Environmental Factors and Natural Resource Stocks: The Atlantic Herring Case
By Jung-Hee Cho and John Gates
ABSTRACT
Atlantic herring ( Clupea harengus ) is a highly variable stock. Herring is an important stock as bait for lobster fisheries and in the food web of North West Atlantic Ocean. However, herring is very vulnerable to environmental variables such as temperature, food supply, and sediment type of the bottom floor. Juvenile and larval stage herring are hypothesized to be very sensitive to low temperatures. This paper will analyze the correlation between temperature and two year-old recruitment stock, using satellite sea surface temperature data and data from North-East Fishery Science Center. Temperature is measured for specific areas that are defined as Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) designated habitat for Atlantic herring egg, larvae, and juveniles. The preliminary results suggest that including environmental factors is necessary to understand the cycle of fluctuating stock and is a necessary variable in the production model for a fishery.
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