MacArthur Fellow Ted Ames Fine Scale Fisheries Management Workshop Genetics/Hatchery/Resettlement Publication

Ted Ames, fisherman and scholar, is a co-founder of Penobscot East Resource Center. He directs the Zone C Lobster Hatchery and is a member of the Board of Trustees. Using his trademark approach of combining fishery science and fishermen’s knowledge Ted has published several peer-reviewed articles on protecting essential fish habitats.

View Ted's complete bio.

The August 2010 edition of Downeast Magazine carries a cod article"Can This Fish Be Saved?" by Paul Greenberg based on his recent book"Four Fish".

On 8.23.2010, Ted Ames sent the following letter to the editor of Downeast Magazine:

"I am contacting you to express my concern about the cod article in the Augus tissue of Downeast Magazine from Paul Greenberg’s book, “Four Fish” and respectfully ask that you publish my objection to the quotes he ascribes to me.  Paul Greenberg utterly failed to include the ecosystem-based strategy Idiscussed with him from my recent AFS article in their “Marine and Coastal Fisheries”publication and he erroneously stated that I advocated breaking the Gulf of Maine into small compartments to be assigned to individual fisherman.  I have always proposed the opposite. As a fisheries researcher and lifelong fisherman, I object tohis attributing such outrageous statements to me and attach the AFS articlethat refutes them. 

In contrast to Paul Greenberg’s misstatements, I described a layered management plan based on the principle of Maine’s lobster zones, but adapted to bracket the area used by the four cod subpopulations in New England.Each of these were about 3,500 square miles; not a compartment, but a management area with elected fishermen whose intimate local knowledge would allow them to help managers improve the fishery, just as Maine did so successfully with its lobster zones. 

The proposed layers were designed to identify and protect local spawning grounds, nursery areas and estuaries that are onlyoccur within ~20 miles of the coast and would allow fishermen to have a voice in enhancing the productivity of local stocks. Rather than subdividing the Gulf of Maine into little compartments for fishermen, it offers an ecological approach that minimizes the changesaffecting thefisherywhile ensuring a sustainable fishery and equitable accessforall fishing communities."

Ted Ames, Stonington 

Paul Greenberg has apologized to Ted and will correct the mis-statements in future printings of his book and on his website.

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Ted's 2004 paper "The Stock Structure of Atlantic Cod in the Gulf of Maine," uses anecdotes from veteran Maine fishermen to show where cod have historically spawned. He concludes that system-wide assessments of cod stocks are inaccurate. Looking at the character and distribution of cod in the abundant 1920’s, Ted shows that in fact depletion may have been well advanced by the 1980s. He proposes that management of sub-populations is the key to rebuilding a sustainable fishery.

The work was widely recognized, and in 2005, the MacArthur Foundation awarded him with a prestigious fellowship. Ted also received  the 2007 Geddes W. Simpson Distinguished Lecturer award at the University of Maine and is the Visiting Coastal Studies Scholar at Bowdoin College for 2010/2011. 

"I propose a modification, like the Maine lobster zone plan, that basically creates area management for each of the four subpopulations of codfish. Because my later work is showing that cod, haddock, cusk, wolfish, white hake, winter flounder, grey sole, have their life cycle within the same area as these cod populations, I’m arguing that this is the logical, rational management unit for those species."

In 2010, he published "Managing Fisheries With Minimal Data. Multispecies Coastal Shelf recovery Plan: A Collaborative, Ecosystem-Based Approach" to address the results of years of over-harvesting and develop new fisheries management practices for the affected areas. Ted undertook detailed studies of spawning, habitat, and fishing patterns. He concludes that the ecological protection of areas where fish reproduce could help stop the cyclical crashes of cod, haddock, and other commercial fish species. Ecologically oriented area management could even bring back the days when fishermen throughout New England were landing fifty-pound cod.

"A layered area management, like what we have for lobster, creates a better fishery for everybody. The current mobile fleet won't be able to target nursery or spawning grounds anymore. If fish can reproduce, then we're going to have 10 times the fish we have now. It becomes kind of like watching a popcorn popper with the lid off!"

"You create incredible opportunities for the whole fishing fleet simply by segregating how large the fishing effort can be in each of the areas."

 

Other research papers by Ted Ames include:

• "Reconstructing the Gulf of Maine Cod Spawning Grounds on the Basis of Local Ecological Knowledge"; Vol 80, No 3675, pp. 1-9, Journal of Marine Biological Assessment, UK
• "Putting Fishermen's Knowledge to Work: The Promise and Pitfalls"