Comments on: Back To Ecosystem Based Management

By: Joel Barkan

Joel Barkan — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 00:26:40 +0000

Fishsense: thanks for pointing that out. I wrote “millions” when I meant to write “thousands.” Atlantic herring landings in the last decade have ranged from 78k – 121k.

I can assure you that my slip-up does not reflect the quality of my education. Nor does this change the fact that we’re harvesting an important forage species to use as bait for the ultimate luxury fishery. As a Maine native, I support the lobster fishery, but I think management would benefit by incorporating more principles of EBM into its policies.

If the Atlantic cod is “nowhere near” commercially extinct, then why did Canada shut down its cod fisheries in the mid-90s? If cod is not commercially extinct, then it’s certainly knocking at the door, especially when a country feels the need to suspend fishing activity to let the stocks recover. The current North Atlantic cod fishery is a classic example of the Shifting Baselines syndrome, where the cod biomass is deemed large enough to fish despite existing at a tiny fraction of what it once was. I encourage you to read Mark Kurlansky’s “Cod” if you haven’t already.

By: gillt

gillt — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 22:57:12 +0000

Wow Fishsense, considering the Atlantic Cod is red listed as a threatened species, I’d say you have it about exactly backwards.

Now please remove the Fish from your handle.

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 19:31:42 +0000

Lab lemming: “So given the choice between cod and lobsters, how does one decide?”
The principles of “ecosystem-based management” include stakeholder collaboration to identify the desired state of multiple ecosystem attributes. So it’s quite straightforward. First assume consensus is reached among competing or mutually exclusive values in a legitimate, fair, and timely process that involves all stakeholders. Second, …

By: Fishsense

Fishsense — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 13:45:47 +0000

What claptrap. Codfish is nowhere enar “commercially extinct” and the annual US quota for herring isn’t, and never has been, anywhere close to a million tons. If this itypifies what is being taught in our nations’s schools it’s no wonder the American educational system is going down the toilet.

By: Lab Lemming

Lab Lemming — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 09:40:57 +0000

So given the choice between cod and lobsters, how does one decide?

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 04:40:14 +0000

You might consider Judith Layzer’s 2008 Natural Experiments: Ecosystem-Based Management and the Environment. She poses the right question. Does “Ecosystem Based Management” actually deliver better environmental results?

By: gillt

gillt — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:40:43 +0000

Mark: “…observational scientist’s penchant for measuring everything, everywhere, all the time and the prediction fetish of physics envy.”

Suddenly I wish I hadn’t given up troll bait for Lent.

By: Busiturtle

Busiturtle — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:56:42 +0000

Sheril,

My sense is EBM is hazy because it assumes one can know things that are unknowable. The philosophy of EBM sounds good but any strategy has to take into account the uncertainty of man’s understanding of the marine ecosystem and an appreciation of the natural dynamics it exhibits. Since management perfection is unlikely the more important goal should be to define measures of ecosystem robustness and monitor how well those benchmarks are realized.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:50:02 +0000

One of the shortcomings of ecosystem based management has been the tendency to confuse measurement for management. The sweet spot rests somewhere between the observational scientist’s penchant for measuring everything, everywhere, all the time and the prediction fetish of physics envy. I’m skeptical that the sweet spot is discoverable.