Stock identification and its role in stock assessment and fisheries management: an overview

A symposium on "Stock Identification - its Role in Stock Assessment and Fis heries Management" was held as part of the 128th annual meeting of the Amer ican Fisheries Society (AFS), Hartford, Connecticut, USA, 23-27 August 1998 , to summarize the current state of knowledge of stock identification issue s, problems and methodologies, as well as to identify future directions for stock identification research. With today's, growing emphasis on stock ass essment, this symposium was a timely reminder of the need to identify fish stocks accurately, and the implications of stock identification for fisheri es management. The symposium was structured into four general themes: (1) t he stock concept; (2) genetic variation; (3) phenotypic variation; and (4) fisheries management. We review the presentations given in each theme sessi on, which form the basis of the proceedings presented in this issue, as wel l as providing an overview of current issues and directions in stock identi fication research. We hope that the overall proceedings constitute a text h elpful in these directions, useful in the classroom, laboratory, and field. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.