Ray Hilborn of the University of Washington has accused Dr. Geoff Shester, California campaign director for Oceana, of ignoring science to pursue a pre-arranged agenda.
Oceana has criticised the Pacific Fishery Management Council for the persistent low numbers of California sardines, commenting that the abundance of this sardine population as being 93% less than it was in 2007, placing the blame firmly on the management body without taking into account climate change, El Niño or natural fluctuations in forage fish species.
‘When fishing pressure occurs during a decline, which is exactly what happened here,’ Geoff Shester has said. ‘It puts the stock at such dramatically low levels it impedes any recovery potentially for decades.’
Ray Hilborn has responded that; ‘Dr. Shester’s comments are some of the most dishonest commentary I have seen in the fisheries world.’
‘He knows that the NOAA Scientists and Prof Tim Essington, in work funded by the Pew Foundation, have stated clearly that the decline in sardine abundance is due to natural causes. He also knows that sea lions are not dependent upon sardines; the die-off of sea lions is caused by the oceanographic conditions – not the result of fishing. In fact, reproductive failures of sea lions have occurred repeatedly in the past at times of high sardine abundance.’
Ray Hilborn has pointed out that this information is easily accessible in Dr. Essington’s paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, indicating clearly that there is no relationship between fishing and the duration of periods of low abundance of sardines and other forage fish.
‘The harvest rule for sardines is highly precautionary, even when sardines are at high abundance the harvest rate is low. Indeed the harvest control rule for sardines matches very well the recommended harvest rule for forage fish that emerged from the LENFEST report – that is a low target harvest rate at high abundance with the fishery closed when the stock reaches low abundance,’ Ray Hilborn said.
‘Members of the Science and Statistics Committee of the Pacific Fisheries Management Council have explained all this to Dr. Shester before – he simply continues to ignore science and pursue his own agenda.’
Photo: NOAA
