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Overview of
Current Training Programs and Courses for Fisheries Managers
compiled for
the
Training Managers for 21st Century Fisheries
Workshop held in Queenstown, NZ, December 4-7, 2001
prepared by
November 23, 2001
Introduction
This report is an annotated web index
designed to help workshop participants learn about fishery management
training programs as well as other programs that may serve as useful
models for "training managers."
Given the increasing complexity of
fisheries management, we assume the type of training necessary for 21st
Century managers requires education beyond undergraduate or
postsecondary training. This assumption is substantiated by
several previous fisheries education workshops and conference sessions
held in the US over the past 30 years (see Timeline
of fisheries education workshops/conferences).
This previous work indicates that while many undergraduate fisheries
programs have developed integrated curriculum to help students gain
management skills, graduates of a 4 year undergraduate program are
generally not prepared to make effective decisions or take leadership
roles.
Two types of graduate or postgraduate
level training ARE highlighted in this report - academic/university
based graduate training (postgraduate diploma or certificate, Masters,
or PhD) and continuing professional education. Some significant examples
of undergraduate training are included.
Defining Fisheries
Management Training
To guide our review and selection of
programs included in this index, we developed a preliminary list of the
skills and knowledge that might be necessary for a fisheries
manager. To develop this list, we thought it would be helpful to
have an understanding of what past educators, trainers, and employers
have described as necessary components of fisheries management
education. Based on a review of literature on fisheries and natural
resource education (see Bibliography),
we developed the following comprehensive list:
Fisheries Science Core Curriculum
Fishery biology
- fish physiology, routine analysis of fish, anatomy/morphology of
fish, taxonomy, diseases/parasites, nutrition, toxicology, genetics,
evolution
Population dynamics
-life history, movement/distribution of fishes
Stock assessment
– biometrics, impact of fishing on fish populations
Aquaculture & Fish Culture
- principles and operation, reproduction
Fish ecology
- community ecology, environmental & habitat requirements
Fishing technology
- capture & sampling methods; commercial fishing technology
Aquatic Science
- oceanography, stream ecology, limnology, watershed science
Math - statistics, calculus
Management Curriculum
Fishery management
- principles/procedures, nongame or endangered species, management
and restoration techniques, general concepts of natural resource
management, habitat management, design, implementation, and
evaluation of fisheries management programs
Policy -
Laws and regulations, policy analysis (marine, ocean, fishery)
Public Administration -
includes government operations and policy analysis
Economics -
fisheries or natural resources
Decision science - e.g. systems science, management science
Business
- e.g. marketing, consumer behavior, budget/financial management
Sociology/Anthropology
- human behavior
Ethics or Philosophy – objective
science, equitable decision-making
Skill Areas for Fisheries
Management
Risk/impact assessment
Experimental design and statistical sampling procedures
Surveying and monitoring of biological populations
Geographical Skills - GPS, GIS, photo interpretation etc.
Budget preparation and management
Employee supervision and management
Team work
Strategic planning
Problem Solving
Decision-making
Systems thinking
Policy analysis
Critical thinking
Conflict resolution/facilitation
Public speaking
Technical writing
Public relations
Second, we attempted to develop a
definition of a "fisheries manager." This lead to a
realization that the definition of fisheries manager depends on the
institutional structure of the management process. We proceeded to
develop a more conceptualized definition of the fisheries manager:
1) Is a fisheries manager a specialist or generalist?
Figure 1 demonstrates this spectrum and the potential role played by
the "manager".
2) Fisheries
managers fill different management niches and have different levels of
responsibility. The fisheries manager may have primary
responsibility for mid-level management, where he or she makes
decisions about implementation of policy and regulations. A high
level manager would have responsibility for leading change in
management institutions, evaluating policy outcomes, developing
adaptive response, and designing strategic plans. This is illustrated
in Figure 2.
3) The fisheries manager's role
depends on the institutional management model. There are a range
of institutional models including :
- Scientific centralized
management – a scientifically trained federal manager makes
management decisions for national or regional fisheries
- Pluralistic management -
resources are federally owned but regionally appointed
representatives develop management policies -- significant
public participation
- Rights-based - owners of user
rights/property rights charged with management responsibilities
subject to regional and federal oversight
4) The fisheries manager's role
also varies depending on whether the position is within government,
private industry, or a non-profit or other NGO. However,
because fishery stocks are publicaly owned, management is often a
public process. Fishery managers, or those who significantly influence
management decisions, may represent all three sectors within the same
decision making process.
- Public sector managers
traditionally focus on biologically oriented objectives and
broad public and legal mandates including sustainability and
maximizing regional or national welfare.
- Private sector fishery managers
are charged with meeting objectives of private industry
organizations including maximizing profits or quota value,
improving stability, obtaining user rights/privileges, and
meeting regulatory requirements.
- Non profit-based fishery
managers typically pursue environmentally related objectives
including stock preservation, habitat protection, and ecosystem
management.
- Regardless of the sector, the
fishery manager is often responsible for internal management of
the organization including staff and budgets.
The knowledge and skills necessary for
a successful fisheries manager will vary depending on the type of
management system, their role within the system, and their sector
orientation. No single fishery management program can be expected to
provide all the necessary knowledge, skills, or expertise. Therefore, in
this report we provide information on a wide variety of training
programs that may potentially serve to train managers for 21st century
fisheries.
What is
included in this index?
We focused on
primarily on providing
information on = fisheries programs that specified some management component
and/or marine orientation(in fact most examples are fisheries
science programs with some amount of management coursework or research emphasis)
and therefore excluded some programs that are purely fisheries science
or primarily focused on inland recreational fisheries management. In
addition, we have included a variety of marine
resource management programs and other natural resource management programs with
potential for a fisheries concentration or emphasis. All of these
programs are listed under: Academic
Programs in Fisheries.
We have also listed several other marine, natural
resource, or environmental management programs, such as forestry,
which may serve as valuable examples for comparison, particularly because some
of these illustrate programmatic choices and curricular objectives and
principles that we believe are useful to the workshop discussion. These
are listed under: Academic
programs in other
natural resources.
We
provide a list of other top management (e.g. business) or public
administration/affairs programs that provide prime examples of how
management training could be found in disciplines outside natural resource
management. Most of these programs appeared on a list of top management
programs with some environmental management emphasis (see: Lists of
programs).
These are listed under: Academic programs in other management
related disciplines.
We provide a
list of continuing education programs in fisheries, as well as other
natural resource disciplines and some other management disciplines,
which may be more useful for mid level and upper level managers. These
are listed under: Professional/Inservice/Continuing
Ed.
For each of
these lists, we have attempted to highlight unique examples, for the
purpose of illustrating alternative models or special features that
demonstrate the range of training. These significant examples are listed
as part of the index at the top of each list. We suggest reviewing these
highlighted examples first.
Guidance
for your review
As you review
these examples, you may want to consider the following questions:
-
What type of
manager is the program intending to train? Is the program training a
manager or a scientist? Where will the graduate fit within your
institutional setting?
-
Does the
program have a clearly stated mission or objectives? - consider
whether the program's goals fits the goals inherent in the possible
of training managers for 21st century fisheries.
-
In many of
these programs, it appears the mission may be loftier than
the what the program may be able to accomplish. Does the curriculum
(e.g. courses, capstone opportunities) reflect the mission?
-
Is this a
strong program? Is it independent with lots of
faculty and coursework specific to fisheries and fisheries
management? Or, does it rely on the strengths of other
departments of faculties of the university? Are there actually students in the program
or is the program descriptin outdated?
-
Does the
program have the flexibility to adapt to the future training of
managers?
-
Does the
program require students to synthesize material through a capstone
course or project, or other opportunities?
-
Are there
any interesting or unique features of the program that might be key
components to future training programs?
We will
highlight specific and significant features of programs in our
presentation at the workshop. This portion will eventually be included
in our final report. Methods
used to compile lists All
fisheries training and education programs were found through a thorough
web search, using search engines such as google.com as well as lists
from the following websites:
Additional lists were reveiwed
(see Lists of
programs),
but many of these lists included the same information.
Analysis
We are presently performing a
qualitative analysis aimed at summarizing common and unique
characteristics of the range of training programs available. For
this analysis we are evaluating the fisheries training programs listed under:
Academic
Programs in Fisheries.
Each fisheries program is being entered into an Access database,
which will hopefully later be available for workshop participants.
For each database entry, we are summarizing information about each
program (related to the guiding questions listed
above), including:
- Mission
statement/goals/objectives - What are the principles guiding the
program?; Do these statement include certain key words (such as
leadership, sustainable, conflict resolution, critical thinking,
etc.)
- Organization - Where is the
institution located within the university?
- Disciplinary foundation -
e.g. oceanography, fisheries science, marine policy
- Degree title, description
(e.g. masters, Phd, certificate, diploma), and level that fisheries
occurs (e.g. major, minor, concentration, research emphasis)
- Curriculum - flexibility, %
science, % "management"
- Capstone opportunities - e.g.
thesis, integrated or synthetic course, team project, international
opportunity
- Response to
specialist/generalist (breadth vs. depth)
- Is it a professional or
research program, or both?
- Program independence - what %
of the courses and faculty are dependent on other departments or
disciplines
- Proximity or access to marine
lab, and/or fishing industry
- Partnerships with industry,
government, and NGOs; and international partnerships
This information will be
summarized and provided as part of our workshop presentation, and then
become part of our final
report. <see: Link
to Current Training Summary paper (MS
WORD 2000)(PDF)>
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