Perspectives on world fisheriesThe Empty Ocean: Plundering the World’s Marine Life by Richard Ellis. Island Press, 2003. US$26.00, pbk (375 pages)

ISBN 1 559 63974 1. In a Perfect Ocean: The State of Fisheries and Ecosystems in the North Atlantic by Daniel Pauly and

Jay Maclean. Island Press, 2003. £37.50, hbk (160 pages) ISBN 1 559 63323 9. Responsible Fisheries in the Marine Ecosystem

edited by M. Sinclair and G. Valdimarsson. Cabi Publishing, 2003. £75.00, hbk (400 pages) ISBN 0 851 99633 7

Stephen J. Hall

Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, Queensland 4810, Australia

The poor state of world fisheries and theconsequences of fishing for marine eco-systems and communities is become anincreasingly prominent topic for discus-sion and analysis. This trend continueswith the recent publication of threemore volumes, each treating the subjectin a quite different way and from adifferent perspective.The title of Richard Ellis’s book, TheEmpty Ocean, leaves one in no doubtabout the author’s view of our currentsituation. Drawing on a wide varietyof historic and more contemporarysources, Ellis paints a sobering pictureof the history of human exploitation ofthe oceans and how populations of awide range of bird, mammal, turtle andfish species have been depleted. Struc-tured for the most part around accountsof each individual species, the book is agood read and contains some usefuldetail. For example, the observationthat it took 130 years for SouthernRight Whales to return to southernAustralian coastal waters following thecessation of whaling puts thoughtsabout ‘quick wins’ from ecologicalrestoration of the oceans into perspec-

tive. Similarly, the fact that shark fins retail for US$200 lb,whereas shark meat sells for US50c makes it clear whyshark fining is so widespread.

Although strong in many respects, I found the Ellis’streatment of some topics somewhat unsatisfactory. Inparticular, discussion of the impacts of humans on coralreefs and the effects of biological invaders was somewhatcursory. Although certainly not incorrect, these sectionscould have been omitted to make the book more focusedand a more manageable length. The final section aboutpossible solutions was also weak. In particular, discussionof the potential benefits of marine protected areas (MPAs)as a remedy for the oceans ills was very inadequate,particularly in view of the grave doubts held in manyquarters concerning the efficacy of this approach forfisheries management [1].

In contrast to Ellis, Pauly and MacLean take a moreexplicitly analytical approach to describing the effects ofoverfishing. Drawing on the extensive fisheries data thatare available for the region, they focus on the changes inthe North Atlantic over the last century. The core of thebook is a series of compelling and easily understood mapsthat show the geographical distribution offish biomass andhow this has been depleted over time. The message fromthese analyses in itself is not especially new, either toscientists or readers of the popular press, but the means ofpresentation is stark and arresting. Coupled with adescription of the now well appreciated fact that it is thelarger species at the top of the food web that are mostaffected [2], this book does a good job of summarizing whatwe know in a new and useful way; for this reason alone, itis worth a read.

Where the book by Pauly and MacLean falls down, inmy view, is in its prescriptions for improvement. Althoughit would be quite unreasonable to expect blinding newinsights, some of the suggestions left me questioning thedepth of thinking that had gone into this section. Forexample, the suggestion that imposing a carbon tax onfishing vessel fuel consumption could drive more appro-priate behaviour seems unlikely at best. As with Ellis, Ialso feel that the MPA solution needed a more thoroughand balanced treatment. That said, as a set of initial ideasto explore more fully, most of the suggestions werereasonable and worthy of consideration.

The last of the books is a symposium volume emanatingfrom an FAO conference on Responsible Fisheries in theMarine Ecosystem, which was held in Reykjavik in 2001.The book begins with a series of introductory reviews andis followed by sections covering the dynamics of marineecosystems, the role of humans in marine ecosystems andthe incorporation of ecosystem considerations into fisheriesmanagement. As one would expect, of the three this book isthe least integrated. The scope of topics covered is usefullybroad, however, and the quality of the contributions high.Although I am not usually a fan of symposium volumes, Ifound this one to be particularly informative. Most of thechapters had something novel to say and were a stimulus forthinking about the problems anew.

What was especially refreshing was the emphasis thatmany authors placed on finding practical solutions. Ofparticular interest is the section about incorporatingecosystem considerations into fisheries management. Inparticular, the chapter by Sissenwine and Mace aboutCorresponding author: Stephen J. Hall (s.hall@aims.gov.au).

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governance caught my eye. A key message here was theimportance of separating the body charged with theprovision of scientific advice from the body charged withpolicy development and implementation. Similar to theseparation of church and state, or the judiciary and theexecutive arm of government, this separation is a key toimproved management practices.

On a limited budget, which of these volumes is worththe personal investment? If you are looking for anentertaining, albeit a somewhat depressing and overlongread, Ellis’s book takes the honors in my view. Pauly andMacLean do a good job and write in an engaging style, butin the final analysis, I can’t help but conclude that thematerial presented would have been better placed in areview article and that the key elements will probablyappear in this format in due course. To my surprise, I found

Responsible Fisheries in the Marine Ecosystem the mostthought provoking of the three. However, this is probablyone to put on the list for library purchase and to dip intooccasionally. Notional ranking aside, what is strikingabout these three volumes is the consistency of themessage – the exploitation of the world’s oceans is out ofhand and we’d better do something about it soon.

References

1 Willis, T.J. et al. (2003) Burdens of evidence and the benefits of marinereserves: putting Descartes before the horse? Environ. Conserv. 30,97–103

2 Pauly, D. (1998) Fishing down marine food webs. Science 279, 860–863

0169-5347/$ - see front matter q 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/j.tree.2003.10.012

Future shock for forestersTowards Forest Sustainability by David Lindenmayer and Jerry Franklin. Island Press, 2003. £18.95 (212 pages) ISBN 1559633816

William F. Laurance

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 2072, Balboa, Republic of Panama

For foresters in developed nations, lifeused to be relatively simple. For many,their raison d’etre was to maximize theproduction of timber and wood fibre,which often involved large-scale clear-cutting of complex, old-growth forests(harvesting timbers that had takencenturies and even millennia to grow)and replacing them with monotonous,

even-aged stands of commercially valuable species. Theirmantra was simple: dense, old-growth forests were ‘over-mature’, prone to disease and fire. An open forest,dominated by young, fast-growing trees, was a healthyforest.

Fortunately, such dangerously simplistic views havenow disappeared. Foresters today face a panoply of newdemands, as described in Towards Forest Sustainability.Edited by two leading temperate-forest scientists, DavidLindenmayer and Jerry Franklin, this book neatlysummarizes many of the challenges now facing forestersand forest ecosystems.

Chief among these are growing social demands tomanage native forests as crucial habitats for rare wildlife,to maintain natural hydrological regimes, to conserve soilsand aquatic ecosystems, and to sequester and store carbon.Several chapters describe measures that are being devisedto maintain sensitive wildlife in production forests. Amongthe most sophisticated are efforts led by Lindenmayer toensure survival of Leadbeater’s possum Gymnobelideusleadbeateri, the Australian equivalent of the northernspotted owl Strix occidentalis, an old-growth specialist

that has become a symbol of the conflict between pro-logging and pro-conservation forces. Because of intensiveclearcutting and wildfires, the large, decaying trees thatprovide crucial den sites for the possums are now scarce.Fortunately, silvicultural systems that promote a multi-age stand structure, and the retention of unloggedpatches, faunal corridors and hollow-bearing trees inproduction areas are helping to maintain some habitat forthe possums. Comparable efforts are underway in Swedishforests, where the focus is on adapting logging practices tomimic the natural disturbance regime under which speciesin any particular environment have evolved.

Unfortunately, adapting forest management to mimicnatural baseline conditions is difficult, given that thebaseline is moving. Michael Soule describes the waves ofdefaunation that have plagued North American forests,beginning with the extinctions of key species such asmastodons, ground sloths, and other megafauna by therecently arrived Amerindian hunters. This was followedby the near-extirpation of many furbearers by 17thcentury trappers, aggressive market hunting of bisonBison bison in the 19th century, and dramatic declines ofwolves Canis lupus, grizzly bears Ursus arctos horribilisand other large predators by zealous ranchers in the early20th century. Such dramatic changes in fauna havedestabilized many forests; for example, because theirnatural predators have vanished, deer populations haveexploded in the eastern USA, leading to a decline of herbsand seedlings and an increase in inedible ferns and coarsegrasses in the forest understory.

Equally profound ecologically was the widespreadextirpation of fire-using indigenous populations in NorthAmerica, Australia and elsewhere, which sharply reducedCorresponding author: William F. Laurance (laurancew@tivoli.si.edu).

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