Using Amount of Fish Caught as Measure of Fisheries Health Is Misleading

[Tacklebags 404]

Not anything new to those who follow the science on fisheries but worth a captain cook all the same. Personally I would of preferred the title ended with "can be misleading" not "is misleading". TBhttp://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130221192734.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29

[wisdom 0]

A very interesting subject TB, and causes concern for every fishery manager in the world.Hilburn / Branch and Daniel Pauly are both right. Pauly is a highly respected marine scientist and I have communicated with him many times over the years and have found him very forward thinking and has published many papers on fishery matters. I have never found cause not to agree with his postulations.When one goes back to fishery management through " STOCK ASSESSMENTS ", the clue is in the word "assessment", because that's all it can ever be ( not like counting trees). All fisheries are managed on assessment of available data which is never complete due to cost of the science and insufficient accuracy and reliability.In summary, its all best guess ! But then......... that's how we manage our world.

[Lexi 14]

Howdy Wisdom, good to see you still have a toe in the water.In saying it is all a best guess I think that depends on who is having the punt. Someone who has put in the hard yards usually has a good feel for what side the coin may come down on, on the other hand we have DEWNR. Couldn't resist. Cheers

[wisdom 0]

Thanks Lexi, its hard not to, having spent many years in science and fishery management.Going a little further and although slightly off topic, Daniel Pauly and a female scientist and colleague jointly published a paper exposing A certification scheme run by the World Wild Life Fund ( WWF ), that ( for a Fee ), certified commercial fisheries around the world as sustainable and clean and green etc.The paper exposed the scheme in the UK and Europe as a moral fraud. WWF have also certified some fisheries in Australia and I was involved in one of them until I realized it was a scam and withdrew.I would recommend you seek this paper out through Google, its a very interesting read but I cannot remember its title but I did write an article about it and prawn fisheries in a newspaper at the time after speaking with the female scientist. It highlites what anglers are up against in the war with conservation zealots. Its not hard to see that I have been a follower of Pauly for a great number of years and hope to see him later this year in the US/ Canada.