A General Theory for Fishery Modeling

Is fisheries management a science? Here is one answer, given by Larkin (1972): “In brief, our fisheries literature is largely unscientific in the strict sense of the word, and our fisheries management is unscientific in almost every sense of the word.” In this paper I describe a mathematical theory which, I believe, significantly improves the possibilities for scientific management. To explain my basis for this claim, I must begin with a discussion of science itself, and I have chosen a historical example from a completely different field.