Munson Conservation Lecture Series 2007
Sponsored by the Curtis and Edith Munson Foundation

Tuesday October 2, 5:30-7 PM
Bowers Auditorium, Sage Hall

"Achieving Sustainable Seafood Consumption...The Rest of the Story"

Dr. Steve Murawski, Director of Scientific Programs and Chief Science Advisor, National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA

Summary by Adam Melnick, JD/MEM 2008

On October 2nd, 2007, Steve Murawski, Director of Scientific Programs and Chief Science Advisor of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service, spoke before a packed Bower's Auditorium as part of the Curtis and Edith Munson Conservation Lecture Series entitled: The Future of Fisheries: Over-Harvested or Sustainably Managed? Mr. Murawski's presentation, entitled Achieving Sustainable Seafood Consumption...The Rest of the Story, focused on his belief that there are, in fact, sustainable fisheries but that improved and increased use of aquaculture will be necessary to meet seafood demands in the near future.

Mr. Murawski began by debunking Boris Worm's assertion that by 2048 all seafood producing fish stocks will collapse. Worm looked at historical catch data and determined that if an annual catch was less than 10% of the historic maximum catch it was in a collapsed state. He then extrapolated from his data, which showed 20% collapse in 2005, that there would be 100% collapse by 2048. Mr. Murawski took issue with Worm's analysis for two reasons. First, he pointed out that, as anyone with even an introductory statistics course under their belt knows, one of the first "no nos" of statistics is making predictions beyond a time period for which one has data, i.e. using statistics to predict into the future. Additionally, Mr. Murawski pointed out that Worm's definition of collapse was unrealistic because one particularly productive year could create a ludicrously high maximum yield against which to compare other annual yields. Additionally, according to Mr. Murawski, the United States' fisheries have been making great strides in moving towards sustainability and better management but that Worm's metric essentially does not show this progress because stocks for which annual catches have been held low through management measures to allow time for rebuilding often appear as collapsed stocks under the Worm metric.

Murawski pointed to the recent revisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and its requirement that overfishing, defined as a fishing rate that is greater than the fishing rate that would produce maximum sustainable yield, of all U.S. stocks cease by 2011 as evidence of Congress's effort to bring better management practices to bear on U.S. fisheries. Additionally, the revised Magnuson-Stevens Act attempts to provide the Regional Fisheries Management Councils with greater authority to gather information and regulate the fisheries located in their waters, particularly with respect to regulating deep sea corals and allowing the Regional Councils to grant dedicated access privileges or implement other property rights schemes to reduce over capacity in fishing fleets. According to Mr. Murawski, these additional powers should allow the Councils to regulate their fisheries more effectively and should lead to even more sustainably managed fisheries in the near future.

Mr. Murawski, however, was not a starry-eyed optimist and recognized that growing demand for seafood in the United States and abroad will continue to put pressure on fisheries as fishermen attempt to meet that demand. To meet that increasing demand for seafood without putting additional pressure on wild stocks, Mr. Murawski strongly advocated for increased aquaculture. According to Murawski, aquaculture is already an important source of seafood in the United States but that the vast majority is imported from Asia. Mr. Murawski advocated for a comprehensive aquaculture plan in the United States but recognized that it will be exceedingly difficult for United States aquaculture to become competitive with Asian aquaculture. He framed this as an environmental justice issue, noting that in the United States consumers are happy to buy cheap Asian seafood but that we would never let it be produced here as it is there. Therefore, in addition to comprehensive national aquaculture legislation, Mr. Murawski advocated for better controls on the quality of imported seafood so as to level the playing field and prevent the American aquaculture market from being driven by cheap imports from Asia as it currently is.

For more information contact:
Martha Smith, CCWS
Phone: (203) 432-3026
E-mail: martha.smith@yale.edu