Hobart from above and below
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Blogger: Abigail Lynch, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife and a CSIS member, blogs from Down Under -- she's in Australia to build a framework for her dissertation research. She's interested in developing a decision-support tool to regulate harvest management strategies for lake whitefish in a changing climate.
Hobart from above and below
Aug. 2, 2011
While I had the privilege of seeing Hobart from atop Mt. Wellington on Sunday, today I was lucky enough to see it from the water. Ian Cartwright, Australian Fisheries Management Authority commissioner and chair of the Commonwealth Fisheries Research Advisory Body, was kind enough to invite me on for a lunch cruise around the harbor with Malcolm Haddon. We discussed fisheries management, how to integrate environmental variability into stock assessments (the most important factor being the ability to detect an environmental signal), and having clearly outlined questions and objectives to begin a project on the right path. Malcolm quoted a manager saying: “anyone can tell me the problem; I want someone to tell me the solution.” I hope to always keep this in mind for the development of my research.
And it’s almost like Alistair Hobday heard the same quote because it is very fitting for the decision support projects that we discussed today. The most exciting of which is a real-time southern bluefin tuna habitat model that is being used almost instantaneously with management. I have definitely discovered that this is the type of research that I most wish to engage in – science that has a continuous application to management. It is really exhilarating to see this type of work in place and I hope to conduct research like this myself. This isn’t an academic manuscript that may influence a management decision if someone takes it into account; this is a decision support system with a direct link to managers which helps inform them of where best to allow fishing access for the benefit of the species and the fishers alike. How exciting!!
Lynch's studies are supported by a William W. and Evelyn M. Taylor Endowed Fellowship for International Engagement in Coupled Human and Natural Systems, an International Studies and Programs Predissertation Award, an Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior Summer Fellowship, a Graduate School Research Enhancement Award, and a travel award from the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
