Courses

Quantitative Methods in Fisheries (6002)

Professor: Dr. G.A. Rose

Course description: This is a graduate level course open to students in the Masters of Marine Science program and other graduate programs at Memorial University. The goal of the course is to provide students with a general but broad understanding of the data, methods and models used by stock assessment scientists and fisheries research. The course covers the basic quantitative methods and models used in fisheries, including data inputs and models. Emphasis is placed on how fish stocks and fisheries respond under exploitation, biomass dynamic models, age structured models, and acoustic and trawl surveys. The course is heavily dependent upon computer simulations done by the students, primarily in EXCEL. Students are expected to both manipulate models given to them and to begin to create their own during the course.

Topics:

• Objectives of Fisheries Management, the Role of Quantitative Methods and Stock Assessment in Management, the process in Atlantic Canada
• How Fishing Fleets Affect Stocks and Ecosystems
• How Stocks Respond to Exploitation
• Measuring Fish Populations – Fisheries Data and Surveys
• Models and Data Fitting
• Stock - recruitment models (reproductive potential)
• Biomass dynamic models
• Age structured models (VPA)
• Size, age and growth data and models
• The reality of managing fisheries with incomplete knowledge

Text: Modelling and Quantitative Methods in Fisheries by Malcolm Haddon, Chapman & Hall (2001)

Other useful texts: Quantitative Fisheries Stock Assessment by Hilborn and Walters.

Fisheries Acoustics (B-7925)

Professor: Dr. G.A. Rose

Course description: This course covers the theory of fisheries and plankton acoustics and the application of acoustic methods to measure the distribution and abundance of aquatic organisms. Major topics covered are the physics of sound in water, the acoustic equation, scattering models, and the interpretation of backscatter (counting animals, integrating densities, and determining target strength and identity). The solution of biological problems is stressed, especially those associated with target measurement and classification. The course consists of lectures and a major assignment, which will be based on a lab at sea employing scientific echosounders, combined with selected readings on the application of acoustics in marine research.

Prerequisites: Biology 1000 or 1200 and Physics 1000 (or equivalent).

Text: Fisheries Acoustics by MacLennan & Simmonds, Chapman & Hall, London (1992)