Sustaining Human Health for a Sustainable Industry – Making Sense to Make Safer Healthier Fisheries

Sustaining the health and wellbeing of people in Fisheries has never been more important. Mental Health and wellbeing programs, psychological and physical safety programs all require commitment and behaviour change at every level to be successful.  This session will commence with an introduction to the concepts and linkages between mental health, psychological health and safety and physical health and safety.  A number of experts will then interactively explore practical ways that Fisheries are working to improve outcomes for their human communities.  Innovative practices, programs and projects will be showcased and tools shared in practical ways enabling participants to ‘try’ some of the interesting tools that have been developed in different communities. The session will include with an interactive group ideation of new ways to create sustainable and healthy workplaces for humans of fisheries.

Organizer:

Jo Marshall, Seafood Industry Australia, [email protected]

Ecosystem-based Management in Multi-species and Environmentally Dynamic Fisheries

The effects of climate change on marine ecosystems are accelerating and projections indicate that fish production will be further affected within the relatively short term (e.g. 10 years), to the point where management advice that doesn’t consider this change could be rendered invalid. South East Australia is considered a climate change hot-spot and is home to a number of important commercial fisheries, including one of Australia’s most valuable multi-species and multi-gear fisheries – the Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery (SESF).

Recently, the SESSF has been the focus of two important initiatives that will each be the focus of a 90-minute round table session. Relevant background is provided at each of the links.

Session 1 (1400-1530): Formal integration of climate risk in the decision-making process (Discussion Paper).

Session 2 (1600-1730): Transition to a multi-species fishery harvest strategy for the SESSF (Discussion Paper).

Each session will commence with a high-level overview of both projects and seek feedback from roundtable participants to strengthen AFMA’s Climate Risk Integration Framework and transition to a multi-species harvest strategy.

Organizer:

Daniel Corrie, Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA), [email protected]

Sustainable Fisheries Management through Innovative Seafood Traceability Solutions

In the fight to ensure that our seafood is safe, legally caught, and accurately labelled, traceability is a critical tool. However, to facilitate broad adoption, seafood traceability solutions must be easily replicable and affordable for fisheries management. In this context, we invite examples from around the world, where seafood traceability methods are supporting sustainable management of fisheries, particularly cephalopod fisheries.  Case-studies focused on innovative traceability approaches such as blockchain-based traceability, geochemical, biochemical, and molecular tools are welcome contributions.

Organizers:

Ian Gleadall, AiCeph LLC, [email protected]
Hassan Moustahfid, NOAA
Warwick Sauer, Rhodes University

Status of Fish and Fisheries in the Himalayan Region

Over 1.3 billion people depend on water and the associated aquatic  resources in the Himalayan region. The ecosystems  of the “third pole” and the animals inhabiting them are threatened with human activities and rapid global change. A wide deficiency of knowledge on the fish and aquatic life in these water bodies has hindered efforts for protection, as well as slowed the progress toward mitigating the impacts to rivers, lakes, and wetlands in the region. This session will serve as a platform for researchers, policy-makers and resource managers to present findings, opinions, approaches and visions for relevant work in the region. Ultimately, we expect a synthesis of the available knowledge among the presenters, who can benefit from each other’s expertise towards reaching the common overarching goals.

Organizers:

Vaskar Nepal, Western Illinois University, [email protected]
Mary Fabrizio, William & Mary, Virginia Institute of Marine Science
Julie Claussen, Fisheries Conservation Foundation
David Philipp, Fisheries Conservation Foundation
Troy Tuckey, Virginia Institute of Marine Science
Hemanta Dhakal, Prithvi Narayan Campus, Tribhuvan University, Kaski
Rahul Ranjan, Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur, Chitwan

Solving Sustainability Challenges at the Aquatic Food-Climate-Biodiversity Nexus

This section provides a platform for an international and interdisciplinary panel to discuss the development of marine and aquatic food-climate-biodiversity solutions that explicitly consider their complex social and ecological contexts. The panel will highlight case studies in Canada, China, Costa Rica, Nigeria/Ghana and the Netherlands to elucidate different potential pathways towards achieving food security, climate mitigation and biodiversity conservation goals. These pathways include Indigenous reconciliation (Canada), aquaculture (China), land-sea interactions (Costa Rica), eliminating IUU fishing (Nigeria/Ghana) and circular economic (the Netherlands). These case studies will also illuminate the diverse social, economic, political, cultural and ecological contexts of food-climate-biodiversity challenges and the commonality and differences in their solutions. Panelists from Canada, China, and Costa Rica will discuss how their experiences and knowledge can be integrated to generate the knowledge needed to develop viable pathways to solve nexus challenges, and transfer this knowledge to inform policy-making.

Organizer:

William Cheung, The University of British Columbia, [email protected]

Social and Ecological Dynamics of Global Distant Water Fleets and Emerging Policy Opportunities

Despite a recent increase in research on distant water fleets (DWFs), many details regarding their scale and scope remain unknown. Similarly, there is much to learn about their impacts on fisheries sustainability, local economies, and well-being; many governments around the world have identified DWFs as a key threat to the health of marine ecosystems, domestic economic opportunities, food security, and human rights. Many countries also engage with distant water fishing nations and companies for the economic benefits they provide. This session will present a series of talks outlining a wide array of the social and ecological dimensions of DWFs globally. It will also include an expert panel and roundtable discussion to outline future research and funding needs and provide a blueprint for policy action. Individuals from academia, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and governments will come together to discuss the past, present, and future DWF research and policy agenda.

Organizers:

Rachel Zuercher, University of Rhode Island,
Austin Humphries, University of Rhode Island, [email protected]
Lauren Josephs, University of Rhode Island
Elin Torell, University of Rhode Island
Rashid Sumaila, University of British Columbia
Maria L.D. Palomares, University of British Columbia

Shark Depredation: Managing a Wicked Problem

This session will explore the challenging issue of shark depredation and current research directions involving researchers and resource managers from around the world. Key focus topics will be identifying the impacts of depredation, data collection methods for quantifying depredation, education approaches for increasing public awareness about the issue and tools for managing and mitigating depredation.

Organizers:

Jonathan Mitchell, Queensland Government, Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, [email protected]
Gary Jackson, Western Australia Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development
Marcus Drymon, Coastal Research and Extension Center, Mississippi State University

Rockfishes, Marine Protected Areas, and Anglers

Rockfishes are vulnerable species to overfishing and in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, a series of Marine Protected Areas across North America’s west coast were implemented in an effort to protect these species (among others) from overharvest. However anglers can play an important role in protecting these species through citizen science monitoring initiatives, improved awareness of the challenges these species face, better methods of avoiding them as bycatch, and through the use of descending devices when releasing them. This symposium focuses on the intersection of these three areas, and we are seeking presentations that explore: (i) how rockfish populations have changed due to these MPA’s; (ii) how anglers are playing a role in supporting these protected areas through citizen science; and (iii) what we have learned about best practices to encourage the long term sustainability of  these species.

The citizen science approach used in this session can greatly expand the diversity of those involved in fisheries science by demonstrating how anglers can be included in the scientific process. These new participants can strengthen the bond between fisheries professionals and the angling public in two important ways. First by expanding the capacity to collect data on a wide range of fisheries science questions, and second by tapping into the diverse experiences of these anglers, from people who are actively involved in their fishery. Integrating these under-represented groups (anglers) into the field of fisheries science, this approach has the potential to vastly expand this emerging field of science.

Organizer:

Road Maps for Incorporating New Methods into Science-based Fisheries Management

Changes in the climate, marine ecosystems, and management policies  have increased the demand for novel and more holistic approaches to modeling ecosystems and resource management strategies. However, building trust and relationships with managers takes time, and management systems rely on precautionary foundations with many guard rails against incorporating new approaches before they have been fully proven. We lack a consistent road map for the burden of proof new approaches should be required to clear before they can be adopted to support management. Furthermore, to avoid leaving data-limited and data-moderate systems out of innovation, the burden of proof for these systems must accommodate the limited data and increased uncertainty inherent in most of the world’s fisheries. In this session, we will explore technical and interpersonal approaches for demonstrating how new methods can be incorporated into tactical management across scales and regional jurisdictions.

Organizers:

Christine Stawitz, NOAA Fisheries, [email protected]
Claudio Castillo Jordan, SPC
Anne Cooper, ICES
Sean Anderson, DFO

Reckoning with Colonialism in Fisheries: First Steps for Researchers

Time: 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM

There is growing recognition that colonialism shapes fisheries sciences and management in contexts around the globe. Calls for justice in fisheries governance require systems-level change to devolve power. For individuals working in fisheries governance today, that means reckoning with a massive paradigm shift over the coming decades in the ways that science is conducted and decisions are made. This special session, aimed at researchers who are in the early stages of confronting colonialism in their work, will feature experiences from researchers around the globe who encounter colonialism in the processes and outcomes of their work. This workshop will be centred on our own learning, offering both what we are coming to learn about decolonization, equity, and justice in fisheries, and what we still struggle to come to terms with. We offer this in the hope that in doing so, we can help those struggles manifest into an undoing of contemporary fisheries governance.

Please note the organizers of this workshop are working to secure funding to support participation from Indigenous colleagues, from students and from early career researchers through provision of a workshop fee bursary. Please fill out this form (hyperlink: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeATG3ozgLqW8jxWOEx6S8aDQg-_bxBG-vFrBM-Zu00LIBhug/viewform?usp=sf_link) if you’d like to receive financial support.

Organizers:

Rachael Cadman, Dalhousie University, [email protected]
Megan Bailey, Dalhousie University
Andrea Reid, UBC
Jennifer Silver, University of Guelph
Hussain Sinan, Dalhousie University
Christine Knott, San Diego State University