Seminar on Fish Populations

Lingcod, one of the species to be discussed in this seminar, in its habitat.\Photo courtesy of ODFW.

In the coronavirus era, the Hatfield Marine Science Center is holding its seminar series online.  These events are free and open to the public.

Next up is Kiva Oken, Assistant Professor, Department of Wildlife, Fish, & Conservation Biology, University of California at Davis.  Her virtual seminar, entitled “Implications of ecological and technical interactions among fish populations in the California Current and across the Northern Hemisphere,” takes place on Thursday, July 23, 3:30-4:30 p.m.  The public is invited to join this free event via Zoom.

Dr. Oken’s description of her presentation: 

“Dynamics of both marine populations and the revenue those populations generate are linked across species by both ecological interactions, such as predation, and technical interactions, such as bycatch and cross-fishery participation. Ecosystem-based fisheries management attempts to account for both of these types of connections. Incorporating interactions into the models that managers rely on to make decisions tends to improve outcomes, but implementation is challenging in part due to data limitations, a lack of understanding of how populations are linked, and which links matter most. In this talk, I will first use a meta-analysis of marine ecosystems across North America and Europe to look at how predation may impact prey population dynamics in marine ecosystems, focusing on how variable predation mortality may be through time and the causes of that variability. Second, I will discuss how bycatch of adults and predation on juveniles may be able to offset each other in the case of lingcod fisheries and overfished rockfish in the California Current. The final portion of the talk will look at revenue dynamics, and specifically how population synchrony (ecological dynamics) and permit access (management decisions) interact in three key west coast fisheries to influence the profitability and revenue stability that fishers experience.” 

To join the online seminar go here: https://oregonstate.zoom.us/j/94555731151.