Live from Durban

Here at the WIOMSA conference. This morning a woman delivered a nice talk about artisanal fishing in Rodrigues. My first thought: Rodrigwhere? (Turns out, Rodrigues is an autonomous island of Mauritius.) She studies the seine fishery in one of the lagoons and had an excellent data set for the last five years (excellent in terms of the quality of the data, not the disconcerting results). She showed 1) the fishery system is dominated now by herbivorous fish (there probably used to be more predators) 2) the majority of all the species caught were juveniles (66-98%, depending on the species) and that catch per unit effort has declined over the five year time period.

In conclusion: there's Malthusian overfishing (too many fishers + destructive gear), fishing down marine food webs (to an ecosystem dominated by low trophic feeders), and growth overfishing (catching too many juveniles). Four new MPAs is the hope on which Rodrigues has hung his hat.

South Africa's Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs also gave a heartening introduction to the conference by talking about the need for scientists to communicate not only to one another at conferences but to rural communities. She suggested scientists volunteer as guests on their local radio stations and talk casually about their research in the local language (there are 11 official languages in South Africa alone).

That's assuming the WIOMSA scientists live to tell their tales. Apparently, Durban's earned a surly reputation over the last few years as crime spills over from Jo'berg. Some of the Spanish visitors to the WIOMSA conference were already mugged at knifepoint. Aside from giving talks, these marine scientists are earning some street cred.