November 8, 2017
Speaker: Kerim Aydin, Alaska Fisheries Science Center
Abstract: Kerim Aydin will discuss the recent evolution of ecosystem-based fishery management practices in Alaska – in particular, (1) the expansion of Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s long-standing Ecosystem Status Report to deliver direct, targeted, and timely fishery management advice for each of Alaska’s four large marine ecosystems; (2) an Ocean & Atmospheric Research (OAR) and NOAA Fisheries operational ecosystem modeling suite for the eastern Bering Sea implemented as part of Alaska’s Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) program; and (3) the direct inclusion of ecosystem information in the stock assessment preparation and review process. In particular, Kerim will highlight cases where environmental data were used throughout the management process to highlight the need for increased caution in making quota decisions. Further, Kerim will discuss the development of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council’s Fisheries Ecosystem Plan for the Bering Sea, designed to lay out best practices for implementing EBFM in Alaska in a focused, action-informing rather than action-enforcing manner.
About the Speaker: Kerim Aydin is a supervisory fishery research biologist and has been the program leader of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s Resource Ecology and Ecosystem Modeling program since 2004. His research includes the development of marine food web models and their applicability to ecosystem-based fishery management. He received a PhD in Fisheries Science from the University of Washington, Seattle in 2000.
