The small world of global marine fisheries: The cross-boundary consequences of larval dispersal

Abstract

A small, interconnected world Countries manage their fisheries as if they were a local resource. To some degree, this may reflect reality, but marine fish, perhaps more than any other vertebrate group, are connected across large distances through ocean currents. Ramesh et al. model how these currents distribute the fish larvae of more than 700 species. They used network analysis to assess the degree to which populations found in one part of the world may have come from another. It seems that global fish populations represent a small-world network where connections across populations are tight and particular hubs of productivity are widely important. Such connectivity has wide-ranging implications for conservation, management, and food supplies globally. Science , this issue p. 1192