- Email: [email protected]
Fishes in Estuaries
410
Book reviews
®sheries themselves. The geographical origins of these papers are satisfyingly international, although Europe and North America display their usual dominance. The nature of individual papers also varies greatly, ranging from very speci®c methodological considerations such as the use of hydroacoustics for quantifying the escapement of adult salmonids, through issues of fundamental ®sh ecology relating to ®sheries management including the habitat requirements of salmonids, and into the realm of ®sheries management properly typi®ed by the use of spawning targets for salmon ®shery management. Although salmonids are well represented throughout the book, as the foregoing examples suggest, non-game ®shes are also extensively considered. The rise of the latter species within ®sheries research programmes, at least in Europe, has been a notable feature over recent years and so it is satisfying to see so much of it now appearing in print. The section on assessing ®sh community structure and dynamics (four papers) includes studies on gear selection and hydroacoustics from Europe and North America, while that on large river ®sheries (four papers) includes work from the Czech Republic, UK and South America. With one exception, the section on habitat requirements (four papers) is composed of papers dealing with salmonids, and the section on anthropogenic impacts (®ve papers) covers abstraction, hydraulic engineering, and sedimentation. Rehabilitation (®ve papers) includes only studies from Europe and North America, but the ®nal section on management (eight papers) brings together experience from Europe, South America and Africa after an opening paper which is truly global in perspective. Taken as a whole, this text forms a valuable snapshot of activities, concerns and anticipations within the ®eld of the management and ecology of river ®sheries as they stood in the late 1990s. The papers are consistently clear in terms of writing and presentation, which attests to the skill and diligence of the editor, and contain useful reference lists which will guide the reader into the relevant literature. Illustrative ®gures are generally excellent and extensive tables have, thankfully, been used with discretion. Subject and species indexes complete the book. This is clearly a research, rather than a teaching text and so I believe that its readership will be drawn primarily from those charged with research into and management of river ®sheries. As such it deserves a place in the library of
any organisation concerned with this area of ®sheries science. Ian Win®eld CEH Windermere, Far Sawrey, Ambleside LA22 0LP Cumbria, UK PII: S 0 1 6 5 - 7 8 3 6 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 1 6 6 - 2
Fishes in Estuaries M. Elliott, K.L. Hemingway (Eds.); Blackwell Science, Oxford, 636 pages, hardback, ISBN 0-632-05733-5, £89.50 This is a book of huge scope (albeit limited to European estuaries) and one of potentially wide use. Its 10 chapters span ®eld methods and data analysis, habitat use, recruitment of commercial species, inter-relationships, rare species, environmental quality and much else along the way. Even the contents are spread over 11 pages with sub-, sub-, sub-, sub-headings to help the reader ®nd that speci®c topic relating to ®shes in estuaries in which they are particularly interested. Sponsored by an alphabet soup of EU research, study and improvement programmes, the editors convened a group of 25 contributors (not all of whom one immediately associates with estuarine vertebrates) from nine EU countries to review the subject and write the constituent chapters. From such promising, not to say strong foundations, one anticipates a book that might provide a benchmark reference work for this particular niche. In many respects, of course, it does, and yet . . . does it hit the bull's eye? I fear not. The principal shortcoming seems to be a matter of balance. A signi®cant proportion of the book is taken up by background information rather than attacking the main subjectÐFishes in Estuaries. For example, 150 pages are taken by the two chapters on Field Methods and Data Analysis yet both are subjects that are dealt with in books dedicated to the subject and, arguably, the level of information given here is not suf®cient to offer more than initial guidance. The same is no less true for the chapter on Environmental Quality. Clearly, if one wishes to consider the effects of heavy metals, radioactivity or petrochemicals on ®sh, it needs to be set in some context. In this instance, however, the authors give pages of `context' but still
Book reviews
fail to reach the level of readable background information that one can gain from Bob Clarke's evergreen Marine Pollution.1 Inevitably, there is a price to pay for including relatively large amounts of background information and that is a lack of detail of exactly what heavy metals, radioactivity, petrochemicals or whatever actually do to ®sh in estuaries. There is a wealth of information on the subject, not the least being the regular reports produced by the Environment Agency, National Marine Monitoring Programme and DEFRA/ CEFAS Aquatic Environment Monitoring Reports in the UK alone. Regrettably, little effort has been made to synthesise a detailed overview from this global experience. Similar criticisms apply no less to the chapter on Estuarine Developments . . . and Management. In this instance it can be illustrated by the fact that when discussing the effects of tidal power, the authors refer to the British Ecological Society Ecological Issues (No. 3), a slim popular summary, rather than the extensive library of original work published by the Energy Technology Support Unit in the UK, work under Retiere at the Dinard Laboratory on La Rance, France, or Dadswell's work in Canada. Had they done so, they might have been in a position to discuss the implications for ®sh of the macro-algal forest that has grown upstream of the Rance (tidal power) Barrage compared to the horrendous phytoplankton bloom recorded in the Villaine estuary, France, shortly after the amenity/impoundment barrage was commissioned there. Nutrients, eutrophication and DO are described in various places but they are not drawn together with a description, let alone discussion of a phenomenon that is frequently fatal for ®shes in estuariesÐa late-afternoon ¯ood tide in very hot weather inundating rotting algal mats which then strip oxygen from the water causing widespread zootic mortality. The chapters that deal explicitly with aspects of ®sh biology are much stronger. The chapter on rare ®sh is particularly useful as it provides extensive tables summarising the numerous international conservation designations that cover ®sh and the extent to which there is concern for listed species in (selected) estuaries and countries of Europe. Nevertheless, there are
1 Clark, R.B., 2001. Marine Pollution, 5th ed. Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-879292-1.
411
still questions to be asked, even if they re¯ect personal interests and views. For example, as someone who made a diurnal crossing of the Thames at Tower Bridge throughout their secondary education, I am disappointed by the few references to the successful Thames Estuary story. In the 1950s the Thames at Tower Bridge was virtually an abiotic, stinking, black midden. It is still less than perfect but there are now 255 ®sh species recorded in the tidal Thames (listed in the appendices) and juvenile sole (Solea solea) are found as far upstream as the Dartford crossing. No reference is made to this fact, however, nor is there any discussion as to whether this distribution is purely a consequence of a cleaner river or due to increase freshwater abstraction reducing river ¯ows and allowing greater ingress of salt water. Both points are touched on in the text but neither in any depth. The other principal question that bothers me is the widespread, albeit often implied, application of the terms `estuary dependent species'. Intuitively I have no problem with a phrase such as this even though no de®nition is offered other than in the legend to Table 3.7Ð``commercial species regarded as having an estuarine requirement''. Clearly, it should not be limited to commercial species as it embraces all the diadromous species plus marine species such as ¯ounder (Platichthys ¯esus) and sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) that have a clear link to estuaries. I do balk, however, at the notion that plaice (Pleuronectes platessa), cod (Gadus morhua), common goby (Pomatoschistus minutus) or many of the other marine species listed at `estuarine dependent' just because they occur in estuaries. Plaice, for example, are more generally associated with sandy bays, often on open coasts. Surely, the fact that they are also found in estuaries is evidence of their adaptability rather than `dependence'. Despite these criticisms, this book will prove of value to many but not, I fear, to established research workers with an interest in this particular ®eld; for them it will lack depth or insights to stimulate new lines of enquiry. It may prove helpful to postgraduate students just about to embark on their ®rst research project who wish to get a broad feel for the subject but mostly, I think, it will be used by undergraduates. For them, however, the price will prove too daunting to consider a copy of their ownÐuniversity libraries had better buy multiple copies!
412
Book reviews
Finally I would like to ask a rhetorical question, a question I suspect should be directed at the publishers and their copy editors in the ®rst instance but I know from refereeing draft MS it applies also to many individual scientists. In a grammatical or typographic sense, why do we value estuaries less than rivers, bays, seas or oceans? Throughout this book, and any otherÐincluding Bob Clark's, we ®nd: Named River (capital `R'), Named Sea (capital `S'), Named
Ocean (capital `O'), etc., but without fail, Named estuary (lower case `e'). Why is this? Surely, the `estuary' in Thames Estuary is no less part of its name than is `river' in River Thames? Stephen J. Lockwood Coastal Fisheries Conservation and Management Colwyn Bay LL28 5BZ, UK PII: S 0 1 6 5 - 7 8 3 6 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 1 6 7 - 4
Book reviews
®sheries themselves. The geographical origins of these papers are satisfyingly international, although Europe and North America display their usual dominance. The nature of individual papers also varies greatly, ranging from very speci®c methodological considerations such as the use of hydroacoustics for quantifying the escapement of adult salmonids, through issues of fundamental ®sh ecology relating to ®sheries management including the habitat requirements of salmonids, and into the realm of ®sheries management properly typi®ed by the use of spawning targets for salmon ®shery management. Although salmonids are well represented throughout the book, as the foregoing examples suggest, non-game ®shes are also extensively considered. The rise of the latter species within ®sheries research programmes, at least in Europe, has been a notable feature over recent years and so it is satisfying to see so much of it now appearing in print. The section on assessing ®sh community structure and dynamics (four papers) includes studies on gear selection and hydroacoustics from Europe and North America, while that on large river ®sheries (four papers) includes work from the Czech Republic, UK and South America. With one exception, the section on habitat requirements (four papers) is composed of papers dealing with salmonids, and the section on anthropogenic impacts (®ve papers) covers abstraction, hydraulic engineering, and sedimentation. Rehabilitation (®ve papers) includes only studies from Europe and North America, but the ®nal section on management (eight papers) brings together experience from Europe, South America and Africa after an opening paper which is truly global in perspective. Taken as a whole, this text forms a valuable snapshot of activities, concerns and anticipations within the ®eld of the management and ecology of river ®sheries as they stood in the late 1990s. The papers are consistently clear in terms of writing and presentation, which attests to the skill and diligence of the editor, and contain useful reference lists which will guide the reader into the relevant literature. Illustrative ®gures are generally excellent and extensive tables have, thankfully, been used with discretion. Subject and species indexes complete the book. This is clearly a research, rather than a teaching text and so I believe that its readership will be drawn primarily from those charged with research into and management of river ®sheries. As such it deserves a place in the library of
any organisation concerned with this area of ®sheries science. Ian Win®eld CEH Windermere, Far Sawrey, Ambleside LA22 0LP Cumbria, UK PII: S 0 1 6 5 - 7 8 3 6 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 1 6 6 - 2
Fishes in Estuaries M. Elliott, K.L. Hemingway (Eds.); Blackwell Science, Oxford, 636 pages, hardback, ISBN 0-632-05733-5, £89.50 This is a book of huge scope (albeit limited to European estuaries) and one of potentially wide use. Its 10 chapters span ®eld methods and data analysis, habitat use, recruitment of commercial species, inter-relationships, rare species, environmental quality and much else along the way. Even the contents are spread over 11 pages with sub-, sub-, sub-, sub-headings to help the reader ®nd that speci®c topic relating to ®shes in estuaries in which they are particularly interested. Sponsored by an alphabet soup of EU research, study and improvement programmes, the editors convened a group of 25 contributors (not all of whom one immediately associates with estuarine vertebrates) from nine EU countries to review the subject and write the constituent chapters. From such promising, not to say strong foundations, one anticipates a book that might provide a benchmark reference work for this particular niche. In many respects, of course, it does, and yet . . . does it hit the bull's eye? I fear not. The principal shortcoming seems to be a matter of balance. A signi®cant proportion of the book is taken up by background information rather than attacking the main subjectÐFishes in Estuaries. For example, 150 pages are taken by the two chapters on Field Methods and Data Analysis yet both are subjects that are dealt with in books dedicated to the subject and, arguably, the level of information given here is not suf®cient to offer more than initial guidance. The same is no less true for the chapter on Environmental Quality. Clearly, if one wishes to consider the effects of heavy metals, radioactivity or petrochemicals on ®sh, it needs to be set in some context. In this instance, however, the authors give pages of `context' but still
Book reviews
fail to reach the level of readable background information that one can gain from Bob Clarke's evergreen Marine Pollution.1 Inevitably, there is a price to pay for including relatively large amounts of background information and that is a lack of detail of exactly what heavy metals, radioactivity, petrochemicals or whatever actually do to ®sh in estuaries. There is a wealth of information on the subject, not the least being the regular reports produced by the Environment Agency, National Marine Monitoring Programme and DEFRA/ CEFAS Aquatic Environment Monitoring Reports in the UK alone. Regrettably, little effort has been made to synthesise a detailed overview from this global experience. Similar criticisms apply no less to the chapter on Estuarine Developments . . . and Management. In this instance it can be illustrated by the fact that when discussing the effects of tidal power, the authors refer to the British Ecological Society Ecological Issues (No. 3), a slim popular summary, rather than the extensive library of original work published by the Energy Technology Support Unit in the UK, work under Retiere at the Dinard Laboratory on La Rance, France, or Dadswell's work in Canada. Had they done so, they might have been in a position to discuss the implications for ®sh of the macro-algal forest that has grown upstream of the Rance (tidal power) Barrage compared to the horrendous phytoplankton bloom recorded in the Villaine estuary, France, shortly after the amenity/impoundment barrage was commissioned there. Nutrients, eutrophication and DO are described in various places but they are not drawn together with a description, let alone discussion of a phenomenon that is frequently fatal for ®shes in estuariesÐa late-afternoon ¯ood tide in very hot weather inundating rotting algal mats which then strip oxygen from the water causing widespread zootic mortality. The chapters that deal explicitly with aspects of ®sh biology are much stronger. The chapter on rare ®sh is particularly useful as it provides extensive tables summarising the numerous international conservation designations that cover ®sh and the extent to which there is concern for listed species in (selected) estuaries and countries of Europe. Nevertheless, there are
1 Clark, R.B., 2001. Marine Pollution, 5th ed. Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-879292-1.
411
still questions to be asked, even if they re¯ect personal interests and views. For example, as someone who made a diurnal crossing of the Thames at Tower Bridge throughout their secondary education, I am disappointed by the few references to the successful Thames Estuary story. In the 1950s the Thames at Tower Bridge was virtually an abiotic, stinking, black midden. It is still less than perfect but there are now 255 ®sh species recorded in the tidal Thames (listed in the appendices) and juvenile sole (Solea solea) are found as far upstream as the Dartford crossing. No reference is made to this fact, however, nor is there any discussion as to whether this distribution is purely a consequence of a cleaner river or due to increase freshwater abstraction reducing river ¯ows and allowing greater ingress of salt water. Both points are touched on in the text but neither in any depth. The other principal question that bothers me is the widespread, albeit often implied, application of the terms `estuary dependent species'. Intuitively I have no problem with a phrase such as this even though no de®nition is offered other than in the legend to Table 3.7Ð``commercial species regarded as having an estuarine requirement''. Clearly, it should not be limited to commercial species as it embraces all the diadromous species plus marine species such as ¯ounder (Platichthys ¯esus) and sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) that have a clear link to estuaries. I do balk, however, at the notion that plaice (Pleuronectes platessa), cod (Gadus morhua), common goby (Pomatoschistus minutus) or many of the other marine species listed at `estuarine dependent' just because they occur in estuaries. Plaice, for example, are more generally associated with sandy bays, often on open coasts. Surely, the fact that they are also found in estuaries is evidence of their adaptability rather than `dependence'. Despite these criticisms, this book will prove of value to many but not, I fear, to established research workers with an interest in this particular ®eld; for them it will lack depth or insights to stimulate new lines of enquiry. It may prove helpful to postgraduate students just about to embark on their ®rst research project who wish to get a broad feel for the subject but mostly, I think, it will be used by undergraduates. For them, however, the price will prove too daunting to consider a copy of their ownÐuniversity libraries had better buy multiple copies!
412
Book reviews
Finally I would like to ask a rhetorical question, a question I suspect should be directed at the publishers and their copy editors in the ®rst instance but I know from refereeing draft MS it applies also to many individual scientists. In a grammatical or typographic sense, why do we value estuaries less than rivers, bays, seas or oceans? Throughout this book, and any otherÐincluding Bob Clark's, we ®nd: Named River (capital `R'), Named Sea (capital `S'), Named
Ocean (capital `O'), etc., but without fail, Named estuary (lower case `e'). Why is this? Surely, the `estuary' in Thames Estuary is no less part of its name than is `river' in River Thames? Stephen J. Lockwood Coastal Fisheries Conservation and Management Colwyn Bay LL28 5BZ, UK PII: S 0 1 6 5 - 7 8 3 6 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 1 6 7 - 4