Leading the Way to Resilient and Productive Careers and Fisheries Resources

Fisheries professionals face a daunting task of managing the inter-connected components of the ecological, social, and economic landscapes of aquatic ecosystems in order to produce optimal benefits for society while maintaining sustainable fish populations. To be effective, today’s fisheries professionals must be skilled communicators who understand uncertainty and chaos, and appreciate the diverse capabilities of fisheries organizations, allied industries, and stakeholders.  They must also have a comprehensive knowledge of fisheries systems and understanding of how these fisheries can co-exist with Society’s values and needs.  The breadth and depth of our enterprise requires a trans-disciplinary leadership approach where teamwork and professionalism are essential for the development and implementation of effective management programs. The success of these programs will further depend on our abilities to include an ever increasing diversity of stakeholders within our decision-making process, necessitating better communication skills between and among our managers, researchers, administrators, government officials and the public.  These deliberations will require that we demonstrate that our decisions are based on science that can qualitatively and quantitatively determine the impacts of environmental perturbations, as well as demonstrate that the responsiveness of our management activities will produce the desired outcome. This can only be achieved by moving our knowledge of the impact of environmental change on fisheries systems from a standard of ‘preponderance of evidence’ towards a standard of ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’. To achieve this lofty goal, we must enhance our understanding of fisheries ecosystems, and strengthen the needed infrastructure and analytical tools that will allow us to both predict the outcomes of our actions with greater precision and assist in setting the public’s expectations within the realm of achievable goals.  These enhancements will ultimately contribute to increasing our credibility with fisheries stakeholders as well as augment public support for our profession as stewards of our fish and aquatic resources.