Learning to Manage and Managing to Learn: Sustaining Freshwater Recreational Fisheries in a Changing Environment

Freshwaters are being transformed by multiple environmental drivers, creating uncertainty about future conditions. One way of coping with uncertainty is to manage for resilience to unanticipated events while facilitating learning through adaptive management. We outline the application of these strat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Fisheries (Bethesda) 2015-02, Vol.40 (2), p.56-64
Main Authors: Hansen, Gretchen J. A, Gaeta, Jereme W, Hansen, Jonathan F, Carpenter, Stephen R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptive management
age structure
bass
case studies
Fisheries
Fisheries management
Fishery management
Fishery regulations
Freshwater
Freshwater fish
Freshwater fishes
game fish
Heterogeneity
Inland water environment
learning
Marine fishes
Micropterus
monitoring
population growth
Prey
Recreation
Sander vitreus
sport fishing
Uncertainty
Year class
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Summary:Freshwaters are being transformed by multiple environmental drivers, creating uncertainty about future conditions. One way of coping with uncertainty is to manage for resilience to unanticipated events while facilitating learning through adaptive management. We outline the application of these strategies to freshwater recreational fisheries management using a case study in Wisconsin, USA, where black bass (Micropterus spp.) populations are increasing, while Walleye (Sander vitreus) populations are decreasing. Managing for heterogeneity in functional groups (e.g., age classes and prey species of sport fishes), fishery objectives, and regulations can increase resilience, although heterogeneity must be balanced with replication to facilitate learning. Monitoring designed to evaluate management objectives and inform about critical uncertainties, when combined with heterogeneity, creates opportunities for adaptive management, another critical resilience strategy. Although barriers exist to implementing resilience strategies, management designed to accommodate uncertainty and illuminate its consequences is needed to maintain critical fisheries in a rapidly changing world.
ISSN:1548-8446
0363-2415
1548-8446
1548-8675
DOI:10.1080/03632415.2014.996804