North American Journal Of Fisheries Management

"The book covers fishery assessments, habitat and community manipulations, and common practices for managing stream, river, lake, and anadromous fisheries. Chapters on history; ecosystem management; management processes; communications with the public; introduced, undesirable, and endangered species; and the legal and regulatory frameworks provide the context for modern fisheries management." From fisheries.org.

Fisheries science in North America is changing in response to a changing climate, new technologies, an ecosystem approach to management and new thinking about the processes affecting stock and recruitment. Authors of the 34 chapters review the science in their particular fields and use their experience to develop informed opinions about the future. Everyone associated with fish, fisheries and fisheries management will find material that will stimulate their thinking about the future. Readers will be impressed with the potential for new discoveries, but disturbed by how much needs to be done in fisheries science if we are to sustain North American fisheries in our changing climate. Officials that manage or fund fisheries science will appreciate the urgency for the new information needed for the stewardship of fish populations and their ecosystems. Research organizations may want to keep some extra copies for a future look back into the thoughts of a wide range of fisheries professionals. Fisheries science has been full of surprises with some of the surprises having major economic impacts. It is important to minimize these impacts as the demand for seafood increases and the complexities of fisheries management increase.

This was the first effort to standardize methods for inland fish sampling across North America and, as such, was a joint effort contributed to by a large group of talented and dedicated individuals, in addition to the authors and coeditors. While these sampling methods were primarily developed for North America, most could be used with little or no modification in other areas of the world. Those involved with standard sampling efforts in North America would welcome the opportunity to collaborate with scientists from other regions to develop methods to share data worldwide.