A JOINT PROGRAM FOR TRAINING AND RESEARCH IN MARINE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT MODELING

James E. Wilen (UCD)

Link to NOAA Strategic Plan: NOAA's Mission Goal 1: Protect, Restore, and Manage the Use of Coastal and Ocean Resources through Ecosystem-based Management

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND SPECIFIC PLANS TO ACHIEVE THEM

The main objective of this program is to facilitate graduate education in the critical need area of marine resource management modeling. The training we are providing includes courses in population dynamics, stock assessment, conservation biology, resource economics and policy analysis, oceanography, and marine ecology. We draw from a student population that includes students trained in biology, ecology, mathematics and statistics, and economics. The program funds the research of students in Ph.D. degree programs in both Ecology and Agricultural and Resource Economics. The curriculum we have created draws on existing courses in both degree programs, with additional seminars and new course development. A unique part of the program is its required crossover courses (e.g. Ecology degree students take fisheries economics and policy analysis courses; Economics students take courses in population dynamics and resource modeling). The program opens up opportunities to engage in collaborative research and thesis projects focused on current resource management modeling issues at the local, national, and global level.

RESEARCH ACCOMPLISHMENTS

This year, our graduate training program graduated its second and third Ph.D. students, Hiro Uchida and Joshua Abbott.

Hiro Uchida worked with Jim Wilen in Agricultural and Resource Economics, completing the program in December. Hiro’s thesis examined the prospects for harvester managed cooperative fisheries, partially in response to a proposal by San Diego sea urchin fishermen to establish a territorially-based co-management program off San Diego. Hiro’s thesis addressed both conceptual empirical aspects of coops. The conceptual part developed some new models to explain the inner workings of harvester-managed coops, particularly behavior related to stewardship, spatial management of effort, and joint marketing of landings. The empirical part involved a quantitative analysis of Japan’s nearshore Fishery Management Organizations (FMOs). FMOs have been used to manage shellfish and other nearshore fisheries for decades in Japan, and they are a potential model organizational design for the urchin cooperative promoted by Pete Halmay and other interested San Diego urchin divers. Hiro has been hired as an Assistant Professor of Resource and Environmental Economics at the University of Rhode Island (URI). The URI program he is joining is considered one of the top two or three programs in fisheries economics and fisheries policy analysis in the world.

The program’s third graduate, Joshua Abbott, also finished his Ph.D. degree in Agricultural and Resource Economics at UCD under the guidance of Jim Wilen. Josh’s thesis investigated bycatch behavior in the Bering Sea groundfish fishery. Bycatch problems plague fisheries worldwide, and most policy attention is devoted to technological solutions such as bycatch excluder devices attached to trawl gear. Josh’s thesis examines an experiment adopted by fishermen in the Bering Sea that attempts to induce fishermen to change behavior. The thesis utilizes an extensive database gathered by onboard observers and uses the data to estimate the tendency of fishermen to avoid bycatch hotspots. Josh has been hired by the new School of Sustainability at Arizona State University to continue his work on fisheries policy issues.

In addition to our two recently graduated Ph.D. students, we currently have three other students in the training program. Jose Cancino is working with Jim Wilen, examining harvester-managed cooperatives in the “loco” or false abalone fisheries off the nearshore areas of Chile. Taylor Chapple is in the Ecology Ph.D. program, working with Lou Botsford at WFCB. Taylor is developing a new approach to assessing fisheries with only CPUE and size data. He has developed a method for estimating fishing mortality from age structured models and CPUE data, and is attempting to improve that estimate by adding size data collected in port sampling. The primary collaborator thus far for Taylor’s work has been Suzy Kohin of NMFS, La Jolla. Liz Moffitt is the third student in the program, also in the Ph.D. program in Ecology, working with Botsford at WFCB. Liz is working on a method for assessing the contribution of proposed Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to sustainability (persistence) of populations. This method was developed for species with sedentary adults, and Liz's contribution is to develop the capability to include the effects of juvenile and adult swimming behavior. The method is intended to be used in the MLPA process. We collaborated with Michael O'Farrell of NMFS on this project and traveled to the Santa Cruz NMFS lab to discuss these issues with Steve Ralston of NMFS.