca