This handbook is the most comprehensive and interdisciplinary work on marine conservation and fisheries management ever compiled. Its many valuable contributions offer a way forward to both understanding and resolving the multifaceted problems facing the world's oceans.

This handbook is the most comprehensive and interdisciplinary work on marine conservation and fisheries management ever compiled. It is the first to bridge fisheries and marine conservation issues. Its innovative ideas, detailed case studies, and governance framework provide a global special perspective over time and treat problems in the high seas, community fisheries, industrial fishing, and the many interactions between use and non-use of the oceans. Its policy tools and ideas for overcoming the perennial problems of over fishing, habitat and biodiversity loss address the facts that many marine ecosystems are in decline and plagued by overexploitation due to unsustainable fishing practices. An outstanding feature of the book is the detailed case-studies on conservation practice and fisheries management from around the world. These case studies are combined with 'foundation' chapters that provide an overview of the state of the marine world and innovative and far reaching perspectives about how we can move forward to face present and future challenges. The contributors include the world's leading fisheries scientists, economists, and managers. Ecosystem and incentive-based approaches are described and complemented by tools for cooperative, participatory solutions. Unique themes treated: fisher behavior and incentives for management beyond rights-based approaches; a synthesis of proposed 'solutions'; a framework for understanding and overcoming the critical determinants of the decline in fisheries, degradation of marine ecosystems, and poor socio-economic performance of many fishing communities; models for innovative policy instruments; a plan of action and adoption pathways to promote sustainable fishing practices globally. Collectively, the handbook's many valuable contributions offer a way forward to both understanding and resolving the multifaceted problems facing the world's oceans.

Recent decades have witnessed strong declines in fish stocks aroundthe globe, amid growing concerns about the impact of fisheries onmarine and freshwater biodiversity. Fisheries biologists andmanagers are therefore increasingly asking about aspects ofecology, behaviour, evolution and biodiversity that weretraditionally studied by people working in very separate fields.This has highlighted the need to work more closely together, inorder to help ensure future success both in management andconservation. The Handbook of Fish Biology and Fisheries has beenwritten by an international team of scientists and practitioners,to provide an overview of the biology of freshwater and marine fishspecies together with the science that supports fisheriesmanagement and conservation. This volume, subtitled Fish Biology, reviews a broadvariety of topics from evolutionary relationships and globalbiogeography to physiology, recruitment, life histories, genetics,foraging behaviour, reproductive behaviour and community ecology.The second volume, subtitled Fisheries, uses much of thisinformation in a wide-ranging review of fisheries biology,including methods of capture, marketing, economics, stockassessment, forecasting, ecosystem impacts and conservation. Together, these books present the state of the art in ourunderstanding of fish biology and fisheries and will serve asvaluable references for undergraduates and graduates looking for acomprehensive source on a wide variety of topics in fisheriesscience. They will also be useful to researchers who needup-to-date reviews of topics that impinge on their fields, anddecision makers who need to appreciate the scientific backgroundfor management and conservation of aquatic ecosystems. To order volume I, go to the box in the top right hand corner.Alternatively to order volume II, go to:http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/book.asp?ref=063206482X or toorder the 2 volume set, go to:http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/book.asp?ref=0632064838. Provides a unique overview of the study of fish biology andecology, and the assessment and management of fish populations andecosystems. The first volume concentrates on aspects of fish biology andecology, both at the individual and population levels, whilst thesecond volume addresses the assessment and management of fishpopulations and ecosystems. Written by an international team of expert scientists andpractitioners. An invaluable reference tool for both students, researchers andpractitioners working in the fields of fish biology andfisheries.