On the role of consulting in fisheries development

Fisheries development programmes should explicitly build capacity of local and regional consultants. These consultants should be integral components of strategies to make efficient use of expertise. Their importance as a source of expertise will increase as small fisheries departments reorient towards people-based approaches to management. They are presently undervalued and underdeveloped for several reasons, such as donor country preferences for using their own nationals and lack of support within their own countries and regions, often due to misconceptions regarding what is involved in being a self-employed consultant.     

Estimating rockfall release frequency from blocks deposited in protection barriers,growth disturbances in trees,and trajectory simulations

Landslides - The spatial and temporal quantification of rockfall frequency remains a major challenge in mountain environments, especially also in terms of rockfall management. Approaches that have...     

A governance perspective on the large marine ecosystem approach

The large marine ecosystem (LME) concept and approach has had a global impact on marine ecosystem-based management. The LME approach provides a framework for assessing and monitoring LMEs and is based on five modules: productivity, fish and fisheries, pollution and ecosystem health, socioeconomics, and governance. It appears that the LME approach is also being used to structure interventions to bring about change. Its appropriateness for the latter purpose is questioned. The major concerns are that the LME approach is not consistent with current thinking about enabling governance and its compartmentalized structure does not facilitate effective governance intervention. Current thinking on good governance suggests that it is more appropriate to approach governance interventions at the LME scale through multi-level governance policy cycles.     

Pyramids and roses: Alternative images for the governance of fisheries systems

Governors always have some image of what they are governing and why, and of what their role is. These images are often implicit. They are not reflected upon or discussed in the governance process, yet they have real consequences because they are acted upon. Interactive governance theory argues that image formation is an integral part of governance and that images are made as explicit as possible to avoid self-fulfilment. Such a process needs to be interactive and flexible to allow exploration of alternatives to existing governing images for the purpose of enhancing the governability of fisheries systems. In this paper, we contrast the classical image of the governing system (top down decision-making pyramid) and of the human-in-nature system (top down trophic pyramid) with alternative images (roses and inverted pyramid, respectively) and discuss the implication that these different images have on fisheries governance.     

A Klovan-type box corer for use with SCUBA

A stainless steel, Klovan-type box corer for use by SCUBA divers in shallow water has been developed. Details for construction of the 0.45 × 0.30 × 0.20-m wedge-shaped corer are provided together with operational details. Excellent undisturbed samples have been collected from gravelly sands, sands, and muds at water depths ranging from 15 m to intertidal. The wet sand cores typically are treated in the field using an epoxy to obtain high-relief sediment peels.     

Holocene recurrent explosive activity at Chimborazo volcano (Ecuador)

Ice-capped Chimborazo is one of the large composite Ecuadorian volcanoes whose recent eruptive activity is poorly known. This paper presents the characteristics and the ages of a newly discovered Holocene sequence of pyroclastic deposits on the east and north sides of the cone. Lying upon a moraine of the Late-Glacial period, the most complete section of ~ 4.5 m in thickness is located 5 km from the present summit crater. It consists of seven massive or diffusely stratified ash flow layers and four fallout layers interbedded with seven paleosoils.     

Evaluation of shelf–basin interaction in the western Arctic by use of short-lived radium isotopes: The importance of mesoscale processes

Shelf–basin exchange in the western Arctic was evaluated by use of water-column analyses of ²²⁸Ra/²²⁶Ra ratios and the first measurements of the short-lived ²²⁴Ra (T_1/2=3.64 d) in the Arctic. During the 2002 shelf–basin interaction (SBI) program, excess ²²⁴Ra was detected over the shelf but was not found seaward of the shelf-break. Similarly, the ²²⁸Ra/²²⁶Ra ratio dropped rapidly from the shelf across the shelf-break. Consequently, the model age gradient (elapsed time since shelf residence) northward across the Chukchi Shelf increased from 1–5 years nearshore to approximately 14 years in surface waters sampled off shelf at the southern margin of the Beaufort Gyre. This steep gradient is consistent with very slow exchange between the Chukchi Shelf and the Beaufort Gyre, whereby Bering Strait inflow is constrained by the Earth's rotation to follow local isobaths and does not easily move into deeper water. The strong dynamic control inhibiting water that enters the system through Bering Strait from flowing north across isobaths also would lead to a long recirculation time of river water emptied into the Beaufort Gyre. Possible mechanisms that can generate cross-shelf currents that break the topographic constraint to follow isobaths, and thereby transport water (and associated properties) off the shelves include wind-induced upwelling/downwelling, meandering jets, and eddies. Evidence of such a process was found during the ICEX project in the Beaufort Sea in April 2003 when excess ²²⁴Ra was measured over 200 km from any shelf source. This required an NE offshore flow of 40 cm s⁻¹ assuming that the source water derives from the mouth of Barrow Canyon. A weak northeastward flow was measured using an LADCP within the upper 300 m of the ocean, but was of lower speed than required by the ²²⁴Ra_xs at the time of the ICEX occupation.     

Raising the “Sunken Billions”: Financing the transition to sustainable fisheries

Long-term investment to drive the adoption of precautionary, adaptive and resilience-building fisheries management measures is urgently required, especially given the financially difficult transition period to reach sustainable fisheries. In this paper a case for investing in the recovery of large marine ecosystems is provided based on the future value of recovered fish stocks. It is argued that the current market-based sustainable seafood movement alone will not affect the scale of change needed and must be complemented by investment in fundamental conservation measures that will lead to the recovery of marine ecosystems and promote long-term sustainable use. A rationale for addressing the economically challenging transition period is provided and the basis of a new financial institution to finance the measures necessary for realising the economic, social and environmental benefits of large-scale fisheries reform is proposed.