By Julia Robins, Staff Writer
On October 22, Troy Hartley, director of Virginia Sea Grant, gave the fisheries department seminar at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS). While these weekly talks typically focus on fish, Hartley, a social scientist, spoke to more than 30 students and faculty about the people who manage fish.
Hartley discussed the relationships between Chesapeake Bay fisheries managers and land-use managers in terms of communication, influence, and mutual understanding. Effective communication is key to integrating fisheries and land-use management, as each group of managers has a substantial influence on the other’s effectiveness.
For instance, according to the Fisheries Habitat and Ecosystem Program, there are strong links between increased land development and declining fish habitat quality in tidal tributaries of Chesapeake Bay. Recent studies on working waterfronts in communities show that healthy fish stocks are critical to maintaining waterfront infrastructure and economic viability.
Currently, regular communication—contact on a weekly basis, for example—is rare between the regional fisheries science and management communities and local land-use planners on the Eastern Shore in both Virginia and Maryland. Fisheries managers are seeking ways to better engage with land-use managers, however, given the essential role that habitat plays in maintaining healthy fish stocks.
Further information exchange, better mutual understanding, and greater influence are necessary to adopt ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM), which considers human activities, their benefits, and their potential impacts within the context of the broader biological and physical environment.
Hartley studies these communication issues in EBFM and other multi-jurisdictional coordination efforts using network analysis, mapping the connections between people and assessing the structure and function of network maps.
“We exist in multiple networks all the time and we serve different roles in each of them,” says Hartley. “I’m often asked what is the perfect network; there is no such thing. Each network structure has strengths and limitations.”
Groups can enhance their networks’ outcomes, he says, by increasing communication between key components of the network and improving access to useful information or resources for key decision-makers.
Hartley, who is also a Research Associate Professor in the VIMS Fisheries Science Department, will soon use network analyses and strategies on an NSF-funded project in which he will assess how professional networks of oyster management stakeholders change over time.
“I really enjoy sharing social science research with marine science graduate students,” says Hartley of the October seminar. “VIMS students are thirsty for insights into the science-policy interface, and my work in network analysis and other policy implementation studies provides a glimpse into that world.”
“Besides,” he says, “now they can now tell their parents that they met a social scientist.”
