Until recently, studies of the marine environment have neglected the physical structure and complexity of fish habitat, underestimating the impact of its degradation and simplification for stock sizes. The author maintains that when fishery resources are depleted, harvest controls alone are ineffective for their recovery and subsequent conservation. Integrating ecological and management notions into a common framework, he sets forth the importance of habitat quality in its relation to the life cycles of marine populations, as well as the impact of anthropogenic factors on the abundance or absence of cover.

The volume should enhance the work of marine ecologists and engineers, coastal oceanographers and all those involved in marine fisheries and aquaculture, and will be of interest to everyone concerned with protecting threatened or overexploited fishery resources.