Project team
Exeter – Associate Professor Rachel Turner
Project description
UQ-based research has advanced the linking of MPAs to fisheries benefits by developing novel ecological and fisheries models. However, like most fisheries theory, the representation of “fishing pressure” – reduced inside MPAs – is an abstraction of reality that is reliant upon theory (Maximum Sustainable Yield). The final step in connecting MPAs to fisheries benefits is to translate ‘fishing pressure’ into fisheries management measures that restrict fishing activities inside the MPA. This might include restrictions to fishing methods (nets, line, spears), the sizes of fish that can be caught, limits to catch, or bans on harvesting vulnerable species. There is a need to understand how different combinations of restrictions alter fishing pressure. This can then be entered into existing models of the fishery and MPA.
Yet not all fishing restrictions are equal. Fishing and fisheries are subject to social and economic norms and constraints. Some restrictions will be far less socially acceptable than others. Thus, we need to take an interdisciplinary approach at the boundary of natural and social science. This PhD project will link MPA management (practical fisheries restrictions) to their wider fisheries outcomes. That alone is a unique and important contribution to the field. But the real innovation is to add the social opportunities and constraints, which means that realistic trade-offs between alternative MPA options can be quantified.
The supervisory team includes natural and social scientists. Primary advisor is Prof Peter Mumby, an UQ ARC Laureate with a long history of achieving practical conservation outcomes from his research on coral reefs. Peter has graduated 35 PhD students as primary advisor while at UoE and UQ (he moved in 2010). He has led multidisciplinary projects funded by the World Bank and EU, and he met CI Associate Prof Rachel Turner (UoE) on the latter, when she worked as a post-doc at the University of the West Indies. Rachel is an environmental social scientist with expertise in resource use behaviour and marine governance. Rachel will lead the social science on the project. CI Ruth Thurstan is a historical ecologist with extensive expertise in fisheries, how their management has evolved. She is particularly interested in how historical norms of fishing behaviour impact the feasibility of fisheries restrictions.
Undertaking social science on fisher behaviour and values is notoriously challenging in terms of achieving trust and overcoming cultural and language barriers. Yet, this project offers an extraordinary opportunity to do this in a PhD timeframe. Under Mumby’s leadership, UQ will soon be executing a 5-year MPA/fisheries project in the Gulf-of-Thailand for the UN Food & Agricultural Organisation (FAO). The project, named GoTFish, is a partnership with the Malaysian Department of Fisheries (DoF) who are seeking help in meeting their 30×30 commitment. While the PhD student will not be funded by the project directly, they will add value and benefit from logistical support (e.g., local data collectors), long-term partnership between the DoF and community groups, and access to DoF staff, which provides a unique opportunity to understand the management constraints on fisheries restrictions.
Contact
Questions about this project should be directed to Professor Peter Mumby p.j.mumby@uq.edu.au
