Monthly Archives: April 2013

EDF’s Fishing Game Highlighted on RARE Blog

By / Published: April 9, 2013

Originally posted in Rare Dispatches, Author: J.M. McCord

Fishers in Loreto, Mexico, play Go Fish! with different-colored candy representing juvenile and adult fish

Ulises Mendez, Rare program manager in Mexico, waited for the cackles to subside before asking the fishers what they had learned. The fishers had just completed a candy-grabbing game designed to expose the benefits of good fishery management.

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) first exposed Mendez to the game during a workshop a couple years ago. Many versions of the game exist involving a variety of props and customizations. The essential elements are:

1 A proxy for the ocean — “In our regional training we did the fishing game in a pool,” says Sarilani Wirawan, Rare senior program manager in Indonesia. “The more water, the more fun.” Typically, a table will do.

2 Fish stand-ins — any material available will suffice, ranging from rocks, peanuts and shells to goldfish cut-outs or action figures, but the most popular option is candy. Mendez used multi-colored candy to represent different types of fish such as juveniles and adults.

3 Some versions also include props for different fishing gear or plates for no-fishing areas. The specifics can be tweaked for relevance to a region’s laws and threats. Read More »

Posted in Mexico / Comments are closed

Sound Fisheries Management is No Fluke

By / Bio / Published: April 2, 2013

 

Summer Flounder

photo credit: Michael McDonough via photopin cc

Recently a US Senate subcommittee held a hearing entitled “Developments and Opportunities in US Fisheries Management,” with testimony by federal, regional and state officials that focused on the need for collaboration in fisheries management and decision-making based on sound science.  More than two and a half hours of testimony and questioning by Senators focused on the role of science and the Magnuson Stevens Act in effective management of our nation’s fisheries, especially summer flounder or “fluke.” 

New York and New Jersey have long been embroiled in an interstate conflict over what New York Senator Chuck Schumer has called “our decades long fight to bring fairness, flexibility, and accountability into the management of summer flounder.”  To that point, a reoccurring theme in the testimony was that effective fisheries management requires high quality data and regular stock assessments.  This notion was also echoed at a House Natural Resources Committee hearing a week earlier.

What is clear in the early hours of debating MSA’s reauthorization is that stakeholders across the board are focused on a common top priority – simply, good science is fundamental to good management.  This reality is at the core of the interstate summer flounder battle, with NY arguing that the use of outdated data has led to an unequal allocation of fish between states. Read More »

Posted in Mid-Atlantic, Science/Research / Tagged , , , , , , | Comments are closed