Critically assessing stock enhancement: an introduction to the Mote symposium.

Abstract

Stock enhancement represents a potential component of an economically viable and ecologically sound management strategy for many marine fisheries in danger of collapse. Stock enhancement is appealing because of its straightforward logic: by raising large numbers of larvae or juveniles and then releasing them into the marine environment, we can compensate for the enormous natural mortality in these stages and thereby increase the stock size in the late juvenile and early adult stages of the life cycle, which in turn will compensate for the fishing mortality that depleted the stock. Many questions remain, however, about the economic and ecological soundness of this strategy. These questions reach into virtually every area of environmental biology, from population dynamics and genetics to ecosystem processes and resource economics. This first William R. and Lenore Mote Symposium is designed to focus attention on these questions, suggest profitable avenues of research toward the answers, and lead to an increasingly discerning view of when and where in the marine environment stock enhancement is likely to succeed. November 21–23, 1996, over 60 scientists gathered at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida, USA, to assess fish stocking issues. The goals of this symposium, which was sponsored by the William R. and Lenore Mote Eminent Scholar Chair at Florida State University, were to focus attention on these questions, to suggest profitable avenues of research toward their answers, and to lead to an increasingly sophisticated view of when and where in the marine environment stock enhancement is likely to represent an effective component of fisheries management.