So, what is this going to be about?

Ok, enough babbling discussion, let's get down to it: what am I going to write about? Well, as a matter of fact, I am interested in fisheries management, so I think that's going to be the main topic.

After trying to explain what I do to thousands of people, I realized that almost nobody knows s**t about fisheries management. Most of the fisheries knowledge rests within fishing communities or gathering dust in those boring books and papers only scientist read, so I thought that I could try something else. I'll try to explain a few fisheries concepts in the way I would like them to explain me.

I will try to write about several things on the subject, and that includes explanations of basic ideas and concepts of fisheries management, explanation of some current (and not-so-current) debates and my opinion, maybe some news that I see somewhere else, and also some more babbling discussion of my own.

Just to give you an idea, current debates include marine protected areas (MPAs), open access and rights-based systems and individual transferable quotas (ITQs), application of the FAO Precautionary Approach, assessment-driven management strategies or model-driven management strategies, etc. I'm not going to explain any of those here (yet, here=this post not this blog), but if you cannot resist your curiosity, just google it and you'll get tons of info.

That said, I'm not sure what the "real" first post will be about, not because I don't have ideas, but because I have quite a few. Here's a preview of things to come (in no particular order):

• what does "recruitment", "stock", "maximum sustainable yield (MSY)" and a few more things mean?
• how do population models work? how is assessment conducted?
  
• the Interamerican Tuna Commission (IATC) and Colombia
• "traditional" management strategies (like MSY) and why are they wrong (are they?)
  
• ITQs pros and cons
• ITQs debate in Japan (could ITQs destroy community-based management)
• current status of the world stocks
• the MPA narrative
• Japanese scientific whaling: what's all that about?
  
• etc.

See? there's a lot to talk about.