Sidney J. Holt (28 February 1926 – 22 December 2019) was a British biologist who was a founder of
fisheries science
Fisheries science is the academic discipline of managing and understanding fisheries. It is a multidisciplinary science, which draws on the disciplines of limnology, oceanography, freshwater biology, marine biology, meteorology, conservation, eco ...
. He was best known for the book ''On the Dynamics of Exploited Fish Populations'' which he published with
Ray Beverton
Raymond (Ray) John Heaphy Beverton CBE FRS (29 August 1922 – 23 July 1995) was an important founder of fisheries science. He is best known for the book ''On the Dynamics of Exploited Fish Populations''Beverton, R. J. H., and Holt, S. J. 1957. ...
in 1957.
[Beverton, R. J. H., and Holt, S. J. 1957. On the Dynamics of Exploited Fish Populations. Fishery Investigations Series II. Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, London. 533 pp.] The book is a cornerstone of modern fisheries science and remains much used today. Holt served with the
FAO
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...
in 1953 and with other UN agencies for another 25 years.
[Anderson, E. (2011]
"Standing on the shoulders of giants"
''ICES Insight,'' 48: 4–11. After his retirement in 1979, Holt remained active in work related to the
International Whaling Commission
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) is a specialised regional fishery management organisation, established under the terms of the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) to "provide for the proper conservation of ...
and conservation of whales in general, also publishing his views about whaling and fisheries management in academic journals.
Achievements
Much of the foundations of quantitative fisheries science were laid out in the book ''On the Dynamics of Exploited Fish Populations'' which Beverton and Holt wrote at the Fisheries Laboratory in
Lowestoft
Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the most easterly UK settlement, it is north-east of London, north-east of Ipswich and sou ...
(UK).
In his review of the 1993 reprint of the book,
Ray Hilborn
Ray Hilborn (born 1947) is a marine biologist and fisheries scientist, known for his work on conservation and natural resource management in the context of fisheries. He is currently professor of aquatic and fishery science at the University of W ...
writes "It is remarkable how the book has stood the test of time and still provides a survey of the important topics in
fisheries management
The goal of fisheries management is to produce sustainable biological, environmental and socioeconomic benefits from renewable aquatic resources. Wild fisheries are classified as renewable when the organisms of interest (e.g., fish, shellfish, am ...
." The book was reprinted in 2004 with a new foreword by Holt.
Holt's later achievements mostly related to whaling. According to Beverton, Holt "saved the great whales in the early 1970s". The legacy of the 1957 Beverton and Holt treatise is commemorated in the volume ''Advances in Fisheries Science. 50 years on from Beverton and Holt''. The volume includes a foreword by Holt. Outside fisheries science, Holt is best known for the
Beverton–Holt model. In
population ecology
Population ecology is a sub-field of ecology that deals with the dynamics of species populations and how these populations interact with the environment, such as birth and death rates, and by immigration and emigration.
The discipline is importa ...
the model is used as a stand-alone discrete time
population model A population model is a type of mathematical model that is applied to the study of population dynamics.
Rationale
Models allow a better understanding of how complex interactions and processes work. Modeling of dynamic interactions in nature can ...
or as a model of density dependence in larger population models. Originally the model had a more specific usage; it was devised to describe the dependence of recruitment on
spawning
Spawn is the eggs and sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of releasing the eggs and sperm, and the act of both sexes is called spawning. Most aquatic animals, except for aquat ...
stock
In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...
biomass
Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms bi ...
.
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) and The Committee of Three
Holt worked on the
International Whaling Commission
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) is a specialised regional fishery management organisation, established under the terms of the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) to "provide for the proper conservation of ...
's panel termed
The Committee of Three that found new methods to calculate whaling quotas.
The group analyzed whaling data (catches, the number of whaling boats etc.) to come up with proposals for annual quotas for whales. The panel's report, in 1961, was the international whaling commission's first attempt to come up with quotas that would permit whaling while allowing the whale population to increase. The three scientists on the panel (
Kenneth Radway Allen,
Douglas G. Chapman and Holt) were selected because they specialized in fisheries research but were not officially connected with
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
,
the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
, the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
or
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
, the countries conducting the whaling they were to study. The quotas recommended were so much lower than usual that the whaling countries argued over them for many years but eventually they had to lower the quotas. However the whaling countries first adopted interim, compromise quotas which were higher than recommended.
See also
*
Population dynamics of fisheries
A fishery is an area with an associated fish or aquatic population which is harvested for its commercial or recreational value. Fisheries can be wild or farmed. Population dynamics describes the ways in which a given population grows and shrinks ...
References
External links
Sea Shepherd Welcomes Dr. Sidney Holt to the Advisory Board(February 2010)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holt, Sidney
1926 births
2019 deaths
20th-century British zoologists
Fisheries scientists