Back to the Future: Restoring Ecosystems Impacted by Fisheries

The "Back to the Future" approach proposes rebuilding rather than sustainability as the policy goal of fisheries management. The rationale is the failure to take account of the ecological impacts of fishing on biodiversity and ecosystem structure as documented by the decline in trophic level of marine ecosystems brought about by industrial fishing. Where this process occurs over generations, perceptions of what the resource "ought to be" in terms of abundance and diversity are successively reduced. Even though today's generation of fishers knows from their grandparents' tales, that things were better than they are now, they still discount these estimates of past abundance as fanciful or unachievable.

The BTF approach relies on recent advances in ecosystem modelling which allow mass-balance models of ecosystems with up to 50 functional groups. Constructing present and past models combines scientific knowledge with the traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous and artisanal fishers, the knowledge and records of commercial fishers and processors and historical and archaeological information to construct mass-balance models of marine ecosystems as they might have been prior to industrial fishing. This "primal abundance" then becomes a baseline against which today's levels or management targets may be measured. There follows an evaluation stage which examines what is practicable and cost effective, looks at trade-offs between conservation and harvest, and aims to restore a marine ecosystem that optimizes the social and economic benefits to society.

Parts 1 and 2

Monday, July 10 Block C , 1:30-3:00

Monday, July 10 Block D, 3:30-5:00