 |
| Salmon Trollers operate both near shore and on the open ocean. |
Diversity exists where numerous inefficiencies coexist, and it remains an essential characteristic of a healthy system. The health of a system is measured by its ability
to maintain its own structure or organization over time and its resilience thus
demonstrating its ability to withstand stress over time. As any system increases in its efficiency the
same system moves further away from the stability and security of
diversity.Inversely proportionate
relationships between diversity and efficiency are seen in nature, economics,
and science. Owing to its cost effectiveness and pleasing design, trolling remains a desirable gear method for fishermen engaged in the harvest of wild or free range salmon. By maintaining the diversity of our harvesters we enhance the accuracy of our perspective lending to the effectiveness of our adaptability while increasing our ability to maintain the stability and structure of our environment, economy and culture.
Alaska's salmon troll fishery supports a safe and effective method of harvest with a low environmental impact absent the collateral damage challenging the environmental balance of most other gear types within the commercial seafood industry. Salmon troll fishermen increase the income diversity of all fishermen while contributing to rural economic security related to local ownership in coastal business. Salmon trolling provides a unique historic and scientific baseline for evaluating biomass abundance of salmon, rockfish and other diverse fin-fish thus increasing the diversity of perspective necessary to accurately measure and challenge the effectiveness of fishery management without destroying the culture and environment of the harvesters, communities and civilization intended to be protected.
Our universe is an example of diversity permitted by way of inefficiency in nature. Millions of galaxies coexist in our universe. Many are incapable of supporting life as we know it. However within some solar systems there exists a potentially habitable zone whereas the temperature of the planets within the zone are neither too hot nor too cold to sustain plants, animals and other living organisms. Earth lies within one of these zones. Planetariums around the world confirm that our universe in all its infinite space does not contain an abundance of habitable planets, rather the opposite. In all the universe, some solar systems have a habitable zone and among them fewer still have planets with evidence of expansive life. Our own universe is a collection of inefficiencies that coexist. There are dozens of different types of suns, hundreds of different types of planets, and thousands of different types of galaxies.1
Evidenced by the recession of 2008, lack of diversity in our banking system threatened the stability of our world economy. Economists defined our banking system as "too big to fail". The USA and other nations decided to bail out the failing large banks and stabilize the economic freefall of entire nations. Because economics is a man-made system, it can be repaired using man-made tools. Regulations, laws, and money are all examples of man-made tools that can be used to repair or prevent the collapse of an economic system. While many of us may have felt the insecurity of living in a recession, like the past, our government forced an increase in the diversity of groups and persons with access to capital therefore, many of us were confident that our government(s) could save our economy again.
In science, diversity is necessary to test discovery, challenge assertions and sustain the inclusiveness of an expansive variety of thesis's, experiments and observations. Without diversity, science is no longer science. Historically, human beings' understanding of our bodies, planet and universe has been reduced when science, our measure of our natural world, is limited to a select perspective or theorum of a few. Our world becomes flat, our sun revolves around our planet, and we become the center of our own universe. While it may be efficient in the short term to label, qualify and assert relationships without expansive experimentation and peer review, it often leads to errors, miscalculations and false assumptions jeopardizing the awareness and security of mankind.
For 20 years, I have witnessed the decline of the diversity of three essential components to the stability of wild seafood resources. 1.) More of our wild seafood is being commercially harvested by large vessels employing nets or other highly efficient means while fewer gear types such as trollers and longliners employing less efficient hooks are being used today than ever before. This trend toward an increase in the efficiency of harvesting commercial seafood reduces the number of harvesters needed to catch the quantities of fish recommended to maintain sustainable harvests. 2.) As a consequence of the lack of diversity within the commercial fleet, the number if individuals living their lives on the ocean to harvest seafood has also reduced. Thus, additionally, we are reducing diversity among individuals with first hand knowledge of our ocean environment. 3.) Furthermore, lacking in a diverse fleet of commercial participants and reducing the randomization and diversity of observations pertaining to our oceans, consequentially, our system for managing and governing the oceans' renewable resources has fewer and less diverse stakeholders contributing to the regulatory process than ever before since the realization of sustainable seafood resources.
During the period from 1920’s through 1980’s, an increasing number of harvesters began catching halibut in the North Pacific using longlines. Influenced in part by the increasing size and scale of the North Pacific halibut harvest, in 1976 the Magnuson-StevensFishery Conservation and Management Act was enacted providing national rights to nations for the protection and management their fisheries from within 200 miles of their coasts. Previously all harvests outside of 12 miles from any national coast had been considered international therefore, not subject to the laws of any nation’s governance. During this same period, trawling was also continuing to expand in its efficiency of harvest. The Magnusen-Stevens Act justified the support and enforcement of the authority of America’s National Marine Fisheries Services [NMFS] that allowed for the limiting of access to certain areas by specific gear types within the 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone [EEZ]. Trawling was banned in Southeast Alaska thus protecting Southeast fisheries from the effects of excessively efficient harvesting. Trawling continued to thrive in the Bering Sea and other parts of the north Pacific less accessible to smaller less efficient vessels and their gear. The extent of the impact of trawling was most noticeably experienced by the large and established halibut longline fleet. Longliners increased in numbers despite the limited efficiency of their one hook one fish gear. Loneline vessels could travel great lengths to harvest halibut anywhere in the North Pacific including off the coasts of the Aleutian Islands and within the waters of the Bering Sea. In time, trawlers and longliners realized they were directly competing for the same fish. It became necessary to protect the sustainability of the available biomass of halibut and the lives of aggressive generational longlines who fished nearly year round in the challenging waters of the North Pacific using vessels that were both smaller and more cost effective than trawlers. In 1995, under the juristiction of NMFS, the International Pacific Halibut Commission was formed and instituted of program for the allocation of individual halibut quota to be issued to qualifying vessel owners. The new system refers to itself as Individual Fishing Quotas or IFQ’s.2 IFQ’s system created a specific determined total allowable catch of all North Pacific halibut and established a fixed distribution for the annual access to the defined allocation based on a permitted percentage of the total. Percentages were distributed among all qualifying vessel owners based on the history of their harvest volumes and length of participation. The economic result of the IFQ system was the creation of millionaire fisherman overnight. In time, approximately 10 years after the implementation of IFQ’s, the equity created by the IFQ system gave rise to a new class of vessel owners who could afford to not fish. This is an important detail because it incentivized longliners to organize for the shared interests of their group and permitted them the time and expense to sustain their organization's interests.
In the early 2000’s, halibut biomass began to decline. By 2014 it was at an all time low.
Trollers are a vulnerableyet vital component of the North Pacific's commercial fishing fleet. In addition to promoting the necessary diversity to sustain our renewable seafood resources, they reflect a culture that has supported civilizations for hundreds of years allowing them to thrive in art, science and government. It was individuals engaged in the harvest of wild seafood by way of trolling who lead the path to sustainability for Alaska's seafood resource management. As Alaska's resources were threatened by the efficiency of harvest permitted by fish weirs, salmon troller fishermen and the communities they supported organized to assert their state's rights to self govern the wild seafood resources of Alaska and prohibit the actions of any harvest so efficient in design or affect as to reduce the likelihood of sustainable wild seafood resource management. In 1956, during the period of rebuilding the nearly collapsed salmon fishery after the success of fish weirs threatened to destroy the economy of numerous communities throughout the state, 3 fishermen formerly engaged in trolling for salmon relied on their culture of subsistence, and the versatility of their gear as well as the cost effectiveness of their operations and began to target other less valuable species until the wild salmon biomass recovered in time.
Southeast Salmon Troll permits are among the most affordable gear types allowing one to participate in the commercial salmon harvest. As a consequence, trolling attracts individuals locally in Alaska and from many regions as far away as the the east coast of the United States and southwest. There is a natural diversity to the individuals employed as salmon troll fishermen. They bring with them a diverse perspective on the fishery and its environment. As it is in my case, I bring with me an understanding of the importance of diversity in science. As a biologist assist with the Alaska Dept of Fish and Game, I worked with fish and their otoliths to collect and organize data that would be used to assist in the assessment of Southeast Alaska's salmon stocks. In nearly 13 years since that time the progress of the use and dissemination of the information contained within the otolith's of fish has gone relatively under developed in its potential capacity to significantly improve the data used to manage Alaska's renewable seafood resources.
Alaska's king salmon fisheries are at risk. 5 Current means of collecting useful data to support an effective fishery management system are proving to be insufficient. More can be done to explore the potential of further data contained within the otolith's of fish. As a wild seafood commercial harvester and distributor, in consideration of my value for our sustained access to an abundant wild seafood resource and owing to my contentment whilst sharing a culture that sustains my passion for life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, I encourage the developement of data science to innovate our means of interpreting the information of otolith data collection. With new otolith data discovery and in coordination with improved organization for reviewing and understanding otolith data, we may see a future that includes hope for sustainable seafood once more. Increasing the diversity of influence over legislation and regulation of Alaska' wild seafood alters action in the direction of balance and stability.
Alaska's salmon troll fishery supports a safe and effective method of harvest with a low environmental impact absent the collateral damage challenging the environmental balance of most other gear types within the commercial seafood industry. Salmon troll fishermen increase the income diversity of all fishermen while contributing to rural economic security related to local ownership in coastal business. Salmon trolling provides a unique historic and scientific baseline for evaluating biomass abundance of salmon, rockfish and other diverse fin-fish thus increasing the diversity of perspective necessary to accurately measure and challenge the effectiveness of fishery management without destroying the culture and environment of the harvesters, communities and civilization intended to be protected.
Our universe is an example of diversity permitted by way of inefficiency in nature. Millions of galaxies coexist in our universe. Many are incapable of supporting life as we know it. However within some solar systems there exists a potentially habitable zone whereas the temperature of the planets within the zone are neither too hot nor too cold to sustain plants, animals and other living organisms. Earth lies within one of these zones. Planetariums around the world confirm that our universe in all its infinite space does not contain an abundance of habitable planets, rather the opposite. In all the universe, some solar systems have a habitable zone and among them fewer still have planets with evidence of expansive life. Our own universe is a collection of inefficiencies that coexist. There are dozens of different types of suns, hundreds of different types of planets, and thousands of different types of galaxies.1
Evidenced by the recession of 2008, lack of diversity in our banking system threatened the stability of our world economy. Economists defined our banking system as "too big to fail". The USA and other nations decided to bail out the failing large banks and stabilize the economic freefall of entire nations. Because economics is a man-made system, it can be repaired using man-made tools. Regulations, laws, and money are all examples of man-made tools that can be used to repair or prevent the collapse of an economic system. While many of us may have felt the insecurity of living in a recession, like the past, our government forced an increase in the diversity of groups and persons with access to capital therefore, many of us were confident that our government(s) could save our economy again.
In science, diversity is necessary to test discovery, challenge assertions and sustain the inclusiveness of an expansive variety of thesis's, experiments and observations. Without diversity, science is no longer science. Historically, human beings' understanding of our bodies, planet and universe has been reduced when science, our measure of our natural world, is limited to a select perspective or theorum of a few. Our world becomes flat, our sun revolves around our planet, and we become the center of our own universe. While it may be efficient in the short term to label, qualify and assert relationships without expansive experimentation and peer review, it often leads to errors, miscalculations and false assumptions jeopardizing the awareness and security of mankind.
For 20 years, I have witnessed the decline of the diversity of three essential components to the stability of wild seafood resources. 1.) More of our wild seafood is being commercially harvested by large vessels employing nets or other highly efficient means while fewer gear types such as trollers and longliners employing less efficient hooks are being used today than ever before. This trend toward an increase in the efficiency of harvesting commercial seafood reduces the number of harvesters needed to catch the quantities of fish recommended to maintain sustainable harvests. 2.) As a consequence of the lack of diversity within the commercial fleet, the number if individuals living their lives on the ocean to harvest seafood has also reduced. Thus, additionally, we are reducing diversity among individuals with first hand knowledge of our ocean environment. 3.) Furthermore, lacking in a diverse fleet of commercial participants and reducing the randomization and diversity of observations pertaining to our oceans, consequentially, our system for managing and governing the oceans' renewable resources has fewer and less diverse stakeholders contributing to the regulatory process than ever before since the realization of sustainable seafood resources.
During the period from 1920’s through 1980’s, an increasing number of harvesters began catching halibut in the North Pacific using longlines. Influenced in part by the increasing size and scale of the North Pacific halibut harvest, in 1976 the Magnuson-StevensFishery Conservation and Management Act was enacted providing national rights to nations for the protection and management their fisheries from within 200 miles of their coasts. Previously all harvests outside of 12 miles from any national coast had been considered international therefore, not subject to the laws of any nation’s governance. During this same period, trawling was also continuing to expand in its efficiency of harvest. The Magnusen-Stevens Act justified the support and enforcement of the authority of America’s National Marine Fisheries Services [NMFS] that allowed for the limiting of access to certain areas by specific gear types within the 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone [EEZ]. Trawling was banned in Southeast Alaska thus protecting Southeast fisheries from the effects of excessively efficient harvesting. Trawling continued to thrive in the Bering Sea and other parts of the north Pacific less accessible to smaller less efficient vessels and their gear. The extent of the impact of trawling was most noticeably experienced by the large and established halibut longline fleet. Longliners increased in numbers despite the limited efficiency of their one hook one fish gear. Loneline vessels could travel great lengths to harvest halibut anywhere in the North Pacific including off the coasts of the Aleutian Islands and within the waters of the Bering Sea. In time, trawlers and longliners realized they were directly competing for the same fish. It became necessary to protect the sustainability of the available biomass of halibut and the lives of aggressive generational longlines who fished nearly year round in the challenging waters of the North Pacific using vessels that were both smaller and more cost effective than trawlers. In 1995, under the juristiction of NMFS, the International Pacific Halibut Commission was formed and instituted of program for the allocation of individual halibut quota to be issued to qualifying vessel owners. The new system refers to itself as Individual Fishing Quotas or IFQ’s.2 IFQ’s system created a specific determined total allowable catch of all North Pacific halibut and established a fixed distribution for the annual access to the defined allocation based on a permitted percentage of the total. Percentages were distributed among all qualifying vessel owners based on the history of their harvest volumes and length of participation. The economic result of the IFQ system was the creation of millionaire fisherman overnight. In time, approximately 10 years after the implementation of IFQ’s, the equity created by the IFQ system gave rise to a new class of vessel owners who could afford to not fish. This is an important detail because it incentivized longliners to organize for the shared interests of their group and permitted them the time and expense to sustain their organization's interests.
In the early 2000’s, halibut biomass began to decline. By 2014 it was at an all time low.
Trollers are a vulnerableyet vital component of the North Pacific's commercial fishing fleet. In addition to promoting the necessary diversity to sustain our renewable seafood resources, they reflect a culture that has supported civilizations for hundreds of years allowing them to thrive in art, science and government. It was individuals engaged in the harvest of wild seafood by way of trolling who lead the path to sustainability for Alaska's seafood resource management. As Alaska's resources were threatened by the efficiency of harvest permitted by fish weirs, salmon troller fishermen and the communities they supported organized to assert their state's rights to self govern the wild seafood resources of Alaska and prohibit the actions of any harvest so efficient in design or affect as to reduce the likelihood of sustainable wild seafood resource management. In 1956, during the period of rebuilding the nearly collapsed salmon fishery after the success of fish weirs threatened to destroy the economy of numerous communities throughout the state, 3 fishermen formerly engaged in trolling for salmon relied on their culture of subsistence, and the versatility of their gear as well as the cost effectiveness of their operations and began to target other less valuable species until the wild salmon biomass recovered in time.
Southeast Salmon Troll permits are among the most affordable gear types allowing one to participate in the commercial salmon harvest. As a consequence, trolling attracts individuals locally in Alaska and from many regions as far away as the the east coast of the United States and southwest. There is a natural diversity to the individuals employed as salmon troll fishermen. They bring with them a diverse perspective on the fishery and its environment. As it is in my case, I bring with me an understanding of the importance of diversity in science. As a biologist assist with the Alaska Dept of Fish and Game, I worked with fish and their otoliths to collect and organize data that would be used to assist in the assessment of Southeast Alaska's salmon stocks. In nearly 13 years since that time the progress of the use and dissemination of the information contained within the otolith's of fish has gone relatively under developed in its potential capacity to significantly improve the data used to manage Alaska's renewable seafood resources.
Alaska's king salmon fisheries are at risk. 5 Current means of collecting useful data to support an effective fishery management system are proving to be insufficient. More can be done to explore the potential of further data contained within the otolith's of fish. As a wild seafood commercial harvester and distributor, in consideration of my value for our sustained access to an abundant wild seafood resource and owing to my contentment whilst sharing a culture that sustains my passion for life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, I encourage the developement of data science to innovate our means of interpreting the information of otolith data collection. With new otolith data discovery and in coordination with improved organization for reviewing and understanding otolith data, we may see a future that includes hope for sustainable seafood once more. Increasing the diversity of influence over legislation and regulation of Alaska' wild seafood alters action in the direction of balance and stability.
Understanding the relationship between diversity and
efficiency is important because it means that humans can determine to what extent
our goals for efficiency support or destroy the necessary health of any system,
henceforth we may measure our choices and the balance thus achieved by evaluating the diversity we permit to exist.
Bibliography
1. Astronomers shed light on different galaxy types: International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR); September 14, 2016
2. Alaska Halibut and Sablefish Fixed Gear Individual Fishing Quota Program: Author Karly McIlwain; Copyright © 2013 Environmental Defense Fund. All rights reserved. McIlwain, K. (2013). Catch Shares in Action: Alaska Halibut and Sablefish Fixed Gear Individual Fishing Quota Program. Environmental Defense Fund.
2. Alaska Halibut and Sablefish Fixed Gear Individual Fishing Quota Program: Author Karly McIlwain; Copyright © 2013 Environmental Defense Fund. All rights reserved. McIlwain, K. (2013). Catch Shares in Action: Alaska Halibut and Sablefish Fixed Gear Individual Fishing Quota Program. Environmental Defense Fund.
3. Alaskan Fish Weir Photos: Northwest Coast Archeology; October 1, 2014
4. United States Congressional seriel set: Issue 2712; First Session of the Fifty-First Congress,1889-1890.
5. Biologists look to the ocean for clues in Alaska King Salmon Collapse: Author: Updated: September 27, 2016 and Published June 28, 2012.
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