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BassBabe I do not know you and until your last post did not know that you were a scientist. I have for the last three years been defending recreational fishermen's rights from a full court press to institute what I beleive are arbitrary no fishing zones or level 1 MPA's in a variety of venues. Unfortunately the science used in the MPA arguement tends to be directed by organizations that have published goals of instituting no fishing zones prior to the science they are using today being completed.
(At a hearing in the MA state house last year, a so called neutral scientist testifieds as follows...I am John Smith and I work at the Woods hole Oceanogrphic Institute. I am not speaking for the Institute here today but as an individual....then this scientist goes on to preach about no fishing zones etc etc...Public records later showed that the study this so called neutral scientisrt was promoting and was what he was working on was funded by a group that has a public policy to close 5% of all State Waters in MA. It also is suspected that the gentlemen was paid to testify as a consultant...it this ethical...I do not think so...)
I have another...The National MPA Center has a scientist that receivved her doctorate just about a year ago...this "Doctor of Science" has done nothing for work but shop her pro MPA presentation around the country...this presentation comes from her graduate work and disertation...in other words she has done nothing but pro MPA work since at least graduate school...this "doctor" was hired to speak at a New England Fisheries Management Council MPA Workshop...at that workshop she did her presentation...in the presentation she gave stats that showed level 1 no fishing zones resulted in a 400% increase in fish species inside the MPA...Under questioning she was asked questions about the MPA's that were used in the study she was quoting in her presentation...it turns out that she was comparing a Level 1 MPA from a third world country where dynamite fishing was ceased and never had any fisheries management to the waters off MA that just happen to be the MOST regulated waters in the world. She could not give answers to well thought questions and became flustered as reasonable points were made that her comparisons were a stretch...
My point is this...science must be paid for and there is no way that any science funded by groups with a pre determined purpose of agendA SHOULD BE ALLOWED IN FISHERIES MANAGEMENT...there is not perfect answer however I only think that govermnment agencies should be doing the science used and that fisheries managers need to set up strict guidelines as I mentioned earlier that set up protections to prevent political and financial influences on our rights to use the ocean...
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