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71-798: Hopkins Marine Station was founded in 1892, making it the oldest marine laboratory on the US Pacific Coast, and the second-oldest in the US, after the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. It was originally named the Hopkins Seaside Laboratory and located on what is now called Lovers Point . In 1917, the laboratory was moved to its current location on Mussel/China/Cabrillo Point, and given its current name: Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University . The marine station

142-585: A " first-come, first-served " approach, but recent threats from human overfishing and environmental issues have required increased regulation of fisheries to prevent conflict and increase profitable economic activity on the fishery. Modern jurisdiction over fisheries is often established by a mix of international treaties and local laws. Declining fish populations, marine pollution , and the destruction of important coastal ecosystems have introduced increasing uncertainty in important fisheries worldwide, threatening economic security and food security in many parts of

213-599: A Biology-Watcher", in an installment called "The MBL"; the essay was later collected into the volume titled The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher . He said of the MBL of that day, "Today, it stands as the uniquely national center for biology in this country; it is the National Biological Laboratory without being officially designated (or yet funded) as such. Its influence on the growth and development of biologic science has been equivalent to that of many of

284-516: A central part of the MBL's programs since the 1890s. Important discoveries in these fields at the MBL reach back to 1899, when Jacques Loeb demonstrated artificial parthenogenesis in sea urchin eggs; to 1905, when Edwin Grant Conklin first identified egg cytoplasmic regions that are programmed to form certain tissues or organs; to 1916, when Frank Rattray Lillie identified circulating hormones that influence sexual differentiation (Lillie, 1944). In

355-970: A four-year study in November 2006, which predicted that, at prevailing trends, the world would run out of wild-caught seafood in 2048. The scientists stated that the decline was a result of overfishing , pollution and other environmental factors that were reducing the population of fisheries at the same time as their ecosystems were being annihilated. Many countries, such as Tonga , the United States , Australia and Bahamas , and international management bodies have taken steps to appropriately manage marine resources. Fisheries are affected by climate change in many ways: marine aquatic ecosystems are being affected by rising ocean temperatures , ocean acidification and ocean deoxygenation , while freshwater ecosystems are being impacted by changes in water temperature, water flow, and fish habitat loss. These effects vary in

426-531: A library, the MBLWHOI Library, with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution . The MBLWHOI Library holds print and electronic collections in the biological, biomedical, ecological, and oceanographic sciences, and houses a growing archival collection, including photograph and videos from the MBL's history. The library also conducts digitization and informatics projects. Research at the MBL focuses on four themes: Cell, developmental, and reproductive biology have been

497-464: A magnet for the discipline since L.W. Williams in 1910 discovered, and John Zachary Young in 1936 rediscovered, the squid giant axon , a nerve fiber that is 20 times larger in diameter than the largest human axon. Young brought this locally abundant, ideal experimental system to the attention of his MBL colleague KS Cole , who in 1938 used it to record the resistance changes underlying the action potential, which provided evidence that ions flowing across

568-589: A major laboratory. He invited Alpheus Hyatt to move his marine biology laboratory and school which he had founded at the Norwood-Hyatt House in Annisquam, Massachusetts , to Woods Hole. Inspired by Harvard biologist Louis Agassiz 's short-lived experimental summer school, the Anderson School of Natural History on Penikese Island , off the coast of Woods Hole, Hyatt accepted the offer. With $ 10,000 raised by

639-758: A more relevant and practical way to manage fisheries. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), there are "no clear and generally accepted definitions of fisheries management". However, the working definition used by the FAO and much cited elsewhere is: The integrated process of information gathering , analysis, planning, consultation, decision-making, allocation of resources and formulation and implementation, with necessary law enforcement to ensure environmental compliance , of regulations or rules which govern fisheries activities in order to ensure

710-432: A motor protein involved in mitosis and other cellular processes, during summer MBL research. Vale, Sheetz, and James Spudich received the 2012 Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research for their discoveries related to molecular motors. In 1991 Israeli scientist Avram Hershko began coming to the MBL to study the role that the protein ubiquitin plays in cell division. In 2004, Hershko won a Nobel Prize for his work to establish

781-408: A range of courses, workshops, conferences, and internships throughout the year. Central to its programs are more than 20 Advanced Research Training Courses, graduate-level courses in topics ranging from physiology, embryology, neurobiology, and microbiology to imaging and computation integrated with biological research. In addition, the MBL hosts courses for undergraduate and graduate students from

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852-470: A significant impact on other aspects of the environment such as seabird populations. On top of the overfishing, there is a seafood shortage resulting from the mass amounts of seafood waste, as well as the microplastics that are polluting the seafood consumed by the public. The latter is largely caused by plastic-made fishing gear like drift nets and longlining equipment that are wearing down by use, lost or thrown away. The journal Science published

923-997: A worldwide catch of well over a million tonnes in 1999, with herring and sardines together providing a harvest of over 22 million metric tons in 1999. Many other species are harvested in smaller numbers. In 2022 small-scale fisheries contribute an estimated 40 percent of the global catch and support 90 percent of the capture fisheries workforce, with women representing 40 percent. 500 million people rely on small-scale fisheries for their livelihoods, including 53 million involved in subsistence fishing, of which 45 percent are women. In 2022 inland fisheries produced 11.3 million tonnes, harvested mainly in Asia (63.4 percent) and Africa (29.4 percent), where they are important for food security. Lead producers were India (1.9 million tonnes), Bangladesh (1.3 million tonnes), China (1.2 million tonnes), Myanmar (0.9 million tonnes) and Indonesia (0.5 million tonnes). Inland fisheries figures are likely underestimated due to

994-630: A year to global GDP , but by full implementation of sustainable fishing, that figure could rise by as much as US$ 50 billion. In 2022 77% of the global workforce was in Asia, 16% in Africa and 5% in Latin America and the Caribbean. In addition to commercial and subsistence fishing, recreational (sport) fishing is popular and economically important in many regions. Total fish production in 2016 reached an all-time high of 171 million tonnes, of which 88 percent

1065-594: A year-round staff of more than 40 scientists who study a variety of ecosystems and their responses to human activities and environmental changes. The center is located in Woods Hole yet has a global reach, with active research sites in the Arctic tundra; in forest, coastal and marine sites in New England, Sweden and Brazil. The Ecosystems Center is home to two of the 26 U.S. Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites: Toolik Lake , Alaska; and Plum Island, Massachusetts. Scientists in

1136-519: A year-round staff, but it will have to accomplish this without jeopardizing the immense power of its summer programs, or all institutional hell will break loose. It will have to find new ways for relating to the universities, if its graduate programs are to expand as they should. It will have to develop new symbiotic relations with the Oceanographic Institute, since both places have so much at stake. And it will have to find more money, much more —

1207-439: Is a growing gap between the supply of fish and demand, due in part to world population growth. Fishing and pollution from fishing are the largest contributors to the decline in ocean health and water quality. Ghost nets, or nets abandoned in the ocean, are made of plastic and nylon and do not decompose, wreaking extreme havoc on the wildlife and ecosystems they interrupt. Overfishing and destruction of marine ecosystems may have

1278-406: Is an emerging and specialized area of law. Fisheries law is the study and analysis of different fisheries management approaches such as catch shares e.g. individual transferable quotas ; TURFs; and others. The study of fisheries law is important in order to craft policy guidelines that maximize sustainability and legal enforcement. This specific legal area is rarely taught at law schools around

1349-484: Is currently directed by David Mark Welch. By comparing diverse genomes , scientists at the center are elucidating the evolutionary relationships of biological systems, and describing genes and genomes of biomedical and environmental significance. Microorganisms found in a wide range of ecosystems, including the human microbiome , are studied. Mitchell Sogin , the Bay Paul Center's founder, also founded two courses at

1420-535: Is named after Timothy Hopkins , the founder of the city of Palo Alto and an early trustee and long-time supporter of Stanford University. In 1931, the State of California adopted legislation designating the intertidal and subtidal areas around Hopkins Marine Station as the Hopkins Marine Life Refuge. The collection of marine invertebrates or plants is forbidden without a scientific collecting permit. The HMLR

1491-448: Is possible, drawing on fisheries science and possibly including the precautionary principle . Modern fisheries management is often referred to as a governmental system of appropriate environmental management rules based on defined objectives and a mix of management means to implement the rules, which are put in place by a system of monitoring control and surveillance . An ecosystem approach to fisheries management has started to become

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1562-636: Is seafood safety. Each country, or region, around the world has a varying degree of seafood safety standards and regulations. These regulations can contain a large diversity of fisheries management schemes including quota or catch share systems. It is important to study seafood safety regulations around the world in order to craft policy guidelines from countries who have implemented effective schemes. Also, this body of research can identify areas of improvement for countries who have not yet been able to master efficient and effective seafood safety regulations. The environmental impact of fishing includes issues such as

1633-677: Is still recorded in some countries, particularly in Africa and Asia. FAO predicted in 2018 the following major trends for the period up to 2030: The goal of fisheries management is to produce sustainable biological, environmental and socioeconomic benefits from renewable aquatic resources. Wild fisheries are classified as renewable when the organisms of interest (e.g., fish , shellfish , amphibians , reptiles and marine mammals ) produce an annual biological surplus that with judicious management can be harvested without reducing future productivity . Fishery management employs activities that protect fishery resources so sustainable exploitation

1704-591: Is the second-oldest Marine Life Refuge in California, after the San Diego Marine Life Refuge of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography . More recent legislation has been enacted to prevent chemical and thermal pollution of the water, to extend the boundaries of the refuge, and to prohibit the collection of fish, as well as invertebrates and plants, without a scientific collecting permit. Scientists at

1775-652: The National Academy of Sciences ; and 260 Members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences who have been affiliated with the lab. The Marine Biological Laboratory grew from the vision of several Bostonians and Spencer Fullerton Baird , the United States' first Fish Commissioner (a government official concerned with the use of fisheries ). Baird had set up a United States Fish Commission research station in Woods Hole in 1882, and had ambitions to expand it into

1846-527: The Te Vega [...]." Some past and present researchers at Hopkins Marine Station: 36°37′14″N 121°54′16″W  /  36.6205°N 121.9045°W  / 36.6205; -121.9045 Marine Biological Laboratory The Marine Biological Laboratory ( MBL ) is an international center for research and education in biological and environmental science. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts , in 1888,

1917-555: The University of Chicago and other colleges and universities, as well as workshops and conferences—accommodating more than 2,600 participants in 2016. Fisheries Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life or, more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a. , fishing grounds ). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farms , both in freshwater waterbodies (about 10% of all catch) and

1988-520: The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution just up the street. But it has never come under the domination of any outside institution or governmental agency, nor has it ever been told what to do by any outside group. […] There is no way of predicting what the future will be like for an institution such as the MBL. One way or another, it will evolve. It may shift soon into a new phase, with a year-round program for teaching and research and

2059-549: The aquaculture of salmon , but more typically fish farming occurs inland, in lakes, ponds, tanks and other enclosures. There are commercial fisheries worldwide for finfish, mollusks , crustaceans and echinoderms , and by extension, aquatic plants such as kelp . However, a very small number of species support the majority of the world's fisheries. Some of these species are herring , cod , anchovy , tuna, flounder , mullet , squid , shrimp , salmon, crab , lobster , oyster and scallops . All except these last four provided

2130-408: The biogeochemistry of terrestrial ecosystems, and John Hobbie, a microbial ecologist. The Ecosystems Center is founded on a vision of collaborative, interdisciplinary science; shared lab facilities and instrumentation; and a long-term, large-scale, systems-wide view of ecosystem processes. The Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution was founded at the MBL in 1997 and

2201-588: The salmon fishery of Alaska , the cod fishery off the Lofoten islands, the tuna fishery of the Eastern Pacific , or the shrimp farm fisheries in China. Capture fisheries can be broadly classified as industrial scale, small-scale or artisanal, and recreational. Close to 90% of the world's fishery catches come from oceans and seas, as opposed to inland waters. These marine catches have remained relatively stable since

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2272-468: The "people involved, species or type of fish, area of water or seabed, method of fishing , class of boats, purpose of the activities or a combination of the foregoing features". The definition often includes a combination of mammal and fish fishers in a region, the latter fishing for similar species with similar gear types. Some government and private organizations, especially those focusing on recreational fishing include in their definitions not only

2343-439: The "rare biosphere". Other Bay Paul Center projects are focused on microbes that live in extreme environments, from hydrothermal vents to highly acidic ecosystems, which may lead to a better understanding of life that could exist on other planets. Activities at the Bay Paul Center are supported by advanced DNA sequencing and other genomics equipment at the center's Keck Ecological and Evolutionary Genetics Facility. The MBL offers

2414-525: The 1950s have been instrumental in clarifying the cellular events of mitosis , including his discovery of the spindle fibers . The MBL has long been a center for the world's experts in cell division. In the early 1980s, Tim Hunt , Joan Ruderman and others at the MBL identified the first of a class of proteins that regulate the cycle of cell division ( cyclin ). Hunt was awarded a Nobel Prize in 2001 for this work (Hunt, 2004). In 1984, Ron Vale , Michael Sheetz , Joe DeGiorgis, and others discovered kinesin ,

2485-637: The Bell Center is a national resource for research on the frog, Xenopus, which is a major animal model used in U.S. biomedical research. The National Xenopus Resource at the MBL is funded by the National Institutes of Health (MBL Facts). The MBL's contributions to neuroscience and sensory physiology are significant, fostered today by more than 65 visiting investigators and resident researchers in these fields, as well as five graduate- and post-graduate level Advanced Research Training courses. The MBL has been

2556-540: The Ecosystems Center study the effects of forest clearance and land-use change on atmospheric chemistry, watershed processes and coastal ecology, the global-scale anthropogenic enrichment of the nitrogen cycle , and ecosystem responses to global warming . The interim director of the Ecosystems Center is Anne Giblin . Former directors of the Center who are still active on the scientific staff are Jerry Melillo , who studies

2627-564: The MBL began publishing The Biological Bulletin , a scientific journal that is still edited at the MBL. Gertrude Stein , later well known as a novelist and art collector, took part in MBL's Embryology course in the summer of 1897, while her brother Leo took part in the Invertebrates course. Writing in 1972, Lewis Thomas both explained and praised the nature of the MBL as a scientific institution. He wrote about it in his recurring New England Journal of Medicine column called "Notes of

2698-442: The MBL each summer, where a history of research into sensory physiology and behavior has been established. Haldan Keffer Hartline , an MBL summer investigator in the 1920s and early 1930s, uncovered several basic mechanisms of photoreceptor function through his studies on the horseshoe crab. Hartline shared the 1967 Nobel Prize with summer MBL colleague George Wald , who described the molecular basis of photoreception by showing that

2769-532: The MBL established the Eugene Bell Center for Regenerative Biology and Tissue Engineering, where researchers study the ability of marine and other animals to spontaneously regenerate damaged or aging body parts. An understanding of tissue and organ regeneration in lower animals holds promise for translation to treatments for human conditions, including spinal cord injury, diabetes, organ failure, and degenerative neural diseases such as Alzheimer's. A cornerstone of

2840-479: The MBL from 1947 to 1986, most significantly on the biochemical nature of muscular contraction. In the 1950s and 1960s, Frederik Bang and Jack Levin at the MBL discovered that the blood of the horseshoe crab clotted when exposed to bacterial endotoxins even in vanishingly small amounts. From this basic research, a reagent, Limulus amoebocyte lysate (LAL), was developed that can detect minute amounts of bacterial toxins. The LAL test has resulted in dramatic improvement in

2911-522: The MBL is a private, nonprofit institution that was independent for most of its history, but became officially affiliated with the University of Chicago on July 1, 2013. It also collaborates with numerous other institutions. As of 2024, 63 Nobel Prize winners have been affiliated with MBL as students, faculty members or researchers. In addition, since 1960, there have been 137 Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators, early career scientists, international researchers, and professors; 319 members of

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2982-621: The MBL's Whitman Center . Whitman Center Scientists comprise more than 100 principal investigators from academic institutions around the world. Other resources include The Marine Resources Center, an advanced facility for maintaining, culturing, and providing aquatic and marine organisms essential to biological, biomedical, and ecological research; and The National Xenopus Resource , which breeds and maintains Xenopus (frog) genetic stocks; and provides training in Xenopus husbandry, cell biology, imaging, genetics, transgenesis, and genomics. The MBL shares

3053-416: The MBL's first two decades, cytologists Edmund Beecher Wilson , Nettie Stevens and others made connections between the chromosomes and Mendelian heredity, while Wilson's colleague at both the MBL and Columbia University, Thomas Hunt Morgan , launched the field of experimental genetics (Pauly, 2000:158). Keith R. Porter , considered by many to be a founder of modern cell biology due to his pioneering work on

3124-692: The MBL: the Workshop in Molecular Evolution; and Strategies and Techniques for Analyzing Microbial Population Structures. In 2003-2004, Sogin launched the International Census of Marine Microbes, a global effort to describe the biodiversity of marine micro-organisms. Early results from this census in 2006 revealed some 10 to 100 times more types of marine microbes than expected, and the vast majority are previously unknown, low-abundance microorganisms now called

3195-527: The Woman's Education Association of Boston and the Boston Society of Natural History , land was purchased, a building was erected, and the MBL was incorporated with Hyatt as the first president of the board of trustees. The Fish Commission supplied crucial support, including marine organisms and running sea water. University of Chicago professor, Charles Otis Whitman , an embryologist, was retained to also serve as

3266-518: The availability of fish , overfishing , fisheries , and fisheries management ; as well as the impact of industrial fishing on other elements of the environment, such as bycatch . These issues are part of marine conservation , and are addressed in fisheries science programs. According to a 2019 FAO report, global production of fish, crustaceans, molluscs and other aquatic animals has continued to grow and reached 172.6 million tonnes in 2017, with an increase of 4.1 percent compared with 2016. There

3337-451: The axonal membrane generate this electrical impulse. In 1938, Alan Lloyd Hodgkin came to the MBL to learn about the squid giant axon from Cole. After World War II, Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley , working in Plymouth, England and using the voltage clamp technique developed by Cole, laid the basis for the modern understanding of electrical activity in the nervous system by measuring quantitatively

3408-498: The basic mechanism of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation. A large portion of the leading developmental biologists in the United States, both historically and today, have participated in the MBL's Embryology Course as directors, lecturers or students. One draw is the Woods Hole location and the availability of marine organisms, particularly the sea urchin , that are ideal for embryological analysis because they shed nearly transparent eggs which are fertilized and develop externally. In

3479-430: The cell membrane and Rodolfo Llinas described the transmission properties at the squid giant synapse (Llinas 1999). The "scientific career" of the "Woods Hole squid", Doryteuthis (formerly Loligo) pealeii , continues today, with studies on axonal transport , the squid giant synapse , squid genomics, and the molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer's disease. Other marine organisms draw neuroscientists and neurobiologists to

3550-434: The context of each fishery. Climate change is modifying fish distributions and the productivity of marine and freshwater species. Climate change is expected to lead to significant changes in the availability and trade of fish products . The geopolitical and economic consequences will be significant, especially for the countries most dependent on the sector. The biggest decreases in maximum catch potential can be expected in

3621-518: The continued productivity of the resources and the accomplishment of other fisheries objectives. International attention to these issues has been captured in Sustainable Development Goal 14 "Life Below Water" which sets goals for international policy focused on preserving coastal ecosystems and supporting more sustainable economic practices for coastal communities, including in their fishery and aquaculture practices. Fisheries law

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3692-539: The country's universities combined, for it has had its pick of the world's scientific talent for each summer's research and teaching. […] Someone has counted thirty Nobel Laureates who have worked at the MBL at one time or another. It is amazing that such an institution, exerting so much influence on academic science, has been able to remain so absolutely autonomous. It has, to be sure, linkages of various kinds, arrangements with outside universities for certain graduate programs, and it adheres delicately, somewhat ambiguously, to

3763-408: The difficulties most countries face in collecting these data. Directly or indirectly, the livelihood of over 500 million people in developing countries depends on fisheries and aquaculture . Overfishing , including the taking of fish beyond sustainable levels , is reducing fish stocks and employment in many world regions. It was estimated in 2014 that global fisheries were adding US$ 270 billion

3834-402: The fine structure of cells, including the discovery of microtubules , carried out research at the MBL starting in 1937 and directed the laboratory from 1975-77 (Barlow et al., 1993: 95-115). The MBL is also a proving ground for new technologies in microscopy and imaging. The availability of cutting-edge imaging instrumentation in the MBL's Advanced Research Courses puts faculty and students at

3905-409: The first decades after the course was founded in 1893, its faculty pioneered research directions that remain central today, including the study of cytoplasmic localization in eggs; embryonic cell lineage (important in modern stem cell research); and evolutionary developmental biology (today called 'evo devo'). Some distinguished embryologists who have directed or co-directed the course are: In 2010,

3976-486: The first director of the MBL. Whitman believed "other things being equal, the investigator is always the best instructor," and emphasized the need to combine research and education at the new laboratory. The MBL's first summer course provided a six-week introduction to invertebrate zoology; facilities for visiting summer investigators were also offered. The MBL Library was established in 1889, with scientist and future MBL trustee Cornelia Clapp serving as librarian. In 1899,

4047-469: The fishers, but the fish and habitats upon which the fish depend. The fishing industry which harvests fish from fisheries can be divided into three main sectors: commercial , recreational or subsistence . They can be saltwater or freshwater, wild or farmed . About 85 percent of total marine fisheries production was finfish, mainly anchoveta (4.9 million tonnes), Alaska pollock (3.4 million tonnes) and skipjack tuna (3.1 million tonnes). Examples are

4118-478: The flow of ions across the axonal membrane. Hodgkin and Huxley received the Nobel Prize in 1963 for their description of the ionic basis of nerve conduction (Barlow et al., 1993: 151-172). Following on Hodgkin and Huxley's work, in the 1960s and 1970s Clay Armstrong and other MBL researchers described a number of the properties of the ion channels that allow sodium and potassium ions to carry electric current across

4189-497: The forefront of experimentation. MBL Distinguished Scientist Osamu Shimomura , who joined the MBL in 1983, was awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of green fluorescent protein (GFP) in the early 1960s, which led to the development of revolutionary techniques for imaging live cells and their components. Resident Distinguished Scientist Shinya Inoué's innovations in polarized light microscopy and video imaging since

4260-470: The kind of money that only federal governments possess — without losing any of its own initiative. It will be an interesting place to watch, in the years ahead." The MBL became formally affiliated with the University of Chicago on July 1, 2013. In order to further scientific research and education, the affiliation builds on historical ties with the university, as MBL was led by University of Chicago faculty members in its first four decades. The president of

4331-466: The light-sensitive rhodopsin consists of retinal , a slightly modified form of vitamin A , coupled to a photoreceptor protein . Another long-term summer investigator, Stephen W. Kuffler , is credited with "founding" the science of neurobiology in the mid-1960s at Harvard Medical School and he also initiated instruction in neurobiology at the MBL (Barlow et al., 1993:175-234; 203-234). Albert Szent-Györgyi (Nobel Laureate in 1937) conducted research at

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4402-453: The marine station pursue research in a diverse range of biological fields, including biomechanics , biochemistry , developmental biology , neurobiology , ecology , evolution , and genetics . Studies utilize a great variety of organisms, but certain particularly useful and/or charismatic ones, such as mussels , squid , tuna , tunicates , sea urchins , and mudsuckers, have been the focus of continued research efforts. From 1963 to 1968,

4473-637: The mid-nineties (between 80 and 86 million tonnes). Most marine fisheries are based near the coast . This is not only because harvesting from relatively shallow waters is easier than in the open ocean, but also because fish are much more abundant near the coastal shelf , due to the abundance of nutrients available there from coastal upwelling and land runoff . However, productive wild fisheries also exist in open oceans, particularly by seamounts , and inland in lakes and rivers. Most fisheries are wild fisheries, but farmed fisheries are increasing. Farming can occur in coastal areas, such as with oyster farms , or

4544-447: The oceans (about 90%). About 500 million people worldwide are economically dependent on fisheries. 171 million tonnes of fish were produced in 2016, but overfishing is an increasing problem, causing declines in some populations. Because of their economic and social importance, fisheries are governed by complex fisheries management practices and legal regimes that vary widely across countries. Historically, fisheries were treated with

4615-511: The quality of drugs and biological products for intravenous injection. Ecosystems research became a year-round commitment at the MBL in 1962 with the founding of the Systematics-Ecology program, under the direction of Melbourne R. Carriker. In 1975, the MBL's Ecosystems Center was established, with George Woodwell as director. The original research focus was on the global carbon cycle , an emphasis maintained today. The Ecosystems Center has

4686-678: The station operated the research vessel R/V Te Vega , which sailed the Pacific and the Indian Ocean undertaking various studies, most notably of the Deep Scattering Layer . Data from the twenty Te Vega research voyages are still cited today, and one reference work remarks that, "[a]lthough ships from several nations participated in the Indian Ocean Expedition, only one has contributed significantly to marine phycology , namely,

4757-640: The university chairs the MBL trustee's board and with their advice appoints its members. The Laboratory is a non-profit Massachusetts corporation, whose sole member is the university. In September 2018, Nipam Patel became director of the Marine Biological Laboratory, succeeding Huntington F. Willard . The MBL has approximately 250 year-round employees, about half of which are scientists and scientific support staff. They are joined each year by more than 500 visiting scientists, summer staff, and research associates from hundreds of institutions around

4828-606: The world, as well as a large number of faculty and students participating in MBL courses (in 2024, 550 students from 273 institutions and 58 countries). The MBL's resident research centers are the Eugene Bell Center for Regenerative Biology and Tissue Engineering , the Ecosystems Center , and the Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution . Visiting scientists are affiliated with

4899-456: The world, which leaves a vacuum of advocacy and research. Fisheries law also takes into account international treaties and industry norms in order to analyze fisheries management regulations. In addition, fisheries law includes access to justice for small-scale fisheries and coastal and aboriginal communities and labor issues such as child labor laws, employment law, and family law. Another important area of research covered in fisheries law

4970-464: The world. These challenges are further complicated by the changes in the ocean caused by climate change , which may extend the range of some fisheries while dramatically reducing the sustainability of other fisheries. According to the FAO , "...a fishery is an activity leading to harvesting of fish. It may involve capture of wild fish or raising of fish through aquaculture." It is typically defined in terms of

5041-439: Was utilized for direct human consumption, thanks to relatively stable capture fisheries production, reduced wastage and continued aquaculture growth. This production resulted in a record-high per capita consumption of 20.3 kg in 2016. Since 1961 the annual global growth in fish consumption has been twice as high as population growth. While annual growth of aquaculture has declined in recent years, significant double-digit growth

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