Book excerpt: The fields of fish population dynamics and stock assessment have seen major advances in the 1980s and 1990s, creating the need for a new synthesis. This text attempts that synthesis by presenting a contemporary approach for quantitative fisheries science that incorporates modern statistical and mathematical techniques. It emphasizes the link between biology and theory by explaining the assumptions inherent in the quantitative methods and models. The book covers key topics that are often overlooked in other texts, such as optimal harvesting, migratory stocks, and complex age and size-structured models. Quantitative Fish Dynamics is an ideal textbook for graduate and undergraduate courses in fish population dynamics and stock assessment. It is an indispensable reference work for fisheries scientists and others interested in conservation biology, fish and wildlife management, population ecology, and statistical applications.