E-Mail The distribution and concentration of dissolved oxygen and water temperature in the oceans and freshwaters are usually far more influential in shaping the growth and reproduction of fish than the distribution of their prey. In a new paper in Science Advances, Daniel Pauly, principal investigator of the Sea Around Us initiative at UBC's Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, argues that scientists need to avoid attaching human attributes to fish and start looking at their unique biology and constraints through a different lens. This lens is Pauly's own Gill Oxygen Limitation Theory (GOLT), which explains many features of fish biology and whose core principle is that as fish grow, the surface area of their gills - their respiratory organs - can't keep up with the oxygen requirement of their bodies.