A few comments from another SAFS graduate, working in fisheries science and management for over 25 years. Although I started my graduate education at UW when it still was the "School of Fisheries" I finished my PhD in the renamed "School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences" (note the plural on Sciences).
Fishery sciences are relatively new, at least compared with other fields, and have seen quite substantial paradigm changes. At the onset a bit more than 150 years ago and for quite some time many leaders in the field had a view that fisheries were essentially inexaustible, for decades well into the following century the focus was to "develop", "promote", etc new fisheries accross the world. Concepts like maximum sustainable yield (MSY) were developed and made their way into national and international legislation with profound implications for fisheries worldwide. The concept is that there are different levels of exploitation that a natural resource (such as a fish population or stock) can sustain indifinetly. If you harvest nothing, there is no yield, if you harvest them all, there is no sustainable yield, somewhere in between is the maximum that can be sustainably harvested: MSY. Problem is that from concept to implementation there are multiple complications, such as issues estimating MSY with insuficient data, overfocus on single species MSY, wrong and not usefull population models, environmental/ecological/fishery changes, etc, that challenge implementation of MSY from theory to reality. In some cases managing to MSY has resulted in some catastrophic fishery collapses. Over time, there has been a shift from using MSY as "target" (what you want to achive) to using MSY related quantities as "limits" (what you should not exceed) for example in US fisheries legislation. Ultimately it depends on what are the management objectives: some fisheries still use MSY as a target (some tropical tuna fisheries), other ones specifically try to stay away from MSY (for example North Pacific Albacore) and try to keep the stock at some historical level reference. It all depends on what are the objectives for a particular fishery. The issue is not MSY, nor any other individual aspect of fisheries by itself or of exploitation of other natural resources needed to feed humanity ever growing numbers. More recently there has been a shift to more holistic views (bringing other fields, sciences and stakeholders), more precaution in making decisions acknowledging insuficient information and acknowleding/incorporating resource users other than industrial extraction. Progress has been made, catastrophic errors have been made too, some days I am more cynical than others about the future but I and many others on this field continue to make concerted efforts every day for a better future, there is hope and a lot of hard work and difficult decisions to be made.
@Kashf, it sounds like you are doing an undergraduate degree in Marine Biology (not SAFS itself), which is still pretty general in introducing students to the basics. I suspect many of your colleague students may have other interest other than fisheries and would end up in other fields/doing something else altogether if their passion is not there. If you were to continue in the field of fishery science/management you should definitely consider SAFS and/or SMAE. SAFS has consistently been ranked as the best fisheries program in the USA and arguably in the world (although somehow ranked 4th in the world last time I checked). SAFS also has a long history of innovation working together with fishery stakeholders not only nationally but worldwide. Getting into and finishing graduate school is quite an investment of time and resources if you are not really committed to it. There are also many roles (scientist, manager, advocate, activist, etc) that your colleagues may end up in the future, some of those roles are quite incompatible in a professional capacity where you have to put your personal views/biases aside and operate under the legal/operational confines of your profession. Just like with the science itself, they may mature as they progress or become stagnant/disinterested and advance in a different direction. I would challenge your professors and students when you have different views, it is your career to make. When I started my own carreer as an undergrad overseas, many other students wanted to be "like Jacques Cousteau", save the dolphins, etc. Not many of them finished that degree nor went to grad school, let alone ever worked in fisheries science/management. When I started at SAFS, I was lucky that I was surrounded by a large number of students that were active in the outdoors, some of which have been and still are my fishing buddies to this day.
Regarding Seaspiracy, there was a
discussion thread in the old site (WFF) that you can still read and refer your classmates for commentary and links to reviews by actual experts in the field, rather than the biased, misleading and ultimately harmful impact towards real progress in ocean conservation of that "documentary".
Finnally, some reccomended reading below for those interested in the history of fishery sciences and the political and social context at the time (
Scaling Fisheries), probably one the best accounts of the events leading to one of the largest fisheries disasters in history (
Lament for an Ocean: The collapse of the Atlantic Cod Fishery). For those starting or interested in graduate studies see the last link, perhaps a bit cynical but classic on point advice.
Amazon product ASIN 0521038960
Amazon product ASIN 0771039581
stearnslab.yale.edu
.
