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What is Fisheries Oceanography? Fisheries oceanography can be broadly defined as study of the interaction between marine fish and their environments across multiple life-history stages. Traditional fisheries management approaches estimate population abundance levels as a function of the number of spawning adults without environmental or ecological input, but the field of fisheries oceanography has provided a framework to predict recruitment and define harvest strategies within an ecosystem context. By seeking to elucidate mechanistic relationships between fish species and their surrounding oceanic habitats, the field of fisheries oceanography aims to provide a solid understanding of fish behavior, population dynamics, and life history with an ecosystem perspective.