Quenton Dokken
Gulf of Mexico Foundation, Inc., USA
Title: Wild caught plus cultured fisheries products – Can the demand be met without destroying the resource, the environment, and the dependent socioeconomic systems?
Biography
Biography: Quenton Dokken
Abstract
Outlaw fishing, slave ships, overfished stocks, conflicting management strategies, conflict between harvest groups, disease in intensive culture conditions, eutrophication through the use of enriched feeds, habitat destruction, weakened gene pools, climate change, growing demand, etc., the state of fisheries globally is not on a course of sustainability. Recognizing the importance of fisheries, economically, culturally and nutritionally, this portends conflict and hardship in the future. Knowing these threats, what can we do to redirect the fisheries industry to a sustainable future? The solution lies in coordinated collaboration between governments, resource management agencies, law enforcement, scientists, fishers, wholesalers, processors, retailers, chefs, consumers, and environmentalists. The solution also requires commitment by vested interests to the mission of effective management, the goal to reach sustainability and the strategy to achieve the goal. This is not a new understanding or idea, yet to date this collaboration has not been adequately accomplished and the fisheries industries continue to sail toward extinction. We see the threat and know the causes; can we assert the will power to impose the solution?