Marine Fisheries Overview

This instructional guide is designed to provide instructors with lecture support on the topic of marine fisheries with an emphasis on those species that are commercially harvested in the United States. A general lecture outline and a more detailed PowerPoint presentation with instructor notes are provided. Historical perspectives are addressed as well as assessments of the current status of the resource.  Proposed and implemented management activities that are designed to manage fisheries stocks in a sustainable manner are also discussed with an emphasis on those that take an ecosystems approach to fisheries management.

The overview module is designed primarily for use in introductory courses such as General Biology, Introduction to Natural Resources, General Zoology, Wildlife Conservation, Conservation Biology and Environmental Science.  Some background in basic ecological concepts such as population growth and energy flow (trophic levels and food webs) is assumed.  High school-level coverage of these topics should be adequate.  Delivery of the PowerPoint presentation associated with this module requires approximately two, one-hour lecture sessions.  The presentation can also be easily modified by instructors who choose to dedicate just a single lecture session to the marine fisheries topic.  Those instructors who choose to dedicate a significant portion of their course (several lectures) to marine fisheries topics should use the following modules from the NCSR Marine Fisheries Series, which take a more detailed approach to the same topics covered in this overview module:

• Marine Fisheries – Introduction and Status
• Marine Fisheries - Causes for Decline and Impacts 
• Marine Fisheries – Management and Proposed Solutions

Instructors who are looking for videos or additional print and web-based resources on the topics covered in this module should consult the Comprehensive Resources for NCSR Marine Fisheries Series where these resources are summarized and cited.

Module Objectives

Lecture Outline

Sample PowerPoint Slide with instructor notes

Return to NCSR Marine Fisheries Series Description

Download PDF; Download PPT (20 MB)

Curriculum produced by NCSR. Funding Provided by the National Science Foundation