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.

Inhalt
On the Future of Fisheries Science.- Biodiversity, Spatial Management, and the Ecosystem Approach.- Biodiversity and the Future of Fisheries Science.- The Implications of a Paradigm Shift in Ocean Resource Management for Fisheries Stock Assessment.- Ecosystem-Based Management of What? An Emerging Approach for Balancing Conflicting Objectives in Marine Resource Management.- The Changing Nature of Fisheries Management and Implications for Science.- Astonishment, Stupefaction, and a Naturalist's Approach to Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Studies.- The High-Dimensional Future of Fishery Science.- Stock Assessment: Operational Models in Support of Fisheries Management.- Fisheries Science in the Future.- Some Observations on the Role of Trophodynamic Models for Ecosystem Approaches to Fisheries.- Why and How Could Indicators Be Used in an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management?.- Fisheries Abundance Cycles in Ecosystem and Economic Management of California Fish and Invertebrate Resources.- Ecosystem Models of Fishing Effects: Present Status and a Suggested Future Paradigm.- The Impacts of Environmental Change and Ecosystem Structure on the Early Life Stages of Fish: A Perspective on Establishing Predictive Capacity.- The Promise of an Ecosystem Approach: Lessons from the Past Hopes for the Future.- Technology for Evaluating Marine Ecosystems in the Early Twenty-First Century.- Acoustic Methods: Brief Review and Prospects for Advancing Fisheries Research.- Combining Techniques for Remotely Assessing Pelagic Nekton: Getting the Whole Picture.- Using the Seabed AUV to Assess Populations of Groundfish in Untrawlable Areas.- Technology Answers to the Requirements Set by the Ecosystem Approach.- Accounting for Spatial Population Structure in Stock Assessment: Past, Present, andFuture.- Genetic and Evolutionary Considerations in Fishery Management: Research Needs for the Future.- Trends in Fishery Genetics.- The Uncertain Future of Assessment Uncertainty.- Model Selection Uncertainty and Bayesian Model Averaging in Fisheries Recruitment Modeling.- Feedback Control in Pacific Salmon Fisheries.- The Future of Fisheries Science: Merging Stock Assessment with Risk Assessment, for Better Fisheries Management.- The Future of Fisheries Science on Canada's West Coast Is Keeping up with the Changes.- Climate and Fisheries: The Past, The Future, and The Need for Coalescence.- Future Research Requirements for Understanding the Effects of Climate Variability on Fisheries for Their Management.- Opportunities in Social Science Research.- Restoring Rivers in the Twenty-First Century: Science Challenges in a Management Context.