Fishermen’s Expertise Rarely Considered by Scientists, Study Shows

Press Release GALWAY, Ireland (Oct. 9, 2014) – The knowledge of fishermen could be referenced to help prevent the catastrophic ecological collapses scientists say is occurring in lakes and oceans. But that knowledge is rarely valued by fisheries scientists, according to a recent review of over 500 scientific publications spanning nearly 100 years.

The study, published this week as Editor’s Choice by the ICES Journal of Marine Science, says that if scientists from Canada to Kiribati had worked more closely with fishermen over the last 100 years, they could have prevented infamous events like crashes in regional cod populations, as well as some of the rapid degradation currently seen in tropical coral reef environments. Instead, they have relied predominantly on their own science, which has not always been enough to prevent such damage.

Not all scientists have neglected the knowledge of fishermen. Amateur natural historians such as The Mutiny on the Bounty author Charles Nordhoff and modern day researchers such as Dr. Barbara Neis of Canada’s Memorial University, have championed the value of what they often call fishers’ knowledge. Yet, they have not been as successful as they might have hoped with feeding fishermen’s experience into fisheries science.

“Fishers’ knowledge research is an approach to fisheries science that to date has struggled to take a place at the top table of fisheries science,” said the study’s author, former National University of Ireland/Galway researcher Dr. Edward Hind. “Fishers’ knowledge has been neglected by not just the scientists at the forefront of fisheries research, but also by eminent policymakers.”

The author suggests that all fisheries scientists and managers may need to start to consider the unique knowledge of fishermen documented by those like Nordhoff and Neis. “With fisheries [science] under increasing criticism, can such information be ignored?” he questioned. The review concludes by noting that the situation is tentatively changing, with more scientists gradually starting to pay attention to what fishermen know.

Read the complete “Fishers’s Knowledge” document by P. Macdonald here .