Serious science in entertaining formats: Bio-economics meet Stop-Motion
11.03.2024
At the 9th World Fisheries Congress, Rudi Voss presented on “Optimal Management Of Western Baltic Cod and Herring Fisheries Under Climate Change” in an unusual, outreaching way.
A state-of-the-art bio-economic optimization model, including climate pressures, was framed as a pre-game analysis of a hypothetical American Football match, using the Stop-Motion technique. The match was played by the teams Maximum Sustainable Yield, MSY versus Maximum Economic Yield, MEY (here, team MSY translates to Munich Schnitzel Youngsters playing against the Munich Eisbein Young Boys MEY).. Results suggest that under current conditions MEY management would do a better job. This calls for better inclusion of economic viewpoints in fisheries management and the need to further develop ecosystem-based fisheries management in the Baltic.
The 9th World Fisheries Congress was hosted from 3-7 March 2024 in Seattle, US. Organized through the World Council of Fisheries Societies, every four years delegates from around the world meet to exchange ideas and perspectives about new research, emerging issues, scientific breakthroughs, and governance related to fisheries science, industry, conservation, and management. This year, the congress met under the theme of “Fish and Fisheries at the Food-Water-Energy Nexus”.
The program was composed of plenary talks, general sessions, education workshops, and planned symposia related to sustainability, fish and aquatic ecosystems, fisheries and society, and innovations in fisheries. The session “Application of population models to predict dynamics of fish exposed to anthropogenic changes” explored mathematical models that have management implications for fish populations exposed to anthropogenic changes. A topic highly relevant for the Western Baltic Sea, and CeOS research in the related BMBF-funded projects balt_adapt, SpaCeParti, marEEchange as well as the EU-project SEAwise.
The video can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey8BCImxPWk&feature=youtu.be