Subject: Defining the Best Science Available for Management   (video)

Speaker: Charles Fowler, AFSC, National Marine Mammal Laboratory
When: Tuesday, 14 March  2006, noon - 1 p.m.
Where: Bldg. 4, Traynor Seminar Room, Rm. 2076,  AFSC, Sand Point Campus, Seattle

Dear Colleagues: We're pleased to offer the fifth installment of this year's AFSC Seminar Series.  Charles Fowler, of the AFSC's National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle, WA, will present his rationale for defining the “best scientific information available for management” using patterns observed in nature.

Defining the Best Science Available for Management

Charles Fowler
Alaska Fisheries Science Center
National Marine Mammal Laboratory
7600 Sand Point Way NE
Seattle, WA 98115

Abstract 

Legislation requires that the best scientific information available be used in management.  There is no generally accepted definition of such information.  In this seminar, I will discuss a proposal that the definition be: information based on patterns most directly matched to (most consonant with) each specific management question.  Consonant emergent patterns are integrative of complexity to include an accounting of basic principles.  Scientific information can be ranked according to the degree of consonance and integration that is achieved.  With this definition, the limitations we experience in reductionism are converted to a holistic solution to management that allows us to achieve sustainability through maximizing biodiversity.  Whether at the level of the individual, the species, the ecosystem or the biosphere, this definition promotes consistency in addressing the management questions we face.