News

In collaboration with Frontier in Marine Science, the Ocean Modeling Forum Marine Mammal Working Group is soliciting articles related to assessment approaches to support bycatch management for marine mammals.

We are especially interested in examples of novel field and analytical methods for estimating abundance and bycatch and for calculating conservation reference points that can be used to prioritize and guide mitigation strategies are particularly welcome. We are looking for contributions that offer creative assessment solutions for regions with limited or no data and where funding for monitoring is hard to come by, or in which governance, logistical or other challenges make conventional approaches to assessment impractical. We also welcome case studies on assessment of marine mammal bycatch and resulting mitigation outcomes.

Please refer to the full announcement, here.

The marine mammal bycatch mitigation ShinyApp is live! This ShinyApp was created by Dr. Margaret Siple as part of the Marine Mammal Working Group. It shows population projections under different bycatch mortality levels, based on information you provide. You can also use it to calculate the parameters for Potential Biological Removal (PBR). View the ShinyApp here.

A new UW news article, features a paper written by the Ocean Modeling Forum’s (OMF’s) Herring working group (lead author Alec MacCall). The paper features a herring behavioral strategy where juvenile fish “go with the older fish” back to spawning locations, a behavior that is understood in traditional knowledge as well as explored in previous scientific studies. MacCall’s paper explores the consequences of this behavior, including disproportionate impacts, including extinction, on some spawning locations under fishing pressure. The paper is one of many by the OMF working group, which focused on advice for managing herring fisheries that accounts for the importance of herring spawning locations to indigenous communities, and on including traditional knowledge in mathematical models.

The Ocean Modeling Forum has been engaging since 2014 with a diverse group of stakeholders and scientists from Alaska and British Columbia, focused on improving herring fisheries sustainability. Together we have developed approaches and tools to assess the impacts of herring fisheries on the diverse benefits provided by herring and herring harvest activities to communities, economies, and the ecosystem.

In January 2019, OMF herring team members Phil Levin, Tessa Francis, and Melissa Poe were invited to Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, to provide advice on the development of a herring rebuilding plan for Haida Gwaii herring. Leading the development of the rebuilding plan is a technical group formed of representatives from the Council of Haida Nations (CHN), Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), and Parks Canada. The OMF team shared our work with the rebuilding plan technical group, as well as with the Archipelago Management Board, a collaborative group comprised of CHN and Parks Canada representatives who collectively manage the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, National Marine Conservation Area Reserve, and Haida Heritage Site.

We shared models and approaches developed by the OMF team for use in supporting herring fisheries management decisions. One model incorporates traditional ecological knowledge about herring migration behavior, and shows that populations with this behavior are more likely to suffer fast and long-lasting local extinctions under fishing. We shared a novel spatial stock assessment model that more accurately reflects the population structure of herring, for potential use in a management strategy evaluation being undertaken as part of the herring rebuilding plan. And we shared a process for selection of human wellbeing objectives for marine ecosystems, based on anthropological and traditional knowledge studies, that can be used when evaluating trade-offs of alternative management strategies.

The OMF team plans to remain engaged in the herring rebuilding plan process, supporting the technical team and providing tools and advice as needed. More information about the herring tools and products can be found on the working group home page.

The Ocean Modeling Forum is a University of Washington program that helps managers, scientists, and the ocean community use models to take on complex ocean issues. Major funding comes from the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Lenfest Ocean Program.

For further reading, see Punt et al. 2018 and the associated paper summary, in addition to Voss et al. 2018 and the associated paper summary.

For further reading, see the paper summary.

For further reading, visit the paper summary.

For further reading, visit the paper summary and MacCall et al 2018.

The Working Group members met for the second time on November 19-21, 2018, in Kirkland, Washington! Workshop participants included Working Group members, invited management experts from NOAA, and several observers from government and NGOs.

This workshop focused on fostering productive discussion and break-out groups in order to make continual progress on each project. Members and invited experts from NOAA updated the group on relevant legislation and communications, including the project webinar held by the Working Group co-chairs that occurred between meetings. The Lenfest Ocean Program, observers and Working Group members gave presentations that provided additional context for the Working Group. Finally, the group identified next steps for each project, including writing assignments, and concluded the meeting with a productive discussion, presentations and feedback from meeting observers.

For more details on each project, refer to our Workshop 2 Summary.

The next group meeting will take place June 10-12 at the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute in Reykjavik, Iceland. 

The OMF’s Marine Mammal Bycatch Working Group is a collaboration with Oceans Initiative and funded by the Lenfest Ocean Program.

This paper highlights five characteristics of knowledge that help connect products to decision-making. This includes knowledge that is:

• Aspirational
• Parsimonious
• Applicable
• Co-produced
• Amplifying

These principles are illustrated through two case studies from the OMF Sardine and Herring working groups.  In each case study, the knowledge producers, the working group members, and the knowledge products, such as model outputs and advice, are grounded in these five elements. In order to tackle increasingly complex ocean-ecosystem management issues, it is essential to effectively link such model-based knowledge to decision making.

The paper is published in the December 2018 issue of Elementa Science of the Anthropocene (6:83- 96)