Fish Stock - Stock Fluctuations

Stock Fluctuations

The stocks for individual marine species can "boom and bust" in linked and compensatory ways. For example, in billfish longline fisheries, the Atlantic catch of blue marlin declined in the 1960s. This was accompanied by an increase in sailfish catch. The sailfish catch then declined from the end of the 1970s to the end of the 1980s, compensated by an increase in swordfish catch. As a result, the overall billfish catch remained fairly stable. At Georges Bank, a decline in cod during the 1960s was accompanied by a rise in flatfish, and more recently, with the collapse of the predatory Atlantic cod, lobster catches in Maine have boomed.