Around the Table. Science vs Traditional Ecological Knowledge

“Scientific understanding of the environment is a social construction. Once that is understood, then fishermen and scientists will be better placed to co-operate. If scientific assessments of the T.A.C. continue to be regarded as objective truth – if they are not recognised as being susceptible to political manipulation and inherently predisposed towards easily quantifiable industrial fisheries – then fish scientists may become the laughing stock of the world. If the livelihoods of the millions of traditional inshore fish workers are at stake, it will be a bitter laughter.”

Gisli Palsson. — The Ecologist 1995

The west coast rock lobster court case in the High Court highlights a historical conflict between fishers, conservationists and the scientists. It is acknowledged that each holds virtually completely different point of views on the types of knowledge concerning the resource and practical approaches to conservation and on setting the Total Allowable Catch.

Whereas fishers stem their perceptions from considerable experiences in fishing on the sea, academia and conservationists base their research from conventional science and management traditions. Over the many years the assumption was that marine scientists were capable of estimating fish stocks and from this mathematically calculating a reasonable accurate Total Allowable Catch (TAC) figure. This was regarded as sacrosanct, challenged only by the fishers and a few rare maverick academics.