VIDEO: Ray Hillborn Comments on What Makes a Sustainable Fishery
CWPA preamble: Our Coastal Pelagic Species fisheries all account for environmental variability in fishery management. Our sardine fishery is the poster fish for ecosystem-based management — perhaps the most precautionary management in the world.
Published by permission
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] March 25, 2015
In our latest video segment the ongoing series profiling the history of fishery management in Alaska and the US, produced by Steve Minor, renowned professor of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington Ray Hilborn offers his opinion of what fishery sustainability means from a scientific perspective. He is critical of simplistic arguments that use changes in stock- such as is happening with sardines in California – as any kind of sustainabiity metric.
According to Hilborn fishery sustainability shouldn’t solely depend on catch volumes on a year-to-year basis. Hilborn says the volatility of fish stocks can skew data. Rather, Hilborn highlights a multitude of factors that should be considered before a fishery can be labeled sustainable. Hilborn says how a fishery is managed over time and what motives are driving that particular scheme should largely be considered before an ecolabel is approved.
Watch the video here.
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