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The University of Massachusetts Amherst

NRC 571 - Fisheries Science & Management

Course guide for Fall 2010

Species info from journal articles

Search for your species in the databases listed on the Journal Articles tab.

Try Proquest Aquatic Science Collection first!

Search Tip:
Connect the common and scientific names with an OR - for example:

  mahi-mahi or Coryphaena hippurus

If you want to specify growth (von Bertalanffy) info, include terms using AND:

  (mahi-mahi or Coryphaena hippurus) and (von bertalanffy)

Government sources

Catalog of U.S. Government Publications - Search the name of the species. 
NOTE: Documents that government agencies produce are ruled by laws, and the research is focused on the exact requirements in those laws, so they are sometimes difficult to understand without knowing what laws they are governed by. 

A search can produce many documents - narrow your results with other terms, such as habitat or biology.

Two series of reports - Essential Fish Habitat Source Documents and Species Profiles - give basic biological information on a species. They cover different species with some overlap, but not all species! They tend to be commercially important ones.

  • Species Profiles: Life Histories and Environmental Requirements... for 126 species, published by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. 
    Note that these were written prior to 2000 so they are not current, but they do provide a comprehensive "sketch" of the species.See a sample report on Striped Bass.

Access these reports individually in the Five Colleges library catalog .
      Search: Title Keywords and enter species profiles and your species name.

or through the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (see above)