Island Press
Shifting Baselines: The Past and the Future of Ocean Fisheries
Key Metrics
- Jeremy B C Jackson
- Island Press
- Hardcover
- 9781610910002
- 9.1 X 6.1 X 0.9 inches
- 1.1 pounds
- Nature > Environmental Conservation & Protection - General
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
Edited by marine ecologists Jeremy Jackson and Enric Sala, and historian Karen Alexander, the book brings together knowledge from disparate disciplines to paint a more realistic picture of past fisheries. The authors use case studies on the cod fishery and the connection between sardine and anchovy populations, among others, to explain various methods for studying historic trends and the intricate relationships between species. Subsequent chapters offer recommendations about both specific research methods and effective management. This practical information is framed by inspiring essays by Carl Safina and Randy Olson on a personal experience of shifting baselines and the importance of human stories in describing this phenomenon to a broad public.
While each contributor brings a different expertise to bear, all agree on the importance of historical perspective for effective fisheries management. Readers, from students to professionals, will benefit enormously from this informed hindsight.
Author Bio
Jeremy Jackson is the scientific director of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, senior advisor on coral reefs for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, emeritus professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and emeritus staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
He is also a Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History. Jackson studies threats and solutions to human impacts on the environment and the ecology and evolution of tropical seas. He is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has won numerous international prizes and awards.
He is the author of more than 170 scientific publications and eleven books, most recently Breakpoint: Reckoning with America’s Environmental Crises and Shifting Baselines in Fisheries: Using the Past to Manage the Future.
Research Interests
I study the historical ecology and evolution of marine ecosystems and the ways that human activities have affected their biodiversity and function. I am currently working on a synthesis of my last thirty five years of paleobiological research on the evolution of Caribbean marine communities as affected by their isolation from the Pacific Ocean due to the uplift of the Isthmus of Panama, with particular emphasis on coral reefs and associated seafloor biota. Another major focus is the decline of coral reefs due to exploitation, pollution, and climate change and the potential for reef restoration. I am also working on a new book on the historical ecology of the global tropics.
Source: Smithsonian and National Academy of Sciences
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