"When you can measure what you are speaking about and
express it in numbers, you know something about it."
William Thomson, Lord Kelvin
Lecture to the Institution of Civil Engineers, 3 May 1883
Lord Kelvin’s maxim, that scientific understanding begins with the gathering of data from measurements, has an inescapable corollary: if you can’t measure something, you can’t manage it. The Science Committee of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation, on whose reporting and analysis this white paper is based, stands on the same empirical ground. As Science Committee Chairman James Joseph states the case, “Collecting and analyzing comprehensive information on the numbers and kinds of tunas discarded and non-tuna species taken as bycatch and their distribution in time and space are essential to understanding the possible impacts of bycatch and discard on the diversity and health of the ecosystem.” Bycatch -- the unintended taking of juvenile tuna, non-targeted fish, and other animals -- and discards of unsuitable catch occur in nearly all of the world’s many commercial fisheries. In some they are large enough to affect the fishery, while in others they are insignificant biologically and economically. Either way, bycatch and discards represent waste of natural resources, even for species whose commercial value may be nil and whose role in the ecosystem may be as yet undefined. The far-roaming nature of tuna and the global reach of the tuna fishing industry warrant worldwide coordination – a global understanding -- of the many efforts being made to gather more comprehensive, relevant, and authoritative data and the research and development activities being undertaken to reduce bycatch and discards. To these ends, the ISSF provides this report and makes the enclosed proposal for global coordination of bycatch and discard mitigation research. Click on the link to your right to view the document in its entirety. |