Plain Language Summary

Information on the natural variability of marine fish abundances and their relationships to fish production and oceanographic-climatic conditions is urgently needed, especially for fisheries managers. Understanding these processes is of high importance in light of both the highly publicized Pacific salmon crisis off British Columbia and Washington State and, particularly, the economically disastrous collapse of the Atlantic cod fishery. Both of these crises were at least partially the result of ocean-atmospheric impacts.

Long-term records are critical to understanding and quantifying the large-scale fluctuations of fish populations along the west coast of North America. Unfortunately, the return times for many of the oceanic phenomenon driving variations in fish populations are greater than decadal scale events; much longer than data that are available from the relatively short anecdotal and commercial fisheries records. Paleontological methods are therefore required to assess fish population variations over time.

Several marine basins characterized by low oxygen levels exist on the west coast of North America (e.g., Santa Barbara Basin, off California, USA, and Effingham Inlet, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia). In these quiet anaerobic (little to no oxygen) environments, sediments and delicate organic remains, like fish scales, accumulate relatively undisturbed. Although fish scales have been utilized successfully in previous paleo-fisheries studies on the west coast of North America, and elsewhere, there have been no monographs prepared illustrating the various scales of fish species. To provide a full color atlas for future researchers, we have illustrated the scales of 48 common species found in coastal British Columbia waters. Multiple images of modern scales from the same species are provided to show the range of scale types found within the species, and often on the same specimen. In addition, fossil material is illustrated to show how scales become altered in the sedimentary record. This well-illustrated monograph will ease identification problems for future paleoceanographically and fisheries-oriented researchers.