Each week on WBSM in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Bob Vanasse of Saving Seafood joins host Phil Paleologos to discuss issues related to the fisheries with news-making guests.
Dr. Jake Kritzer, senior fisheries scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) — and Dr. Steve Cadrin of the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth School for Marine Science & Technology (SMAST) — discuss their collaborative efforts to harness the cutting-edge tools of spatial ecology to enhance conservation while simultaneously improving fishing opportunities for the fleet.
While many in the fisheries community might find it surprising that EDF and SMAST are working together, Drs. Kritzer and Cadrin point out that well before joining their present institutions, their studies in marine science had complimented each other, making this collaboration a natural extension of their prior work.
One area in which the scientists plan to collaborate is the emerging study of "metapopulations", which has the potential to significantly enhance the science behind fisheries management. It is a noteworthy departure from the traditional, simplified view of fish populations as a single group, in one homogeneous environment, interacting and interbreeding randomly with each other. The reality in nature is much more complex and requires an understanding of the spatial patterns of fish populations. Species are rarely distributed evenly across the ocean and are more akin to a series of distinct groups whose movements are affected by a broad spectrum of factors — from the behavior of adults to the dispersal of plankton.
Drs. Kritzer and Cadrin make the case that their colleagues at EDF and SMAST have a strong, complimentary overlap of skills to untangle this complexity, and in this Saving Seafood interview, they note their mutual goal is the enhancement of fisheries, not the limiting of fisheries.
[listen to this latest episode at Saving Seafood Radio]