BE/CNH: Disparate Scales of Process and Nearshore Fishery Management

公众对近岸渔业管理的信心处于历史最低点。在美国西海岸，几乎所有水深超过20英寻（约36米）的水域都禁止进行海底捕捞，以保护几种岩鱼免于在当地灭绝。在北海峡群岛周围建立了禁止捕捞的海洋保护区，作为保护生物多样性和鱼类丰度的一种手段。有充分证据表明，近岸水域渔业和生态多样性的下降已经产生了一种管理近岸鱼类资源的“危机模式”哲学。这个跨学科的研究项目将研究近岸社区和依赖它们的渔业的复杂性。近岸渔业将自然（生态）和人类（渔业管理）过程结合在一个复杂的新兴动态系统中。该项目的目标是在加利福尼亚沿海环境的基础上对近岸渔业及其管理模式进行过程级描述。调查人员将研究由于混乱的沿海环流、被捕捞生物的生命周期、近岸栖息地的生产力和适宜性、鱼类捕捞的强度和性质、管理渔业的经济学、渔民和渔业法规以及执行法规的官僚体系之间的相互作用而产生的新兴复杂性。这些分析的目的是评估近岸渔业环境的成本、利润、不确定性、种群生存力和生态价值之间的平衡点。对水流、鱼和捕鱼之间的相互作用进行预测性理解的核心是时间和空间尺度的概念。控制这个自然-人类耦合系统的物理、生物和社会经济过程在本质上不同的空间和时间尺度上运行。如果不明确考虑尺度的不匹配，渔业管理不善可能会继续有增无减。沿海海洋环流模型、海洋生命周期动力学、信息对渔业管理的价值以及面对不确定性时管理选择的后果等方面的最新进展，独立地创造了将近岸渔业管理综合方法组合起来所必需的各个部分。此外，监测沿海生态系统动态的大规模项目为参数化和测试这些模型提供了必要的经验数据。研究人员将把这些组成部分连接到新的计算和概念模型中，以研究面对不可避免的物理和生物不确定性时的最佳管理选择。所处理的问题和将研究的概念框架将具有广泛的全球影响。鱼类种群和产量的下降并不局限于任何国家或地理区域。事实上，空间和时间尺度不匹配的核心问题几乎是所有海洋渔业的特征。此外，虽然渔业管理通常止于政治边界，但海洋流动和鱼类却不会。沿海生态系统的生态尺度本质上具有国际性。这项提议的努力与墨西哥、智利、新西兰和澳大利亚正在进行的生态项目之间的国际伙伴关系将把这项努力的区域重点扩大到全球范围。该项目还将为各个年龄段的人提供教育机会。该项目将整合小学、中学、本科和研究生阶段以及成人项目的跨学科教育机会。该项目获得了2003年度环境生物复杂性特别竞赛奖项的支持，该竞赛侧重于自然和人类系统耦合动力学。

Public confidence in management of nearshore fisheries is at an all time low. Along the U.S. West Coast, nearly all waters deeper than 20 fathoms (~36 m) are closed to all bottom fishing to protect several species of rockfish from local extinction. No-take marine reserves have been created around the northern Channel Islands as a means of protecting biodiversity and fish abundances. The well-documented decline of fisheries and ecological diversity of nearshore waters has engendered a "crisis-mode" philosophy for the management of nearshore fish resources. This interdisciplinary research project will examine the complexity of nearshore communities and the fisheries that depend upon them. Nearshore fisheries couple natural (ecological) and human (fishery management) processes in an emergent dynamic system that is rich in complexity. The project's goal is to develop a process-level description of nearshore fisheries and their management patterned after California coastal environments. The investigators will examine the emergent complexity that arises due to interactions among chaotic coastal circulations, fished organism life cycles, the productivity and suitability of nearshore habitats, the intensity and nature of fish harvesting, the economics governing fisheries, fishers and fishery regulations, and the bureaucratic system that implements regulations. The aim of these analyses is to assess the balance points among costs, profits, uncertainties, stock viability, and ecological values of nearshore fished environments. Central to developing a predictive understanding of the interactions between flow, fish and fishing is the notion of temporal and spatial scales. The physics, biology, and socioeconomic processes governing this coupled natural-human system operate on inherently different spatial and temporal scales. Without considering the mismatch in scales explicitly, mismanagement of fisheries is likely to continue unabated. Recent advances in modeling coastal ocean circulations, marine life cycle dynamics, the values of information to fishery management, and the consequences of management choices in the face of uncertainty have independently created the pieces necessary to assemble a synthetic approach to nearshore fisheries management. Moreover, large-scale programs monitoring the dynamics of coastal ecosystems are providing the empirical data necessary to parameterize and test these models. The investigators will link these components into new computational and conceptual models that examine optimal management choices in the face of unavoidable physical and biological uncertainty.The issues addressed and conceptual frameworks that will be studied will have broad, global impacts. Declines in fish stocks and yields are not restricted to any nation or geographical region. Indeed, the core problems from mismatches in spatial and temporal scales are characteristic of nearly all marine fisheries. In addition, although fisheries management commonly stops at political borders, ocean flows and fish do not. The ecological scales of coastal ecosystems are inherently international in scope. The international partnerships between this proposed effort and ongoing ecological programs in Mexico, Chile, New Zealand, and Australia will expand the regional focus of this effort to global dimensions. This project also will provide educational opportunities across a range of ages. This program will integrate opportunities for interdisciplinary education at elementary, secondary, undergraduate, and graduate levels as well as through adult programs. This project is supported by an award resulting from the FY 2003 special competition in Biocomplexity in the Environment focusing on the Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems.