Reinventing Fisheries Management

Judged by a dismaying track record and a consequent downturn in the reputation of fisheries scientists, fisheries management is certainly a candidate for calls for reinvention, with many of the world leaders in this area holding the view that no fishery has ever been properly understood or managed. If judged by a dismaying track record, and a consequent downturn in the reputation of fisheries scientists, fisheries management is certainly a candidate for calls for reinvention. Fish communities are shifting towards small rapid-growing species. These symptoms have been accopmanied by a series of fisheries collapses that have not only been largely unforeseen by our most advanced assessment methods, but have also brought about disastrous economic consequences. Such things have even occurred in Canada, a nation with probably more top-rate fishery scientists "per capita" than any other. So fisheries science is now in a state of flux, and many feel it is at a cross-roads where new paradigms compete for attention and demand evidence of their utility. This book is organized into five section: why does fisheries managment need reinventing?; new policies for a reinvented fisheries management; the role of the social sciences in a reinvented fisheries mangagement; coping with ecology in a reinvented fisheries management; and modelling through in a reinvented fisheries management.