Recovery of the stocks of the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) by spawner enhancement

The production of healthy high quality female European eel in recycle systems is proposed as a means to secure sufficient numbers of silver eel for spawning migration in order to meet the requirements of the European Commission’s proposal for a Regulation for the recovery of the stock of the European eel. Main advantages besides checks for parasites and viral diseases and avoidance of elevated levels of specific pollutants are the easily controllable numbers of spawners to be released and a reduction of labour and costs that will occur when acting along the lines of the Commission’s proposal.

Recovery and status of shortnose sturgeon in the Hudson River

Shortnose sturgeon (Acipenser brevirostrum), an endangered species, has experienced a several-fold increase in abundance in the Hudson River in recent decades. This population growth followed a substantial improvement in water quality during the 1970s to a large portion (c. 40%) of the species' summertime nursery area. Age structure and growth were investigated to evaluate the hypothesis that improvements in water quality stimulated population recovery through increased survival of young of the year juveniles. Specimens were captured using gill nets bi-monthly from November 2003 to November 2004 (n = 596). Annuli in fin spine sections were used to generate estimates of sturgeon age. Based upon a marginal increment analysis, annuli were determined to form at an annual rate. Age determinations yielded a catch composed of age 5-30 years for sizes 49-105cm Total Length (n = 554). Individual growth rate (von Bertalanffy coefficients: TL, = 1045mm, K = 0.07) for the population was similar to previous growth estimates within the Hudson River as well as proximal estuaries. Hindcast year-class strengths, based upon a recent stock assessment (Bain et al. 2000) and corrected for gill net mesh selectivity and cumulative mortality indicated high recruitments (28,000-43,000 yearlings)during 1986-1992, which were preceded and succeeded by c.5-year periods of lower recruitment (5,000-1 5,000 yearlings). Recruitment patterns were corroborated by trends in shortnose sturgeon bycatch from a Hudson utilities-sponsored monitoring program. Results indicated that Hudson River shortnose sturgeon abundance increased due to the formation of several strong year-classes occurring about five years subsequent to improved water quality in important nursery and forage habitats in the upper Hudson River estuary. (PDF contains 108 pages.)

Nanostructured giant magneto-impedance multilayers deposited onto flexible substrates for low pressure sensing

Nanostructured FeNi-based multilayers are very suitable for use as magnetic sensors using the giant magneto-impedance effect. New fields of application can be opened with these materials deposited onto flexible substrates. In this work, we compare the performance of samples prepared onto a rigid glass substrate and onto a cyclo olefin copolymer flexible one. Although a significant reduction of the field sensitivity is found due to the increased effect of the stresses generated during preparation, the results are still satisfactory for use as magnetic field sensors in special applications. Moreover, we take advantage of the flexible nature of the substrate to evaluate the pressure dependence of the giant magneto-impedance effect. Sensitivities up to 1 Omega/Pa are found for pressures in the range of 0 to 1 Pa, demostrating the suitability of these nanostructured materials deposited onto flexible substrates to build sensitive pressure sensors.

Influence of the Azores high on sea level pressure and wind, and on precipitation, in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean

ENGLISH: Intensification of the Azores high pressure cell in mid-year, with concomitant air flow from the Caribbean into the Pacific, is shown to be responsible for a secondary minimum of precipitation observed along the tropical Pacific coast of the Americas, and to have a measurable effect on wind and precipitation several hundred kilometers offshore. SPANISH: La intensificación de la célula de alta presión de las Azores a mediados del año, y la corriente de aire concomitante que entra al Pacífico procedente del Caribe, se demuestra que es la causante de un mínimo secundario de precipitación observado a lo largo de la costa tropical de las Américas en el Pacífico y que tiene un efecto mensurable sobre el viento y la precipitación varios cientos de kilómetros mar afuera. (PDF contains 23 pages.)

Einfluss der Umsetzung der ICES-Fangempfehlungen auf den Zustand der Fischbest

The implementation of the precautionary approach in the mid-1990s required commercial fish stocks to be classified into different categories. These are based on the degree to which stocks have been exploited or are threatened by fishing activities. According to current ICES terminology, stocks are classified as being either “within” or “outside safe biological limits”, or as being “harvested outside safe biological limits”. Between 1996 and 2002, the relative share of stocks in these three categories remained relatively stable (at about 20 %, 30 % and 15 %, respectively). Over the same time span, the number of stocks were insufficient data is available to quantify and thus to appropriately classify the state of the spawning stock biomass (“status unknown”) has increased. Neglecting potential impacts of fishing pressure, the combined average proportion of all stocks with sufficiently high spawning stock biomass is at about one third, while only one fifth of the stocks assessed have been managed sustainably. For some important fish stocks in the ICES environment – specifically demersal ones –, science recently had to call for rebuilding plans or even a closure of the fishery to allow recovery, in spite of the management’s agreement to manage the resources according to the precautionary approach. This obvious difference between approach and implementation has a number of potential causes: erroneous or imprecise input data (landings, discard and sampling information), insufficient assessment models, problems in the understanding of the scientific advice, and implementation errors. The latter could be either a difference between advised and implemented total allowable catches (TACs), or an excess of legal TACs. During the fifteen years covered by this analysis (1987 to 2002), the average deviation between the implemented TACs for a specific stock and that recommended by ICES for the same stock was more than 30 %. The overall average deviation (summed over all stocks) for the entire period was 34 %, excluding, however, four extreme outliers in the data, representing cases in which scientific recommendations were exceeded by as much as 1000 to 2500 %. If these were included, the overall average would be as high as 45 %. The annual deviation has substantially increased in recent years (from roughly 20 % in earlier years of the surveyed period). This recently observed high deviation also matches ICES’s estimate that the fishing mortality in the ICES convention area in the 1990s was well above recommended sustainable levels in the pelagic and demersal fishery. A direct comparison of scientifically proposed and politically implemented TACs is problematic in many case

Intrinsic correlation between dilatation and pressure sensitivity of plastic flow in metallic glasses

Taking shear-induced dilatation into consideration in shear transformation zone (STZ) operations, we derive a new yield criterion that reflects the pressure sensitivity in plastic flow in metallic glasses (MGs), which agrees well with experiments. Furthermore, an intrinsic theoretical correlation between the pressure sensitivity coefficient and the dilatation factor is revealed. It is found that the pressure sensitivity of plastic flow of MGs originates in the dilatation of microscale STZs.

The omega failure in the crash-recovery model

190 p.