An Enormous, Immensely Complicated Intervention: Groundfish, the New England Fishery Management Council, and the World Fisheries Crisis download epub

There is no question that fisheries management is "An enormously, immensely complicated intervention," as Spencer Apollonio and Jacob Dykstra write in their new book about the New England Fishery Management Council. Both authors have long experience with the council: Dykstra was involved in creating the council and a member for seven years, while Apollonio is a marine biologist who has worked for a state management organization and the first director of the New England council. Their backgrounds are different but they are in agreement that the management system doesn't work and they have written a book that explores why.

Their catchy title phrase comes from one of the best books about fishery management, Industry in Trouble,Industry in Trouble: The Federal Government and the New England Fisheries written by Margaret Dewar in 1983 about the New England fisheries.

They are critical of Maximum Sustained Yield, or MSY, which is at the scientific heart of American fisheries management. They write that it systematically removes large, old, slow-growing fish from a population, leaving a preponderance of young, fast-growing fish. This will allow the population to reach its greatest natural rate of increase, thus providing the maximum sustainable harvest. The difficulty is that such an attenuated population can attain the largest growth rate, but it is not sustainable. The younger fish population may begin to oscillate, shifting the population into "a lower hierarchical level with inherently faster dynamics and greater instability and unpredictability," (200). Multiple year classes lend stability to fish populations, allowing them to withstand disturbances, such as shifts in currents, temperatures, and food supply. Species that are long lived, with delayed maturity, naturally select for a population structure with multiple age classes. MSY, by reducing the number of year classes, works against evolutionary adaptation to the environment.

One of the consequences of this increased instability in species is that stock assessments are markedly expensive, as the authors point out. They do not add that stock assessments can be notoriously inaccurate, especially when dealing with low stock sizes. Management, they write, "becomes ever more complex, burdensome, expensive, and confusing, with an increasing probability of decreasing efficacy," (202).

Their solution is to move to an ecosystem based model, which would simplify the management process, while ensuring the protection of multiple year-classes that give the populations resilience. The author do an admirable job up to this point, but how to get to an eco-system based management process is a little murky. Are we going to write MSY out of American fisheries management? I'm all in favor of that, but as they point out, it is "very probably politically unrealistic" to suppose MSY is going to be abolished anytime soon (223). And I certainly agree that its administrative limitations should be acknowledged (especially to the public, which is constantly told fisheries are managed on the best available science). It would indeed be a useful exercise to think about a management model that could replace it. The thoughts of two individuals who have been so involved in fisheries management for so long would be useful here.

Apollonio and Dykstra believe that fisheries should be managed for sustainability, and this is best achieved by preserving the structure of fish ecosystems. In other words, as British scientist Michael Graham put it in 1943, in The Fish Gate,The Fish Gate. if you protect the fish stocks, you will protect the livelihood of fishermen. "Fisheries that are unlimited become unprofitable."[1]

This is a "must read" for any person involved in Fisheries Management, past, present and future.
The book does a wonderful job of pointing out many existing problems, which if not addressed, will surely lead to future failures in the management plans.
One very important thing was not explained about the relationship between the two authors. Jacob Dykstra and Spencer Apollonio were on opposite sides of the table and when it came to the Fishery Management Plans(FMP) ,and rarely, if ever agreed on any thing at the time. To have both of them collaborate on this book and agree on both the problems the FMP's currently are facing and come up with some ideas to solve them is a major statement.
I had the unique privilege of working for Jacob on board the F/V JANILEEN II as his Mate and Swing Captain from 1981 until I bought his boat in 1986. Spencer Apollonio has been a long time friend of my parents. Because of this, I was hearing Jacob's frustrations that he was feeling at all the meetings he was attending while I was running his boat. I would also hear the "other side" from my father. There seemed to be no simple solutions then as well as now. But there are clearly some things that must be done to insure we will continue to have a viable fishery for generations to come.

Kris Boehmer