Steve is living in New Zealand for six months to spend time with the Seafood Industry Council (SeaFIC). Steve wants to better understand how the Council successfully brings scientists and fishermen together, through promoting industry’s involvement in research, data analysis and policy advice. You can see all his blog posts here.
18/01/13
Bleary eyed, perched on my bike plummeting down the 400m from our house to sea level, my mornings start with a Felix Baumgartner like experience. You can pay a lot of money for such thrills in New Zealand, so maybe I should set up shop! Wise to the traffic, my colleagues at Seafood NZ tend to start early. I’ve taken to starting earlier too and enjoying getting home earlier for it.
Already my reading and interviews reveal that New Zealand has a strong framework for enabling stakeholder participation in research, and that this is captured in everyday thinking on fisheries governance.
“To be effective, management of inshore finfish fisheries needs to be well informed and collaborative, with all those in the sector demonstrating stewardship – that is, supporting and contributing to management and being accountable for their actions.” (Finfish plan)
Seafood New Zealands’ Chief Scientist, David Middleton reflects that while there’s lots of stakeholder driven science, like elsewhere, the use of fishers and knowledge and know-how is often rendered as ‘anecdotal information’ and not incorporated in to research on the ecology and sustainability of stocks. I plan to find out more and see if valuable information is being missed.
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