Week two

Over the last two weeks I have continued to spread the word of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust.  Thank-you for all your words of encouragement :-) The view from my office window has certainly helped me settle in.  The view also makes me feel as though I am on the set of 'Sleepless In Seattle'.

One of the major challenges last week was trying to make appointments.  As the end of the year beckons, it is an extremely busy time for those involved in fisheries management. The year culminates in a meeting at which representatives from the eight US regional Fisheries Management Councils come together to decide upon fishing quotas for the forthcoming year.  Apparently there was a big North Pacific Fisheries Management Council (NPFMC) meeting earlier this month, which might also explain why everyone has been so busy.  I was invited to attend the December meeting of the NPFMC in Alaska.  This is the last meeting of the year for the NPFMC before representatives join the other seven regional Management Council.  It was lovely to be invited but unfortunately my time in the States will have come to an end.  I have since discovered that these meetings are open to the public, which I think makes for a wonderfully transparent process.

I attended a mini-workshop run by Dan Holland, the economist I met during my first week, regarding preliminary analysis Dan and his colleague, Steve Kasperski, completed on income diversification of fishers in the communities on the US West Coast and in Alaska.  Dan presented income diversification indices, at the level of individuals and fishing ports, which suggested greater diversification lowers income risk.  Dan discussed the possible barriers to diversification including; regulatory pressure, costs of diversification i.e. fishing gear, licences or quota, and lower efficiency resulting from lack of specialisation.

I will be visiting Vancouver during the last week of October, I just need to make my travel arrangements now.  I have arranged to meet a couple of people from Archipelago Marine Research and also Bruce Turris who is involved in the management of the Canadian West Coast Groundfish fishery.  I have been in touch with Greg Clapp, from Archipelago Marine Research, who says he might be able to put me in touch with some industry representatives....fingers crossed!

I had a really interesting chat with Carey McGilliard, a post-doc in Ray Hilborn's research group, about her work on marine protected areas and data poor stocks.  Carey works on measures of fish stock density in relation to marine protected area to formulate harvest control rules and models how these rules change the performance of fish stock assessments over time.  Carey has spent some time working with fishers, although not directly, on Californian data poor stocks and cited institutional barriers as one of the main problems in involving the fishing industry in research.  Carey also gave me some useful sights into US fisheries management and suggested other people I should speak to.

Peter Westley,  now a post-doc at the University of Washington, held the departmental seminar.  Peter talked about his work on biological invasion and adaption of Newfoundland fish species, which contributed towards his PhD. When Peter started talking about the adaption of brown trout, introduced to Newfoundland from Scotland, it put a wee smile on my face to hear Peter talk about Scotland.  I frantically started making notes when I realised that Peter's work is relevant to that of my housemate's PhD.

Finally, being British and not to deviate from my stereotypical traits, I must mention the weather.  Over the weekend I got to experience Seattle's infamous rain, after an unusual 48 day dry-spell!

That's all for now folks.