Fisheries

Resource Management and Social Science Collide at the 4th Annual Burba Lecture

By Valerie Perini

The MSC’s bunker presentation hall was full in late October as students, faculty, staff, and community members gathered to hear a lecture on ecosystem-based management, that proved to be as entertaining as it was informative. The occasion was the 4th Annual Burba lecture, a special event made possible by the generous support of philanthropists, Dr. Stan Burba CSC’61, and wife Janet Burba. Invited speaker Phil Levin delivered a talk that had a little bit of something for everyone: a perfect mix of science, social science, and thought provoking analysis on the intersection of these two disciplines.

With a background in community ecology and conservation biology, combined with 15 years of fisheries management experience as a researcher with the NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Levin had a variety of insights to offer on the tough realities of reconciling diverse stakeholder perspectives to successfully manage our marine resources. His talk focused on a relatively new strategy known as ecosystem-based management, which aims to move beyond methods that only consider a single species, to those that incorporate the complex interactions between the many organisms coexisting in any given ecosystem.

His talk, aptly titled: “Ecosystem-based management: Fairy tale or finally here?” highlighted several challenges to ecosystem-based management, from the complexity of food webs and species interactions, to the need for buy-in from the diverse stakeholder groups who rely on the shared natural resources that nature provides. Much of the talk offered examples of how it is these stakeholders that can truly make or break a management strategy. For instance how can an effort be successful if commercial, recreational, or subsistence fishers do not agree with the management reforms, or do not have the knowledge or experience to comply?

Specifically, Levin offered lessons from his research regarding important perspectives to consider when implementing management, such as the misidentification of species by both scientists and fishers and the relative willingness of different stakeholder groups to sacrifice development/financial growth to implement measures promoting ecosystem health.

After a great mix of informative slides and well placed jokes, the take home message became clear: public outreach and education, as well as stakeholder perspectives need to be incorporated into management strategies at every stage, in order to work towards successful resource management.