(including WG3 - Resource productivity and WG9 - Resource availability)

Theme representatives: J. Hunter (ex-officio)

Fish biomass per unit of stock is used to compute and compare quantitative estimates of small pelagic fish production and, most important, production of biomass or recruits per unit area of spawning and feeding habitats. This work provides a quantitative basis for comparing fish production between and within all systems in standard production units.

A review paper (Jacobson et al., 2001) emanated from the outcome of a workshop in Dartmouth, Canada. This paper is on surplus production and climate change in the great sardine and anchovy fisheries. Recent activities related to Theme 2 include an IOC/SPACC Study Group on “Use of Environmental information on the management of pelagic fish populations” (see GLOBEC Newsletter, April 2002). The group met for the first time in Cape Town (3-5 September 2001). Its second and final meeting was at IOC/UNESCO in Paris, November 2002 and resulted in GLOBEC Special Contribution No. 6.