About

We are a research group in the School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences at the University of Florida/IFAS. Guided by an integrative perspective and approach, we conduct research across the ecological and social dimensions of fisheries and engage in innovative practice to help craft solutions for difficult management challenges. Among the broad challenges we address are the development and reform of fisheries enhancements (e.g. hatchery programs), resource conservation in inland and coastal fisheries, recreational fisheries management, and aquaculture development. Our work is global in scope and reach with current or former projects based in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Research topics

• Ecology
• Biology
• Geography
• Fishery
• Environmental resource management
• Economics
• Natural resource economics
• Statistics
• Business
• Environmental science
• Mathematics
• Environmental planning
• Demography

Selected publications

• Just a good thing to have: Stakeholder support for a long-running marine stock enhancement program is based on broad criteria and only weakly contingent on biological outcomes

  Fisheries Research · 2026-02-25 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  It is generally assumed that fishing stakeholders value fish stocking and stock enhancement programs primarily for their (demonstrated or assumed) contributions to increasing the abundance of catchable fish. We investigated how stakeholders in Southern California value the long-running OREHP (Ocean Resources Enhancement and Hatchery Program) for White Seabass Atractoscion nobilis to which they are obligated to contribute financially through an Ocean Enhancement Validation (added to their annual fishing license). An online survey showed that Validation holders on average believed that OREHP was at least somewhat successful. When asked to rate the importance of different success criteria, respondents judged a broad range of criteria to be important. Of high importance were a variety of criteria related to research on both hatchery operations and the ecology of wild fish, fisheries and ocean management that support fisheries, and population enhancement (e.g., an increase in the White Seabass population). Criteria related to education and volunteer participation were also rated as important. Achieving population enhancement did not ‘make or break’ the program in their minds. There was strong and consistent support for broad ecology and conservation efforts associated with the OREHP. A majority of recreational respondents were willing to pay more for the Validation even if that did not result in a noticeable change in the White Seabass population or fishery. Successful population enhancement would add significantly to the perceived value of the OHREP, but a one-fish increase in the recreational bag limit resulting from it would not. Stakeholders value the OREHP for a broad range of reasons other than specific population or fishery enhancement outcomes which contribute only moderately to perceived value. Constructively considering such broad stakeholder values and success criteria is likely to benefit efforts to improve or reform fisheries enhancements, including the OREHP. • Fishing stakeholders took a multi-dimensional view of enhancement program success. • Population enhancement was viewed as only one of many important criteria and not singled out. • Fishing stakeholders viewed the OREHP as an ecological stewardship initiative rather than one that would provide a direct return to them.

  PublisherDOI

• Aquaculture-aided aquatic restoration and conservation: Highlights, challenges, and key lessons from global case studies

  Fisheries Research · 2026-05-16

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• A Review of Global Fisheries Performance

  Fish and Fisheries · 2025-02-20 · 4 citations

  reviewOpen access

  ABSTRACT Management of fisheries is complex as it combines environmental, economic and social objectives. The relative importance of these objectives is highly debated and the best approaches to achieving good outcomes are unclear. A lack of global and multi‐dimensional data has largely precluded reviews providing comparisons of performances across systems at a large scale. We review fisheries performance by analysing outcomes over 14 dimensions of environmental, economic and community performance using a unique global dataset for 145 fisheries collected with the Fishery Performance Indicators. The fisheries are ranked into three performance groups by an average of their environmental, economic and community scores: the 10% best fisheries, the 10% worst fisheries and the middle 80%. Furthermore, we investigate how four different types of management systems, catch shares, territorial use rights, limited entry and open access, are represented in the three performance groups. The best performing fisheries scored equally or better and the poorest performing fisheries scored equally or worse in environmental, economic and social dimensions. We found three different management systems to be represented among the best performing fisheries, indicating that no specific management system is best. Moreover, some management systems were represented in all three performance categories, indicating that fisheries characteristics or management designs are important elements of fishery performance. The worst performing fisheries were dominated by open access fisheries with no or very limited management.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Indonesia: The Most Overlooked Country in the Global Seafood System

  Reviews in Fisheries Science & Aquaculture · 2025-08-25 · 4 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Fish(eries) management on the third rail: Defusing and advancing the dialogue on hatcheries and stocking for enhancement, conservation, and restoration through an innovative roundtable

  Fisheries · 2025-05-05 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  ABSTRACT This feature reports on a roundtable session on aquaculture-aided fisheries enhancement, restoration, and conservation that was held at the 2024 Ninth World Fisheries Congress. The session aimed to foster constructive dialogue on the use of hatcheries and stocking programs for conservation purposes, a topic sometimes referred to as the “third rail” of fisheries management. The standing room-only session drew participants from around the world and a wide variety of aquaculture contexts. Using pre-session reflections, in-session discussions, and real-time feedback tools, the session encouraged open discussions on key challenges and promising practices and policies within ­aquaculture-aided enhancement, restoration, and conservation. Participants identified both established challenges and novel perspectives, particularly with respect to the sociocultural aspects of hatchery practices and the need for policies that acknowledge local contexts. The organizers considered the session to be a step forward in developing a robust and diverse community of practice interested in aquaculture-aided approaches.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Hatchery Propagation of Imperiled Aquatic Organisms for Recovery and Restoration: A Review of Twenty Priority Programs in the <i>United States</i>

  Reviews in Fisheries Science & Aquaculture · 2025-09-18 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• What Is(n't) Environmental Stewardship? Eliciting Unspoken Assumptions Using Fisheries as a Model

  Conservation Letters · 2025-03-01 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  ABSTRACT Environmental stewardship is often invoked as a net social good and an approach for achieving equitable and sustainable conservation outcomes, but it is rarely defined explicitly in management settings, and conflicting definitions have proliferated. This lack of consensus can influence conservation outcomes in several ways. Conflict can arise between stakeholders with different definitions of stewardship; managers may not proactively identify important stakeholders whose stewardship orientation does not include public advocacy; and stakeholders whose sense of stewardship does not include in‐depth knowledge of a particular ecosystem may advocate for ineffective or counterproductive actions. Developing strategies for identifying the implicit, unspoken definitions of environmental stewardship held by resource users, managers, and scientists can help with navigating these challenges. Here, we develop a method to elicit the unstated stewardship orientations of a group of stakeholders in a shared conservation setting. Using thought experiments and a Policy Delphi process, we find that even within our relatively homogeneous test group of recreational fisheries managers and scientists, individuals differed in their understanding of stewardship. We encourage conservation organizations with a mission of stewardship, or ones that interface with environmental stewards, to adopt an approach like this one to identify potential sources of conflict, inequity, and ineffective action before they arise.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Integrating Diverse Stakeholder Knowledge in Recreational Fisheries Decision Making

  Fish & fisheries series/Fish and fisheries series (Print) · 2025-12-14 · 5 citations

  book-chapterOpen access

  Abstract Scientists and policymakers increasingly recognize that recreational fisheries decision making should in some way involve the knowledge of affected stakeholders. There are myriad studies about integrating stakeholder knowledge, but they span broad disciplines and topics. Lacking is (i) simple taxonomies that organize general approaches for integrating knowledge, and (ii) a review and examples of their application to specifically recreational fisheries and specifically diverse stakeholders. This chapter first defines the terms “stakeholders” and “recreational” and recognizes that globally, the decision making for non-commercial fisheries often occurs outside of the North American concept of management agencies and even purely leisure-based fisheries. Most of the chapter reviews common approaches for integrating stakeholder knowledge, from near-complete external governance with minimal input from stakeholders (top-down, command-and-control) to self-governance by stakeholders. Organizationally, we adapt the existing cooperative management continuum to first separate non-participatory from participatory approaches and then separate participatory approaches into those aimed at creating knowledge (to eventually inform future decisions) and those focused on decision making itself. The approaches we consider include observing stakeholders (e.g., via survey), incorporating multiple types of knowing (e.g., local traditional knowledge), collaborative data collection (e.g., citizen science), collaborative modelling (e.g., mental models and quantitative modelling), participatory decision making (co-management proper and the special cases of structured decision making and adaptive management), and finally self-governance (including private management of recreational fisheries). We define each according to a broader literature beyond recreational fisheries, describe the recognized advantages and disadvantages, describe or summarize applications to recreational fisheries, and finally mention relevance for integrating specifically diverse stakeholder knowledge. We then provide advice for how to select different approaches, including situations in which certain approaches are more likely to produce intended consequences. We conclude by describing potential challenges to the more useful integration of diverse stakeholder knowledge and needs in recreational fisheries decision making.

  PublisherDOI

• Psychological commitment of freshwater anglers and its relation to their preferences for stocking and other management actions

  Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences · 2024-03-11 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Understanding stakeholder diversity can help natural resource managers tailor activities to achieve greater stakeholder satisfaction. Stakeholder diversity can be described by the concept of recreational specialization. Centrality-to-lifestyle, one subdimension of specialization that measures the psychological importance of a recreational activity to an angler, has been shown to explain many human dimensions and behaviors of recreational fishers and to correlate with preferences for management actions. We surveyed 9911 anglers in Florida, USA to examine how centrality-to-lifestyle relates to preferences for stocking and other management tools. We found that most anglers support stocking and that anglers of greater centrality-to-lifestyle had more positive views toward stocking than less central anglers. Participants, regardless of level of centrality-to-lifestyle, generally preferred stocking of one species, Florida largemouth bass ( Micropterus salmoides), and they preferred habitat management above stocking, with no relation to centrality. The results suggest stocking can improve the satisfaction of anglers of all commitment levels, but habitat improvement could do so even more. Managers might consider prioritizing habitat management over stocking in systems where natural recruitment is ample to increase overall angler satisfaction, and where the anglers will, on average, support such actions independent of the degree of centrality.

  PublisherDOI

• Does seafood trade enhance seafood availability in developing countries? The case of Nigeria

  Marine Policy · 2024-01-25 · 20 citations

  articleOpen access

  Seafood is a highly traded food group. Moreover, the trade is controversial, and particularly in relation to developing countries. To proponents, trade provides a source of food, nutrition and economic development, while for opponents, it is an example of how the rich take food out of the mouths of the poor. Review articles provide no clear conclusions with respect to the merit of the seafood trade, suggesting that the picture is nuanced and that case studies are important. In this study we will investigate seafood availability in Nigeria for the period 2000 to 2020 with a focus on the origin of the seafood by estimating apparent consumption. Our results indicate that Nigeria is a country where seafood imports are highly important for seafood availability. Imports provide 42% of the seafood consumed in 2020, while exports are negligible. In common with imports, domestic fisheries landings and aquaculture production have increased since the turn of the century. The Netherlands is the most important source country for Nigerian seafood imports, and most imports originate in Europe. Imports from neighboring countries in Africa are highly limited.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Edward V. Camp

  University of Florida

  21 shared

• C. Garaway

  University College London

  18 shared

• Charles Hazlerigg

  Newcastle University

  15 shared

• Robert Arthur

  University of Exeter

  14 shared

• Taryn Garlock

  Auburn University

  12 shared

• M.C.M. Beveridge

  11 shared

• Frank Asche

  University of Stavanger

  10 shared

• Kenneth M. Leber

  Mote Marine Laboratory

  10 shared

Labs

• Lorenzen LabPI

Education

• Ph.D. Applied Population Biology

  University of London

  1997

• Diplom (M.S.) Biology with Mathematics, Biology/Marine Science

  Kiel University

  1993

Awards & honors

• 2007-08 Mote Eminent Scholar in Fisheries Ecology at FSU and…