This paper identifies, critiques, and offers suggestions for successful fisheries change initiatives to reduce bycatch. We identified six themes about perceptions of best practices for change initiatives. These best practices are widely recognized but have not consistently yielded widespread change. We discuss the need to develop affective change readiness among fishers, given that change management research shows that emotions play an important role in the uptake of new ideas and changes.
Abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG), also known as derelict fishing gear, is a pervasive problem in coastal waters worldwide. Once lost, fishing gear such as gillnets and crab pots continue to actively fish for months, years, and even decades (i.e., ghost fishing). Data on the impacts of derelict fishing gear in the United States is very limited in scope, especially geographically, by gear type, and focal species.
This paper offers precise definitions of marine conservation technology and a technological marine conservation system. Power, politics, and culture inherent in technology can also influence the distribution of conservation risks and benefits and potentially widen gaps in wealth, privilege, opportunities, and justice. Addressing these concerns can potentially be achieved through the better integration of social sciences into marine conservation technology and technological marine conservation system design and development and the application of the Social-Ecological-Technological Systems framework.
Our study is a first attempt to account comprehensively for all sources of total U.S. marine catches from the Exclusive Economic Zone waters along the West Coast of the continental USA from 1950-2017 in one dataset, i.e., excluding the states of Alaska and Hawaii. Total reconstructed catches for 1950-2017 were 1.2 times higher than the data reported by the USA to the FAO. Our results suggest that recreational fisheries and discards can make up a considerable component of total catches over time.
Many undergraduate biology instructors incorporate active learning exercises into their lessons while continuing to assess students with traditional exams. To better align practice and exams, we present an approach to question-asking that emphasizes templates instead of specific questions. Students and instructors can use these Test Question Templates (TQTs) to generate many variations of questions for pre-exam practice and for the exams themselves.
This study explores stakeholders’ views on tidal energy in the state of Washington to better understand stakeholders’ positive and negative views, or concerns regarding tidal energy. Shared negative concerns were identified including, concerns related to marine life, utility costs, public safety and security, contamination, and scaling up. Positive views were focused on the need for a diverse energy portfolio, development, and increased economic benefits.
This article is an extensive review of the theories and frameworks about managing human dimensions of tidal energy. A key finding indicated that most theories are sufficient to assist understanding the costs, benefits, and risks of tidal energy, but fewer help effectively manage these same factors. Compiling these theories and frameworks shed light on the limitations of current research, while identifying important areas for future research.
Citizen science have become a common way to engage a broad range of individuals with science and the doing of science. Over the last several decades the practice has continued to grow and has gained recognition as it is uniquely positioned to support and extend science learning. This book discussed the potential of citizen science to support science learning, as well as providing a research agenda to develop our current understanding.
In the Anthropocene environmental change is human driven, by political, social, and economic forces. Synthesizing the various roles of social science disciplines, this paper illustrates the interaction between humans and marine ecosystems. As humans navigate into the Anthropocene and continuous environmental change it is critical that engagement between social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences is constant. This meaningful engagement provides diverse insights and perspectives to increase theoretical understanding of human-environmental interactions and successful conservation efforts.
Tidal energy is a renewable energy source that could aid in mitigating climate change. To better understand the views towards this technology and energy source, the attitudes and behaviors related to tidal energy were assessed. Findings of a survey sent to Washington State residents indicated that coastal residents reported higher levels of support and acceptability. Additionally, levels of support and acceptability depended on the development stage of the technology.
At the development stage of any renewable energy scheme, research and development (R&D) funding is critically important for the success or failure. Using Washington State residents’ Willingness to Pay (WTP) for tidal energy R&D, public preferences supported an increase in government funding on R&D. This study also indicated that residents preferred a public/private partnership approach to support tidal energy R&D.
This paper presents the guidelines and challenges for organizing fisheries learning exchanges (FLEs). FLEs are commonly used by non-governmental organizational, government agencies, and resource users to bridge knowledge gaps and engage various resource users. This paper presents guidelines based on more that 20 FLE experts’ perspectives in order to improve effectiveness of FLEs, overcome challenges, and support widespread use.
Fisheries learning exchanges (FLEs) have been utilized by non-governmental organizations and federal agencies to bring fisher communities and stakeholders together to share and address marine conservation challenges and solutions. Using a literature review, questionnaire, expert workshop, key informant interviews, followed by content analysis, this paper provides an extensive overview of the history and scope of FLEs, as well as a formal definition and future research agenda. Key findings of this review showed that the most common objectives of FLEs were to encourage action and behavior or to introduce new technologies in a fishery.
This study identifies the key characteristics of fisheries learning exchanges (FLEs). Despite their recognition and numerous benefits within fisheries conservation and management, little research has been done on FLEs. This multiple case study addresses the question: “What are the key characteristics of successful FLEs?” Examining six successful FLEs during a 2013 workshop, this study identified key characteristics of FLEs. These included, clear purpose and flexible objectives, participants are diverse and are leaders, FLEs incorporate a variety of hands-on activities and presentations, and follow-up support is critical. These results were used to provide recommendations for future FLEs.
The Magnuson-Steven Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) was amended in 2006 with Section 610, an international provision that directed the Secretary of Commerce to unilaterally identify foreign nations engaged in bycatch of protected living marine resources (PLMRs), including the North Pacific loggerhead turtle. This paper evaluates the initial effects of identification on loggerhead bycatch management efforts in Mexico and provides policy recommendations for improving the law and its implementation. Initially, Mexico has downplayed their bycatch issue jeopardizing solutions and fishers’ overall understanding of the problem. The identification lead to the implementation of federal regulation for loggerheads and highlighted the need for more thorough policy recommendations and bycatch data.
Official catch statistics typically only include landings data from commercial fisheries and do not include other important sources of catch such as recreational fisheries, discards, or illegal fishing. Here, we estimate the major sources of marine withdrawals for fisheries in California, Oregon and Washington for the 1950-2010 period by including sources of typically unreported catch (such as discards and recreational fisheries) and by replacing gaps in the time series with actual estimates.
Physiology includes quantitative relationships to explain key concepts and can be a hinderance to learning for students with poor math skills. The authors propose that students who fit this criterion may benefit from incorporating singing or listening to content rich jingles during in-class activities. This study incorporated feedback from 231 students across four college physiology classes to develop a three-part process to develop math related jingles for subjects, such as biology.
One of the greatest challenges in adaptive management of natural resources in engaging a diverse set of actors and knowledge systems across management levels and institutional boundaries. Bridging organization is a strategy to facilitate interactions among actors. This study examines how network connections between group members affect functionality of a group and whether these structures actually allow for more effective outcomes. The study focused on the Center for Ocean Solutions, a bridging organization at Stanford University, to observe and understand these structural characteristics.
This paper identifies the need to develop Studies in Expertise and Experience (SEE) in order to address real-world problems, including fisheries management. A key finding of this study shows that the inclusion of interactional expertise can facilitate collaboration but must be approached in a way that maintains trust and acknowledges collaborators may have contentious history. Concepts of SEE must be researched further in order to become applicable and practical instruments to sustain effective collaborations necessary to address an array of environmental problems.
Fishery improvement projects (FIP) have emerged as a way to assist fisheries to reach environmental sustainability, with set guidelines established by a group of NGOs as part of the Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions. To understand how these current guidelines are utilized in practice to help achieve sustainability outcomes, researchers conducted interviews with stakeholders and analyzed FIP documents. This study provides key findings regarding informants’ motivations around the FIP process, including Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certifications and overall power in management processes. This paper concludes offering recommendations for improvement and future research needs to improve knowledge around FIPs and legitimize the current work of NGOs in this area.
Graduate students face a challenge in bridging the research-implementation gap due to limited opportunities for interdisciplinary training and lack of institutional support for application of research results. This article examines the ways in which graduate students can create resources within their academic institutions, institutionalize resources, and engage with stakeholders to promote real-world conservation outcomes.
This paper examines the value and feasibility of gear substitution through a case study of the sablefish fishery. This fishery enabled comparison of gears because it uses three types: trawls, longlines, and pots (traps). Through this comparison, the paper shows that gear substitution would offer ecological and economic benefits while being socio-culturally acceptable.
As a result of efforts by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and many stakeholders–including domestic and foreign fishermen, environmentalists, and government agencies– to reduce mortality of sea turtles in shrimp trawls, many trawl fisheries around the world now use a version of the turtle excluder device (TED). This article chronicles the contributions of NMFS to this effort and summarizes the impetus for and results of major developments and little known events in the TED research. The article also discusses how these influenced the course of subsequent research.
Bycatch can harm marine ecosystems, reduce biodiversity, lead to the death of protected species, and have severe economic implications for fisheries. The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2006 (MSRA) aims to minimize bycatch, seabird interactions, bycatch mortality, and post-release mortality in federally managed fisheries, as well as identify nations whose vessels are engaged in the bycatch of protected living marine resources (PLMR’s) under specified circumstances. This paper summarizes how NMFS has and is implementing the new bycatch provisions in the MSRA to address bycatch both domestically and internationally.
This commentary encourages the conservation community to take advantage of embedded experiences in other communities such as government offices or NGOs in order to improve both the policy relevance and effective communication of their research.
This chapter describes a framework for understanding and managing complex systems that couple human beings, nature, and technology. The framework includes five major components: superordinate goals, moral imagination, trading zones, adaptive management, and anticipatory governance. This framework is applied to two detailed case studies, one of which is turtle excluder devices. The paper discusses the limitations of the framework in the light of these case studies, along with suggestions for improvement.
This letter to the journal BioScience, suggests that conservation biologists not only make recommendations for conservation, but also help implement these recommendations while engaging in grassroots efforts to gain academic recognition for their efforts.
Anecdotally it is said that fishers are the best inventors of marine conservation technologies. This paper describes case studies of TEDs and dolphin conservation technology with a focus on local inventors. It offers empirical proof that fishers are indeed successful inventors of marine conservation technology. It also details how inventors can have substantial influence in encouraging the adoption of their inventions locally.
This paper explores the evolution of a trading zone by organizing the case study of turtle excluder devices within the model proposed by Collins et al. (2007). That case study offers evidence that trading zones evolve and that the concepts of enforced and fractionated trading zones can be used for describing and defining the complexities of actual exchanges. For each step of the evolution described in the case study, the article describes the forces that drove these transitions. It also presents an adapted trading zone model that is a better fit for the turtle excluder device case study.
Incidental death of sea turtles in the profitable U.S. shrimp fishery has become one of the most controversial fisheries management problems in the country. Cooperation between numerous, diverse stakeholder groups led to the successful solution – the turtle excluder device (TED).
Although substantial money has been spent on the invention and diffusion of conservation technologies such as TEDs, little attention has been paid to the process by which these tools are adopted. In this case study, Kiki examines the use of TEDs within the U.S. shrimp trawl fisheries to more fully understand how users learn about and begin to use these types of conservation technologies.
Examination of the controversial and well-known case study of dolphin bycatch in the U.S. tuna fishery reveals that effective problem-solving was hindered by institutional tensions. These tensions negatively affected decision-making authority and made integration of different expertise difficult at best. In this study, Kiki compares the profiles of four individuals who played distinct roles in the problem-solving process to shed light on how to more effectively introduce conservation technologies in the future by taking into account expertise and experience.
Although substantial money has been spent on the invention and diffusion of conservation technologies, such as TEDs, little attention has been paid to the process by which these tools are adopted. This case study examines the use of TEDs within the U.S. shrimp trawl fisheries to more fully understand how users learn about and begin to use these types of conservation technologies.
This article contextualizes two major actions that potentially could change the landscape of sea turtle conservation and ignite controversy: the October 2001 proposal by National Marine Fisheries Service’s to substantially amend the TED regulations and the petition filed jointly by two environmental groups on January 10, 2002, to list certain subpopulations of loggerhead sea turtles as endangered. Both the petition and the proposal result from public concern and scientific evidence that existing conservation measures were not sufficient to allow recovery of some sea turtle populations, mostly likely loggerhead and perhaps leatherback and green turtles as well.
Abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG), also known as derelict fishing gear, is a pervasive problem in coastal waters worldwide. Once lost, fishing gear such as gillnets and crab pots continue to actively fish for months, years, and even decades (i.e., ghost fishing). Data on the impacts of derelict fishing gear in the United States is very limited in scope, especially geographically, by gear type, and focal species.
This paper offers precise definitions of marine conservation technology and a technological marine conservation system. Power, politics, and culture inherent in technology can also influence the distribution of conservation risks and benefits and potentially widen gaps in wealth, privilege, opportunities, and justice. Addressing these concerns can potentially be achieved through the better integration of social sciences into marine conservation technology and technological marine conservation system design and development and the application of the Social-Ecological-Technological Systems framework.
Our study is a first attempt to account comprehensively for all sources of total U.S. marine catches from the Exclusive Economic Zone waters along the West Coast of the continental USA from 1950-2017 in one dataset, i.e., excluding the states of Alaska and Hawaii. Total reconstructed catches for 1950-2017 were 1.2 times higher than the data reported by the USA to the FAO. Our results suggest that recreational fisheries and discards can make up a considerable component of total catches over time.
Many undergraduate biology instructors incorporate active learning exercises into their lessons while continuing to assess students with traditional exams. To better align practice and exams, we present an approach to question-asking that emphasizes templates instead of specific questions. Students and instructors can use these Test Question Templates (TQTs) to generate many variations of questions for pre-exam practice and for the exams themselves.
This study explores stakeholders’ views on tidal energy in the state of Washington to better understand stakeholders’ positive and negative views, or concerns regarding tidal energy. Shared negative concerns were identified including, concerns related to marine life, utility costs, public safety and security, contamination, and scaling up. Positive views were focused on the need for a diverse energy portfolio, development, and increased economic benefits.
This article is an extensive review of the theories and frameworks about managing human dimensions of tidal energy. A key finding indicated that most theories are sufficient to assist understanding the costs, benefits, and risks of tidal energy, but fewer help effectively manage these same factors. Compiling these theories and frameworks shed light on the limitations of current research, while identifying important areas for future research.
Citizen science have become a common way to engage a broad range of individuals with science and the doing of science. Over the last several decades the practice has continued to grow and has gained recognition as it is uniquely positioned to support and extend science learning. This book discussed the potential of citizen science to support science learning, as well as providing a research agenda to develop our current understanding.
In the Anthropocene environmental change is human driven, by political, social, and economic forces. Synthesizing the various roles of social science disciplines, this paper illustrates the interaction between humans and marine ecosystems. As humans navigate into the Anthropocene and continuous environmental change it is critical that engagement between social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences is constant. This meaningful engagement provides diverse insights and perspectives to increase theoretical understanding of human-environmental interactions and successful conservation efforts.
Tidal energy is a renewable energy source that could aid in mitigating climate change. To better understand the views towards this technology and energy source, the attitudes and behaviors related to tidal energy were assessed. Findings of a survey sent to Washington State residents indicated that coastal residents reported higher levels of support and acceptability. Additionally, levels of support and acceptability depended on the development stage of the technology.
At the development stage of any renewable energy scheme, research and development (R&D) funding is critically important for the success or failure. Using Washington State residents’ Willingness to Pay (WTP) for tidal energy R&D, public preferences supported an increase in government funding on R&D. This study also indicated that residents preferred a public/private partnership approach to support tidal energy R&D.
This paper presents the guidelines and challenges for organizing fisheries learning exchanges (FLEs). FLEs are commonly used by non-governmental organizational, government agencies, and resource users to bridge knowledge gaps and engage various resource users. This paper presents guidelines based on more that 20 FLE experts’ perspectives in order to improve effectiveness of FLEs, overcome challenges, and support widespread use.
Fisheries learning exchanges (FLEs) have been utilized by non-governmental organizations and federal agencies to bring fisher communities and stakeholders together to share and address marine conservation challenges and solutions. Using a literature review, questionnaire, expert workshop, key informant interviews, followed by content analysis, this paper provides an extensive overview of the history and scope of FLEs, as well as a formal definition and future research agenda. Key findings of this review showed that the most common objectives of FLEs were to encourage action and behavior or to introduce new technologies in a fishery.
This study identifies the key characteristics of fisheries learning exchanges (FLEs). Despite their recognition and numerous benefits within fisheries conservation and management, little research has been done on FLEs. This multiple case study addresses the question: “What are the key characteristics of successful FLEs?” Examining six successful FLEs during a 2013 workshop, this study identified key characteristics of FLEs. These included, clear purpose and flexible objectives, participants are diverse and are leaders, FLEs incorporate a variety of hands-on activities and presentations, and follow-up support is critical. These results were used to provide recommendations for future FLEs.
The Magnuson-Steven Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) was amended in 2006 with Section 610, an international provision that directed the Secretary of Commerce to unilaterally identify foreign nations engaged in bycatch of protected living marine resources (PLMRs), including the North Pacific loggerhead turtle. This paper evaluates the initial effects of identification on loggerhead bycatch management efforts in Mexico and provides policy recommendations for improving the law and its implementation. Initially, Mexico has downplayed their bycatch issue jeopardizing solutions and fishers’ overall understanding of the problem. The identification lead to the implementation of federal regulation for loggerheads and highlighted the need for more thorough policy recommendations and bycatch data.
Official catch statistics typically only include landings data from commercial fisheries and do not include other important sources of catch such as recreational fisheries, discards, or illegal fishing. Here, we estimate the major sources of marine withdrawals for fisheries in California, Oregon and Washington for the 1950-2010 period by including sources of typically unreported catch (such as discards and recreational fisheries) and by replacing gaps in the time series with actual estimates.
Physiology includes quantitative relationships to explain key concepts and can be a hinderance to learning for students with poor math skills. The authors propose that students who fit this criterion may benefit from incorporating singing or listening to content rich jingles during in-class activities. This study incorporated feedback from 231 students across four college physiology classes to develop a three-part process to develop math related jingles for subjects, such as biology.
One of the greatest challenges in adaptive management of natural resources in engaging a diverse set of actors and knowledge systems across management levels and institutional boundaries. Bridging organization is a strategy to facilitate interactions among actors. This study examines how network connections between group members affect functionality of a group and whether these structures actually allow for more effective outcomes. The study focused on the Center for Ocean Solutions, a bridging organization at Stanford University, to observe and understand these structural characteristics.
This paper identifies the need to develop Studies in Expertise and Experience (SEE) in order to address real-world problems, including fisheries management. A key finding of this study shows that the inclusion of interactional expertise can facilitate collaboration but must be approached in a way that maintains trust and acknowledges collaborators may have contentious history. Concepts of SEE must be researched further in order to become applicable and practical instruments to sustain effective collaborations necessary to address an array of environmental problems.
Fishery improvement projects (FIP) have emerged as a way to assist fisheries to reach environmental sustainability, with set guidelines established by a group of NGOs as part of the Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions. To understand how these current guidelines are utilized in practice to help achieve sustainability outcomes, researchers conducted interviews with stakeholders and analyzed FIP documents. This study provides key findings regarding informants’ motivations around the FIP process, including Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certifications and overall power in management processes. This paper concludes offering recommendations for improvement and future research needs to improve knowledge around FIPs and legitimize the current work of NGOs in this area.
Graduate students face a challenge in bridging the research-implementation gap due to limited opportunities for interdisciplinary training and lack of institutional support for application of research results. This article examines the ways in which graduate students can create resources within their academic institutions, institutionalize resources, and engage with stakeholders to promote real-world conservation outcomes.
This paper examines the value and feasibility of gear substitution through a case study of the sablefish fishery. This fishery enabled comparison of gears because it uses three types: trawls, longlines, and pots (traps). Through this comparison, the paper shows that gear substitution would offer ecological and economic benefits while being socio-culturally acceptable.
As a result of efforts by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and many stakeholders–including domestic and foreign fishermen, environmentalists, and government agencies– to reduce mortality of sea turtles in shrimp trawls, many trawl fisheries around the world now use a version of the turtle excluder device (TED). This article chronicles the contributions of NMFS to this effort and summarizes the impetus for and results of major developments and little known events in the TED research. The article also discusses how these influenced the course of subsequent research.
Bycatch can harm marine ecosystems, reduce biodiversity, lead to the death of protected species, and have severe economic implications for fisheries. The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2006 (MSRA) aims to minimize bycatch, seabird interactions, bycatch mortality, and post-release mortality in federally managed fisheries, as well as identify nations whose vessels are engaged in the bycatch of protected living marine resources (PLMR’s) under specified circumstances. This paper summarizes how NMFS has and is implementing the new bycatch provisions in the MSRA to address bycatch both domestically and internationally.
This commentary encourages the conservation community to take advantage of embedded experiences in other communities such as government offices or NGOs in order to improve both the policy relevance and effective communication of their research.
This chapter describes a framework for understanding and managing complex systems that couple human beings, nature, and technology. The framework includes five major components: superordinate goals, moral imagination, trading zones, adaptive management, and anticipatory governance. This framework is applied to two detailed case studies, one of which is turtle excluder devices. The paper discusses the limitations of the framework in the light of these case studies, along with suggestions for improvement.
This letter to the journal BioScience, suggests that conservation biologists not only make recommendations for conservation, but also help implement these recommendations while engaging in grassroots efforts to gain academic recognition for their efforts.
Anecdotally it is said that fishers are the best inventors of marine conservation technologies. This paper describes case studies of TEDs and dolphin conservation technology with a focus on local inventors. It offers empirical proof that fishers are indeed successful inventors of marine conservation technology. It also details how inventors can have substantial influence in encouraging the adoption of their inventions locally.
This paper explores the evolution of a trading zone by organizing the case study of turtle excluder devices within the model proposed by Collins et al. (2007). That case study offers evidence that trading zones evolve and that the concepts of enforced and fractionated trading zones can be used for describing and defining the complexities of actual exchanges. For each step of the evolution described in the case study, the article describes the forces that drove these transitions. It also presents an adapted trading zone model that is a better fit for the turtle excluder device case study.
Incidental death of sea turtles in the profitable U.S. shrimp fishery has become one of the most controversial fisheries management problems in the country. Cooperation between numerous, diverse stakeholder groups led to the successful solution – the turtle excluder device (TED).
Although substantial money has been spent on the invention and diffusion of conservation technologies such as TEDs, little attention has been paid to the process by which these tools are adopted. In this case study, Kiki examines the use of TEDs within the U.S. shrimp trawl fisheries to more fully understand how users learn about and begin to use these types of conservation technologies.
Examination of the controversial and well-known case study of dolphin bycatch in the U.S. tuna fishery reveals that effective problem-solving was hindered by institutional tensions. These tensions negatively affected decision-making authority and made integration of different expertise difficult at best. In this study, Kiki compares the profiles of four individuals who played distinct roles in the problem-solving process to shed light on how to more effectively introduce conservation technologies in the future by taking into account expertise and experience.
Although substantial money has been spent on the invention and diffusion of conservation technologies, such as TEDs, little attention has been paid to the process by which these tools are adopted. This case study examines the use of TEDs within the U.S. shrimp trawl fisheries to more fully understand how users learn about and begin to use these types of conservation technologies.
This article contextualizes two major actions that potentially could change the landscape of sea turtle conservation and ignite controversy: the October 2001 proposal by National Marine Fisheries Service’s to substantially amend the TED regulations and the petition filed jointly by two environmental groups on January 10, 2002, to list certain subpopulations of loggerhead sea turtles as endangered. Both the petition and the proposal result from public concern and scientific evidence that existing conservation measures were not sufficient to allow recovery of some sea turtle populations, mostly likely loggerhead and perhaps leatherback and green turtles as well.
