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Advances in marine biology, volume 20
Book
731
reviews
training and will be unfamiliar with plating conventions, either traditional or more recent. One or two more ‘ worked examples ’ would, I think, have helped here. However, I do not wish to detract too much from Professor Dodges’ achievement and I recommend this book to any one who is concerned with the identification of phytoplankton and the systematics of dinoflagellates in particular. Althought the title refers to the British Isles, this treatise is certainly of international interest. J. C. GREEN
Advances
in Marine
Biology,
Volume
Edited by J. H. S. Blaster, Sir F. S. Russell Academic Press, London, 1982, 398~~. L35
20 and Sir C. M. Yonge
Many years ago two really rather inexperienced young men proposed themselves to a publisher as suitable authors for a book on the oceans. The result was a classic: Russell & Yonge’s The Seas, published in 1928. Thirty-five years later, after they had both distinguished themselves in highly successful careers, Russell had another bright idea that became a classic: Advances in Marine Biology, now in its twentieth annual volume. His former colleague from Plymouth days later joined him and finally John Blaxter made up the present triumvirate of editors. Together they have ensured a steady flow of top quality papers which allow authors to review quite large subjects and to spread themselves over a hundred or even two hundred pages. So far, some 86 authors have done so, producing 71 papers that range from biological studies of ascidians, corals, mysids, molluscs, fishes, etc., to problems of cephalopod flotations mechanisms, circadian periodicities, marine animal poisons, photoreception, neoplasma, etc., and such very practical matters as fisheries. Truly something for everyone. The first volume, published in 1963, contained an extremely useful paper by Blaxter and F. G. T. Holliday on the physiology and behaviour of herring and related clupeoid fishes. Twenty years later and now partnered by J. R. Hunter, Blaxter has enlarged on the theme (by almost a hundred extra pages) under the title ‘The biology of clupeoid fishes’ (pp. l-223). It is a work presented with enormous panache and is likely itself to remain a classic. Since the clupeoid fishes are the largest suborder of non-domesticated vertebrates harvested by man, any paper as comprehensive as this is bound to have a lasting importance. The major sections in this paper deal with reproduction in clupeoids, feeding, mortality, respiration, energetics, growth, swimming and activity, schooling, vertical and horizontal migration, camouflage, vision, chemoreception, the ear, the lateral line, the swimbladder, ecology, osmoregulation, technology and pollution. To have summarized the extensive literature in all these aspects of clupeoids is a considerable feat (it is noteworthy that the authors themselves have contributed to ten per cent of the 522 papers cited), but to have woven the disparate threads into a coherent picture of clupeoid life-styles puts one in mind of those huge Flemish tapestries where even small flowers and butterflies are worked into the composition. The clupeoid fishes comprise the suborder Clupeoidei and although generally recognizable to field workers as herrings or anchovies, are largely defined on small internal
732
Book reviews
characters. One of the most important of these is the complex linking of the swimbladder, inner ear and cephalic canal system, which Blaxter himself has explored and explained in great detail, almostintuitively seizing onwhat is not only the most significant sharedfeature of clupeoids, but the one most likely to throw light on the most renowned aspect of clupeoid biology, the schooling habit, the ‘ point d’appui ’ of clupeoid fisheries. In this paper the intricacies of the otophysic connexion are better and more simply explained than in any other publication. But so too are a lot of other aspectsof these remarkable fishes. Dominating clupeoid exploitation and research have been the mainly cool-water true herrings (Clupea), pilchards (S~&ina and Sadimps), sprats (Sprattus), menhadens(Brevoortiu) and temperate anchovies (Enqrudis). Inevitably, these also dominate the text; some 70 clupeoid speciesappear in the index, but most of these are passingmentions. It would have been useful to have indicated in the text the real extent of the clupeoids, which in fact comprise at least 326 speciesof 80 generain 4 families, and provided an outline classification to enable the ‘ cool-water ’ workers to get their bearings.The fact is that the tropical and subtropical clupeoids are not only much more numerous, but have grown in fishery stature to a point where they threaten to overtake their more traditional northern ‘ sisters’ (as Hennig, an unwitting liberationist, might put it). This growth has brought an urgent need for more biological data on which rational fishery policies can be based. Blaxter & Hunter have laid a worthy foundation, but if a lacuna exists, it is in the failure to cite enougth of the few papers that describe tropical clupeoid biology, or to emphasizethe highly rewarding field that further work of this nature has to offer. The second paper in this volume is very relevant to the first, being a review by R. W. Furness entitled ‘ Competition between fisheries and seabird communities ’ (pp. 225-307). Seabirdsare generally top predators in marine ecosystems,hence their actual or potential rivalry with fisheries. How much do cormorants, gulls, guillemots and puffins actually consume?Field observations do not, in fact, provide sufficiently accurate figures and indirect methods must be resorted to (bioenergetic equations of ‘ existence metabolism’ seemfruitful). The results suggestthat seabirdsmay consume 20% or more of the fish biomass,or about the samepercentage of the annual commercial catch of somefisheries, asfor example in the upwelling areas off South Africa, Peru or California. In many casesthe fishes concerned are just those schooling clupeoids described by Blaxter & Hunter. Just as fisheries are coming to realize that, to optimize yields, whole ecosystemsmust be managed,sothe seabird-fishery relationship reveals underlying complexities. Reduction of a numerically dominant fish speciesby overfishing may result in the increasein a second or third species, but are the various speciesof bird predator able, or equally able, to take advantage of this? The seabird-fishery relation in the upwelling areasin played out within a usually fairly simple ecosystem where primary production is high, the prey consistsof one or two small pelagic schooling species,and the birds feed almost exclusively on them. In antarctic waters, the krill-whale relation must be superimposed, while in an area like the North Seathe variety of prey and predators, each with different behaviours and ecological requirements, coupled with the fact that breeding seabird populations have been limited by the density- and food-independent effects of human exploitation, makesthe interpretation of the seabird-fishery relation extremely complicated and not yet capable of prediction. In a short final section Furness considers the direct and indirect effects of variations of food supply on seabird populations, with a brief detour to look at nesting site factors. Considering that researchon seabird biology and behaviour probably exceedsthat of almost any other group of birds (while the birds themselves are only about 3% of the total
733
Book reviews
avifauna), one is impressedby the urgent need for more research yet on this fascinating battle at the interface of sea and air. The third contribution to this volume is a review by R. F. Ventilla of ‘ The scallopindustry in Japan ’ (pp. 309-382), in fact northern Japan (Hokkaido and northern Honshu Is) becauseof the temperature requirements of the scallop, Patinopectenyessoensis (or hotate gai to its cultivators). Early exploitation by dredging goes back to the 17th century, but by the 1930sspat collecting by meansof cedar twigs or other devices launched the cultivation of the scallop and in the 1950san old Matsu Bay fisherman had the idea of enclosing the cedar leavesin a fine-mesh onion bag, a principle now widely adopted in order to retain the spat after the byssal attachment phase is over. Between 1968 and 1975 the industry boomed, making a twenty-fold increase which in its wake brought such stressesto the ecosystem through over-exploitation that the Japanesehad very seriously to review the primary level energy potential in the mariculture areas.Over-exploitation, commonenough in natural fisheries, is not expected in a culture industry where stock and recruitment can be directly controlled, yet in the late 1970sthe production had been halved in some important growing areas. Clearly there were human as well as environmental factors involved. After surveying the main areasof cultivation, Ventilla gives a perhaps too brief summary of scallop biology, including artificial fertilization and larval development (a figure of a veliger would have been useful) and then devotes forty pagesto the various culture techniques (spat collection, hanging versus sowing methods, transport of scallop seed, growth, etc.) and the economicsof the system (‘ scallop palaces’ for the successfulduring the boom days, tedious hours for the co-op women who drill and mount 2500 shellsa day onto ropes for the ‘ ear hanging ’ method). The boom is over, at least for the moment, and the author examinesthe problems that beset the industry, both natural (predation by starfishes,competition with other species,and more recently parasitism) and culture induced (overcrowding), as well as such environmental problems as dinoflagellate explosions causing ‘ red tides ‘. The future is hopeful, however, largely becauseof the close cooperation between government bodies, fishery co-operatives and scientists. Once again, John Blaxter and his two octogenarian ‘ men of the sea’ have picked an important paper since only two works by non-Japanese,both from ten years ago, have specifically dealt with the Japanesescallop industry, then in its boom, and neither is even half the length of Ventilla’s survey. This consistent choice of top quality papers ensures that Advances in Marine Biology will remain a classic. P.
J. P.
WHITEHEAD
731
reviews
training and will be unfamiliar with plating conventions, either traditional or more recent. One or two more ‘ worked examples ’ would, I think, have helped here. However, I do not wish to detract too much from Professor Dodges’ achievement and I recommend this book to any one who is concerned with the identification of phytoplankton and the systematics of dinoflagellates in particular. Althought the title refers to the British Isles, this treatise is certainly of international interest. J. C. GREEN
Advances
in Marine
Biology,
Volume
Edited by J. H. S. Blaster, Sir F. S. Russell Academic Press, London, 1982, 398~~. L35
20 and Sir C. M. Yonge
Many years ago two really rather inexperienced young men proposed themselves to a publisher as suitable authors for a book on the oceans. The result was a classic: Russell & Yonge’s The Seas, published in 1928. Thirty-five years later, after they had both distinguished themselves in highly successful careers, Russell had another bright idea that became a classic: Advances in Marine Biology, now in its twentieth annual volume. His former colleague from Plymouth days later joined him and finally John Blaxter made up the present triumvirate of editors. Together they have ensured a steady flow of top quality papers which allow authors to review quite large subjects and to spread themselves over a hundred or even two hundred pages. So far, some 86 authors have done so, producing 71 papers that range from biological studies of ascidians, corals, mysids, molluscs, fishes, etc., to problems of cephalopod flotations mechanisms, circadian periodicities, marine animal poisons, photoreception, neoplasma, etc., and such very practical matters as fisheries. Truly something for everyone. The first volume, published in 1963, contained an extremely useful paper by Blaxter and F. G. T. Holliday on the physiology and behaviour of herring and related clupeoid fishes. Twenty years later and now partnered by J. R. Hunter, Blaxter has enlarged on the theme (by almost a hundred extra pages) under the title ‘The biology of clupeoid fishes’ (pp. l-223). It is a work presented with enormous panache and is likely itself to remain a classic. Since the clupeoid fishes are the largest suborder of non-domesticated vertebrates harvested by man, any paper as comprehensive as this is bound to have a lasting importance. The major sections in this paper deal with reproduction in clupeoids, feeding, mortality, respiration, energetics, growth, swimming and activity, schooling, vertical and horizontal migration, camouflage, vision, chemoreception, the ear, the lateral line, the swimbladder, ecology, osmoregulation, technology and pollution. To have summarized the extensive literature in all these aspects of clupeoids is a considerable feat (it is noteworthy that the authors themselves have contributed to ten per cent of the 522 papers cited), but to have woven the disparate threads into a coherent picture of clupeoid life-styles puts one in mind of those huge Flemish tapestries where even small flowers and butterflies are worked into the composition. The clupeoid fishes comprise the suborder Clupeoidei and although generally recognizable to field workers as herrings or anchovies, are largely defined on small internal
732
Book reviews
characters. One of the most important of these is the complex linking of the swimbladder, inner ear and cephalic canal system, which Blaxter himself has explored and explained in great detail, almostintuitively seizing onwhat is not only the most significant sharedfeature of clupeoids, but the one most likely to throw light on the most renowned aspect of clupeoid biology, the schooling habit, the ‘ point d’appui ’ of clupeoid fisheries. In this paper the intricacies of the otophysic connexion are better and more simply explained than in any other publication. But so too are a lot of other aspectsof these remarkable fishes. Dominating clupeoid exploitation and research have been the mainly cool-water true herrings (Clupea), pilchards (S~&ina and Sadimps), sprats (Sprattus), menhadens(Brevoortiu) and temperate anchovies (Enqrudis). Inevitably, these also dominate the text; some 70 clupeoid speciesappear in the index, but most of these are passingmentions. It would have been useful to have indicated in the text the real extent of the clupeoids, which in fact comprise at least 326 speciesof 80 generain 4 families, and provided an outline classification to enable the ‘ cool-water ’ workers to get their bearings.The fact is that the tropical and subtropical clupeoids are not only much more numerous, but have grown in fishery stature to a point where they threaten to overtake their more traditional northern ‘ sisters’ (as Hennig, an unwitting liberationist, might put it). This growth has brought an urgent need for more biological data on which rational fishery policies can be based. Blaxter & Hunter have laid a worthy foundation, but if a lacuna exists, it is in the failure to cite enougth of the few papers that describe tropical clupeoid biology, or to emphasizethe highly rewarding field that further work of this nature has to offer. The second paper in this volume is very relevant to the first, being a review by R. W. Furness entitled ‘ Competition between fisheries and seabird communities ’ (pp. 225-307). Seabirdsare generally top predators in marine ecosystems,hence their actual or potential rivalry with fisheries. How much do cormorants, gulls, guillemots and puffins actually consume?Field observations do not, in fact, provide sufficiently accurate figures and indirect methods must be resorted to (bioenergetic equations of ‘ existence metabolism’ seemfruitful). The results suggestthat seabirdsmay consume 20% or more of the fish biomass,or about the samepercentage of the annual commercial catch of somefisheries, asfor example in the upwelling areas off South Africa, Peru or California. In many casesthe fishes concerned are just those schooling clupeoids described by Blaxter & Hunter. Just as fisheries are coming to realize that, to optimize yields, whole ecosystemsmust be managed,sothe seabird-fishery relationship reveals underlying complexities. Reduction of a numerically dominant fish speciesby overfishing may result in the increasein a second or third species, but are the various speciesof bird predator able, or equally able, to take advantage of this? The seabird-fishery relation in the upwelling areasin played out within a usually fairly simple ecosystem where primary production is high, the prey consistsof one or two small pelagic schooling species,and the birds feed almost exclusively on them. In antarctic waters, the krill-whale relation must be superimposed, while in an area like the North Seathe variety of prey and predators, each with different behaviours and ecological requirements, coupled with the fact that breeding seabird populations have been limited by the density- and food-independent effects of human exploitation, makesthe interpretation of the seabird-fishery relation extremely complicated and not yet capable of prediction. In a short final section Furness considers the direct and indirect effects of variations of food supply on seabird populations, with a brief detour to look at nesting site factors. Considering that researchon seabird biology and behaviour probably exceedsthat of almost any other group of birds (while the birds themselves are only about 3% of the total
733
Book reviews
avifauna), one is impressedby the urgent need for more research yet on this fascinating battle at the interface of sea and air. The third contribution to this volume is a review by R. F. Ventilla of ‘ The scallopindustry in Japan ’ (pp. 309-382), in fact northern Japan (Hokkaido and northern Honshu Is) becauseof the temperature requirements of the scallop, Patinopectenyessoensis (or hotate gai to its cultivators). Early exploitation by dredging goes back to the 17th century, but by the 1930sspat collecting by meansof cedar twigs or other devices launched the cultivation of the scallop and in the 1950san old Matsu Bay fisherman had the idea of enclosing the cedar leavesin a fine-mesh onion bag, a principle now widely adopted in order to retain the spat after the byssal attachment phase is over. Between 1968 and 1975 the industry boomed, making a twenty-fold increase which in its wake brought such stressesto the ecosystem through over-exploitation that the Japanesehad very seriously to review the primary level energy potential in the mariculture areas.Over-exploitation, commonenough in natural fisheries, is not expected in a culture industry where stock and recruitment can be directly controlled, yet in the late 1970sthe production had been halved in some important growing areas. Clearly there were human as well as environmental factors involved. After surveying the main areasof cultivation, Ventilla gives a perhaps too brief summary of scallop biology, including artificial fertilization and larval development (a figure of a veliger would have been useful) and then devotes forty pagesto the various culture techniques (spat collection, hanging versus sowing methods, transport of scallop seed, growth, etc.) and the economicsof the system (‘ scallop palaces’ for the successfulduring the boom days, tedious hours for the co-op women who drill and mount 2500 shellsa day onto ropes for the ‘ ear hanging ’ method). The boom is over, at least for the moment, and the author examinesthe problems that beset the industry, both natural (predation by starfishes,competition with other species,and more recently parasitism) and culture induced (overcrowding), as well as such environmental problems as dinoflagellate explosions causing ‘ red tides ‘. The future is hopeful, however, largely becauseof the close cooperation between government bodies, fishery co-operatives and scientists. Once again, John Blaxter and his two octogenarian ‘ men of the sea’ have picked an important paper since only two works by non-Japanese,both from ten years ago, have specifically dealt with the Japanesescallop industry, then in its boom, and neither is even half the length of Ventilla’s survey. This consistent choice of top quality papers ensures that Advances in Marine Biology will remain a classic. P.
J. P.
WHITEHEAD