Current Projects
Currently, SFPP researchers are working on five fisheries policy studies:
Marine reserves: implementing lessons learned
The purpose of this study is to review prior attempts to design and implement marine reserves in the United States, to extract lessons from those efforts, and to develop principles and guidelines aimed at streamlining future processes. In addition to thinking about the various means of creating reserves, e.g., legislative versus administrative approaches, we are also working to identify legal and political obstacles to reserves and how those obstacles might be overcome.
Genetics and Pacific swordfish management
Currently, swordfish fishing in the Pacific is essentially unmanaged. Some management measures are in place in national Exclusive Economic Zones. Other highly migratory species, such as tunas, are managed by international treaty organizations. This study aims to explain the management implications of recently completed studies of Pacific swordfish genetics. Genetic information uncovered by marine scientists at the Hopkins Marine Station suggests appropriate temporal and spatial boundaries for Pacific swordfish management units. The study will suggest ways in which new and existing national and international institutions might incorporate this information.
Marine protected areas and highly migratory species
The recent science and policy proposals regarding marine protected areas have focused primarily on benefits to sessile or low motility fish species. Using state of the art dynamic models, the authors will explore the economic and biological benefits of protecting highly migratory species during specific life-history stages, e.g., spawning. The study will produce a computer model that will be useful in future decision-making in the design and creation of protected areas for highly migratory species, including tunas, swordfish and sharks.
Decision analysis and fisheries management
For many years, corporations have used management science tools to make complex business decisions that defy simple analysis or intuition. While fisheries managers face these kinds of decisions on a regular basis, they have yet to make use of the same tools available to business leaders. Decision analysis offers decision-makers the means for making reasoned decisions in the face of competing interests and high levels of uncertainty. It also allows decision-makers to examine smaller, included issues, such as the management benefits of increased funding for scientific research. The study will create a decision analysis computer model for use in fishery management decision-making. Researchers will work with fishery managers to create a useful, workable system to aid in rational planning.
Comparing the U.S.'s Regional Councils to England's Sea Fisheries Committees
Since 1895, England's Sea Fisheries Committees (SFCs) have regulated nearshore fishing along the English coast. The SFCs are in some ways similar to the U.S.'s Regional Councils. For example, the SFCs are predominantly composed of members of the fishing industry. The SFCs and the councils are different, however, in the extent of their powers and responsibilities. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the SFCs have historically been more successful in fishery management than the U.S. councils, and if so, why.
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