Testing of Great Bay Oysters for Two Protozoan Pathogens

Two protozoan pathogens, Haplosporidium nelsoni (MSX) and Perkinsus marinus (Dermo) are known to be present in Great Bay oysters. With funds provided by the Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (PREP), the Marine Fisheries Division of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department (NHF&G) continues to assess the presence and intensity of both of these disease conditions in oysters from the major natural beds within the Great Bay estuarine system and at selected aquaculture sites. Histological examinations of Great Bay oysters have also revealed other endoparasites

Stock assessment of the Atlantic menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus, fishery

A stock assessment of the Atlantic menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus, fishery was conducted with purse-seine landings data from 1940 to 1984 and port sampling data from 1955 to 1984. These data were analyzed to determine growth rates, maximum sustainable yield (MSY), spawner-recruit relationships, and yield per recruit. Virtual population analysis was used to estimate stock size, year class size, and fishing mortality rates. Surplus production models produced estimates of MSY from 450 to 490 kmt compared with yields of 416to 436 kmt based roughly on maximum recruitment from a weak spawner-recruit relationship. Recruitment to age-I ranged from 1.2 to 14.8 billion fish for year classes 1955-81. Recent mean recruitment to age-I for the 1975-81 year classes averaged 5.7 billion fish and compared favorably with the mean of 7.7 billion age-I fish recruited during the late 1950's. Mean recruitment from recent years suggests possible coastwide yields of 416 to 481 kmt. Continued dominance of late age-2 spawners among the spawning stock is of concern, since the stock is at greater risk through poor recruitment if recent favorable environmental conditions change. Yield-per-recruit estimates ranged from 46 g to 59 g since 1970. The high dependency of the modern fishery on prespawners has increased concerns about fluctuations in year-to-year availability and catches. To increase yield and enhance the stability of the resource, the number of age classes contributing significantly to the fishery should be increased, creating a butTer against future poor recruitment years and lessening the year-to-year fluctuations in landings. (PDF file contains 24 pages.

A Nonperturbative, Schwinger-Dyson-Equation Analysis of Quark Masses and Mixings in a Model with QCD and Higgs Interactions

The Landau gauge Schwinger-Dyson Equation for the quark self-energy is solved in the quenched ladder approximation for several cases of one- and two-quark-generations. The exchanges of Standard Model gluons and Higgs bosons are taken into account. It is found that Higgs boson exchange dominates the quark self-energy for sufficiently large input quark masses (>75 GeV), causing the running quark propagator mass to increase with energy-scale. The running of the quark mixing angles is also considered. No running of the quark mixing angles is found, to one part in a billion, for input quark masses up to and including 500 GeV.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX twice, 4 figures available upon reques

An Approach to Ecosystem-Based Fishery Management

Marine scientists and policymakers are encouraging ecosystem-based fishery management (EBFM), but there is limited guidance on how to operationalize the concept. We adapt financial portfolio theory as a method for EBFM that accounts for species interdependencies, uncertainty, and sustainability constraints. Illustrating our method with routinely collected data available from the Chesapeake Bay, we demonstrate the gains from taking into account species variances and covariances in setting species total allowable catches. We find over the period from 1962–2003 that managers could have increased the revenues from fishing and reduced the variance by employing ecosystem frontiers in setting catch levels.ecosystem-based fishery management, portfolio, trophic modeling, precaution

Structure of Ba2Cu(BO3)2

As part of our program in the synthesis and characterization of new solid-state borates, we recently synthesized the polymorphic compound Sr2Cu(BO3)2 (Smith & Keszler, 1989) which undergoes a first-order phase transition from a low-temperature form to a high-temperature form at 1073 K. The high-temperature beta form exhibits larger coordination numbers for the Sr atoms and a substantial rearrangement of the copper borate network relative to that of the low-temperature... form

Robert E. Lee: Maker of Morale

You are very gracious in your welcome. I thank you for your cordial greetings, and I count myself fortunate to be able to celebrate this nineteenth of January, this Saint\u27s Day of the South, among those who have not forgotten the land of their fathers\u27 love. In one of the volumes of reminiscence by an officer of high rank in the war with Germany, I recently read a critical estimate of his general in chief, a man well known in fame to all of you

Atlantic menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus, Purse Seine Fishery, 1972-84, with a brief discussion of age and size composition of the Landings

This report summarizes (I) annual purse seine landings of Atlantic menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus, for 1972-84, (2) estimated numbers of fish caught by fishing area. (3) estimates of nominal fishing effort and catch-per-unit-effort, (4) mean fish length and weight, and (5) major changes in the fishery. During the 1970s stock size and recruitment increased and the age composition broadened. reversing trends witnessed during the fishery's decline in the 1960s. Landings steadily improved and by 1980 the total coast wide landings exceeded 400,000 metric tons. Nevertheless, the character of the fishery changed considerably. Eleven reduction plants processed fish at seven ports in 1972, but in 1984 only eight plants operated at live ports. Beginning in the mid-1960s the center of fishing aclivity shifted from the Middle Atlantic area to the Chesapeake Bay area, which has continued to dominate the fishery in landings and effort through the 1970s and 1980s. During this period the average size and age of fish in the catches declined. (PDF file contains 30 pages.