New Zealand: What did I say? What did I learn?

Letter from America: Some thoughts on ecosystem-based fishery management.

R.C. Francis

School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences

University of Washington

• EBFM is about context rather than method

• In order to consider the concept of sustainability, a fishery should be considered as an integrated concept of humans in nature.

• Three essential concepts: resilience, evolution, scale

Letter from America: Some thoughts on ecosystem-based fishery management.

Northern California Current

Gulf of A

laska

Eastern Bering Sea

Aleutian Islands

• Sustainability implies maintaining the capacity of ecological systems to support social and economic systems.

• A resilient social-ecological system, which can buffer a great deal of change or disturbance, is synonymous with ecological, economic and social sustainability.

Social-Ecological Resilience and SustainabilityBerkes et al. 2003. Navigating Social-Ecological Systems

Social-Ecological ResilienceBerkes et al. 2003. Navigating Social-Ecological Systems

Three defining characteristics:

• The amount of change a system can undergo and still retain the same controls on function and structure.

• The degree to which the system is capable of self-organization.

• The ability to build and increase the capacity for learning and adaptation.

Gulf of Alaska: Reorganization happens …

1 million mt harvest

1 million mt harvest

Bond et al. 2003, (updated by Mick Spillane)

North Pacific Winter SST Anomalies 1950-2005

EOF1 (PDO)

EOF2 (Victoria)

North Pacific Climate: Reorganization Happens

Dominant signal in SST PCA shifted from PC1 to PC2 in 1990

SST PC1 => PDOSST PC2 => Victoria Pattern

SST PC1

SST PC2

Social-Ecological ResilienceBerkes et al. 2003. Navigating social-ecological systems

Three defining characteristics:

• The amount of change a system can undergo and still retain the same controls on function and structure.

• The degree to which the system is capable of self-organization.

• The ability to build and increase the capacity for learning and adaptation.

Alaska: Self-Organization

1970s 1980s

1990s

King Crab Joint Venture Trawl

Shoreside Delivery At Sea Processing

Self-organization at the community scale.

Self-organization at the community scale.

Social-Ecological ResilienceBerkes et al. 2003. Navigating social-ecological systems

Three defining characteristics:

• The amount of change a system can undergo and still retain the same controls on function and structure.

• The degree to which the system is capable of self-organization.

• The ability to build and increase the capacity for learning and adaptation.

Prof. Dave Fluharty

• 9 years on NPFMC• Chair NOAA Ecosystem

Principles Advisory Panel• Ecosystem Considerations to

NPFMC SAFE Report (1995- present)

• Chair NOAA Science Advisory Board (2007 - )

EBS - Pollock are “little farmer fish”

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EBS POLLOCK

Recent declines in EBS forage fish biomass

Principle of IncompatibilityBerkes and Berkes (unpublished)

• An inverse relationship exists between the complexity of a system and the degree of precision that can be used to meaningfully describe it.

• Increasing recognition that the use of a few indicators, no matter how well chosen, may be inadequate in capturing complexity.

• Simple rules seem appropriate for dealing with complex adaptive systems.

Indigenous knowledge seems to build holistic pictures of the environment by considering large numbers of variables qualitatively (Berkes and Berkes, unpublished)

Negative PDONegative PDO Cool water, Shallow mixed layer, Weak stratification, High nutrients, “Subarctic” food web (abundant forage fish, fewer warm water predators)

Positive PDOPositive PDO Warm water, Deep mixed layer, Strong stratification, Few nutrients, Low productivity, “Subtropical” food web (reduced forage fish, more abundant pelagic predators)

Principle of IncompatibilityBerkes and Berkes (unpublished)

• An inverse relationship exists between the complexity of a system and the degree of precision that can be used to meaningfully describe it.

• Increasing recognition that the use of a few indicators, no matter how well chosen, may be inadequate in capturing complexity.

• Simple rules seem appropriate for dealing with complex adaptive systems.

Principle of IncompatibilityBerkes and Berkes (unpublished)

• An inverse relationship exists between the complexity of a system and the degree of precision that can be used to meaningfully describe it.

• Increasing recognition that the use of a few indicators, no matter how well chosen, may be inadequate in capturing complexity.

• Simple rules seem appropriate for dealing with complex adaptive systems.

EBS - Pollock are “little farmer fish”

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

bio

ma

ss

de

ns

ity

(t/k

m^

2)

EBS POLLOCK

Recent declines in EBS forage fish biomass

What did I learn?

• Marine resource science and policy

• Climate change– Leadership– Proaction

New Zealand is a small country with limited resources for natural resource science and management

What did I learn?

• Marine resource science and policy

• Climate change/sustainability– Leadership– Proaction

Leadership

• Environmental sustainability challenge – central to NZ national identity

• Lead by action: carbon neutral public service

Helen Clark

New Zealand’s future is dependent on long-term strategies for our economy, society, environment, culture and way of life. Those strategies have to be driven by strong leadership and sound policies.

• Our challenge is to build a sustainable economy based on innovation and quality in a world where high volume, low quality goods and services will always undercut us on price.

• Our challenge is to sustain family and community living standards in our open, competitive economy.

• Our challenge is to sustain our unique culture,

values, and national identity in a world of globalised media and culture.

• New Zealand can aim to be the first nation to

be truly sustainable – across four pillars of the economy, society, the environment, and nationhood.

• New Zealand can aspire to become carbon neutral in its economy and way of life.– Biofuels sales obligation = 3.4% of annual energy

content of petrol and diesel sales by 2012– Permanent Forest Sinks Obligation

• “I believe that in the years to come, the pride we take in our quest for sustainability and carbon neutrality will define our nation, just as our quest for a nuclear free world has over the past 23 years.” Helen Clark

2007 Sustainability Priorities for Government

• Towards a carbon neutral public service– Lead by example– 6 departments will commit to reaching carbon

neutrality by 2012– DOC – air travel, electricity and fuel use, vehicle

emissions, new “sustainable” office building

• Role of govt. procurement in achieving sustainability– Use purchasing power to help drive innovation,

cleaner production, and improved cost effectiveness over the whole life cycle of goods and services.

• Out In The Cold – Climate change is the single most important global issue we face. If we are going to defend the interests of people who are most vulnerable to it, we are going to have to offend the interests of people whose produce has a high carbon footprint. George Monbiot, UK Journalist

• Not Buying It – Food miles – “If you carry it to its logical conclusion, you would end up growing bananas in the UK because youy’re minimizing the food miles.” Philip Gregan, NZ Wine Institute

• Flight or Fright – “Fly less and stay longer.” Tony Wheeler (Lonely Planet) and Mark Ellingham (Rough Guide)

• Out In The Cold – Climate change is the single most important global issue we face. If we are going to defend the interests of people who are most vulnerable to it, we are going to have to offend the interests of people whose produce has a high carbon footprint. George Monbiot, UK Journalist

• Not Buying It – Food miles – “If you carry it to its logical conclusion, you would end up growing bananas in the UK because youy’re minimizing the food miles.” Philip Gregan, NZ Wine Institute

• Flight or Fright – “Fly less and stay longer.” Tony Wheeler (Lonely Planet) and Mark Ellingham (Rough Guide)

• Out In The Cold – Climate change is the single most important global issue we face. If we are going to defend the interests of people who are most vulnerable to it, we are going to have to offend the interests of people whose produce has a high carbon footprint. George Monbiot, UK Journalist

• Not Buying It – Food miles – “If you carry it to its logical conclusion, you would end up growing bananas in the UK because youy’re minimizing the food miles.” Philip Gregan, NZ Wine Institute

• Flight or Fright – “Fly less and stay longer.” Tony Wheeler (Lonely Planet) and Mark Ellingham (Rough Guide)

Once again, Helen Clark …

• In our high value markets in Europe, we face increasing pressure on our trade and tourism, from competitors who are all too ready to use against us the distance our goods must travel to market, and the distance tourists must travel to us.

• By lowering our carbon footprint, we strengthen our position against that kind of protectionism – and the government is working to lower the footprint in many ways.