Co-Managing The Scotian Shelf Shrimp Fishery - So Far So Green

No abstracts are to be cited without prior reference to the author.

In recent years the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has been fostering co-operative approaches to the assessment and management of Canadian fisheries resources. In this paper I describe one such co-management program, the Scotian Shelf fishery for northern shrimp Pandalus borealis, and the role of science in it. Drawbacks and advantages of co-operative research are described from a personal perspective, with a view to gleaning basic principles. Predictably, problems fall into two main categories, including those associated with methodological compromises, and those stemming from conflicting objectives. Some examples are provided. A major benefit of conducting science within a co-managed program is that it stimulates new ways of viewing the process of fisheries science and management. The 'traffic light' method of determining stock status is highlighted as a way to facilitate industry involvement in the final stages of the assessment/management process. As a result, the setting and enforcing management measures such as TACs, traditionally a government domain, becomes more of a co-operative action.