Ecosystem-based management: What would Clay do?

Abstract

Fisheries resource management is in a state of transition from managing populations at the species level to managing living marine resources at the ecosystem level. This transition will require changes in the way data are collected, analyzed, integrated, and finally utilized in management decisions. C. S. Clay “Clay” was a pioneer in underwater acoustics, but my first experiences and interactions with him were as a graduate student biologist learning to observe and understand the underwater environment in new and innovative ways. Clay’s collaborations with biologists, ecologists, and oceanographers spawned novel methods of integrating and analyzing disparate data sets and many of these methods are being used today. While Clay’s influence on fisheries acoustics has been monumental, his approaches to understanding the ocean environment may be most valuable to ecosystem-based management strategies. I will highlight examples of Clay’s innovative approaches that have been used and ways they could be applied to ecosystem-based management and research.