As such, management for healthy and productive aquatic ecosystem for fishes must preserve fish habitats, including: (1) the number and the size of habitat patches; (2) the physical, chemical, and biological attributes of these patches; (3) the spatial arrangement and the longitudinal and lateral connectivity of these patches (see next principle); and (4) the temporal dynamics of the ecosystem such that the mosaic of habitat patches will allow all fish species and life stages originally found in an ecosystem to survive, grow, and reproduce successfully.