It has been recognized, virtually from the time of its inception, that fisheries economics, like other aspects of resource economics, should ideally be cast in capital-theoretic terms. The fish population or biomass can be viewed as a capital stock in that, like conventional or man-made capital, it is capable of yielding a sustainable consumption flow through time. This study is to introduce the optimal control theory which was extended from the theory of calculus of variations into the study of former static theory of fisheries economics started by Gordon (1954). The optimal control theory eliminated the inadequacies of the classical techniques to a large extent. From this point of view, this study, on the base of Schaefer model, summerizes most of major results achieved so far, but does so in a manner such that the links with capital theory are made transparent. This study explores two sets of problems. The first concerns the optimal approach to the equilibrium stock, i.e. the optimal investment policy. The second set of problems arises from the relaxation of the highly restrictive assumption of autonomy (i.e. the assumption that the parameters are independent of time), then concludes the relaxation of linearity assumption together with the complexities caused by that.