Field Notes: Knauss in Hawaii

Aloha!  This past week, Knauss took me on a tropical adventure.  Destination: Waikiki Beach; purpose: False Killer Whale Take Reduction Team meeting.  My office generously sent me halfway across the Pacific because I expressed interest in our marine mammal bycatch program and have been redesigning fact sheets, tracking historical funding, and working to collaborate with the NMFS Fish Watch team.  On this trip, I witnessed first hand the advantages and challenges of a multi-stakeholder process and had time to reflect on some of the benefits of this fellowship. 

False Killer Whale, by SeaWorld

In this year, we are all given the gift of exposure: we are shown realities that you cannot read about in books, journals, or tech memos.  Going into this trip, I had spent countless hours reading Section 118 of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, where Take Reduction Teams are appointed to minimize bycatch in fisheries that have been categorized as catching too many animals within marine mammal species whose populations have declined below the “optimum” level.  This process can take several years and involves fishermen, scientists, conservation groups, and state and federal government devising regulations and voluntary measures that include using different hooks or nets, closing areas to fishing, or even encouraging captains to communicate with one another.  Sounds easy, right?  Guess again.  These teams must face complex statistics, aging abundance estimates, statutory ambiguities, international politics, fisheries hardships, and economic bottom lines that all play out much differently than the law might dictate. 

Longline bycatch, by SeaTurtle.org

In this multi-stakeholder process, NMFS maintains enormous responsibility in representing all parties and addressing all concerns while still meeting the (sometimes unfeasible) obligations of the law.  In this team's case, commercial fisheries are only allowed to capture or entangle a mere two whales of this species each year before triggering conservation provisions that restrict fishing.  It is a tall order, but no one can argue with the pre-established equations that underlie this process.  So, negotiations can lead to some compromises, but there are always a few sticking points where parties simply agree to disagree.  One of the painful realities for fishermen is that NMFS analysts and scientists go home at the end of the day and do not feel the impacts of the regulations they design. 

Still, no one is at fault for the complexities and lingering uncertainties inherent in marine mammal protection.  On a practical level, how can a limited number of observers and officers enforce rules throughout an entire fleet, and how can fishers be incentivized to report entanglements?  On a statistical level, how can you know that entanglement rates won’t rise if closures move vessels to alternative fishing grounds?  And on a more fundamental level, how can we target commercial fishermen for regulation when (1) they are by no means the only source of mortality (pollution, sport fishing, ship strikes), and (2) the darn animals have learned to follow ships for a certain and easy snack?  With optimism in mind, it is clear that you have to start somewhere and trust in the iterative process. 

Endangered Hawaiin monk seal, by NGS

For me, it was exciting to think of these complex challenges while surfing, paddling, and exploring in the evenings.  Just as I was starting to feel spoiled by the sun, sand, and clear water, I thought of the Google model.  It really is important to go to these places and be stimulated by new people and fresh ideas that make the issues personal.  After all, we are all in the business of fairly distributing the value of precious natural resources, and it is important to remember how much we ourselves actually value them.  These types of collaborative discussions are happening every day in every discipline and in every city and every state across the country – kudos to the enormous time and effort that people dedicate in the name of progress, be it big or small.  Mahalo and come find me if you want to learn more about NOAA’s Take Reduction program! 

What cool places have YOU been to recently?