Episode 2 - Steve Box on Ocean Resilience & Biodiversity Coping with Adversity

‘The basic premise is that you don't manage fisheries, you manage people and how they interact with the Marine environment, with what they're catching, how they're catching it and where they're catching it - the fish will take care of themselves’ - Steve Box

Steve Box is a marine biologist studying the effects of fishing practices that endanger more than half of our ocean’s biodiversity.

His work assesses the impact of fishing on coastal ecosystems and connections between key marine species. Steve focused on collaborative solutions to improve fishing practices with Smithsonian’s Marine Conservation Program. The Marine Conservation Program is based at the Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce, Florida.

Steve was the first scientist to study the extent and scale of different fishing activities in Honduras in the Western Caribbean and their importance to the economy and food security of rural areas. This effort evolved from his doctoral research in Honduras, where he studied the coral reefs around the Bay Islands. Later he began working with indigenous Miskito fishers to build sustainable commercial fisheries that provided local livelihoods while preserving biodiversity.

Working with local communities and governments, Steve uses his research to help create networks of marine protected areas with measurable biodiversity conservation impact. To inform the design and placement of marine protected areas Steve uses molecular and genetic approaches, spatial dynamics and modeling, and fisheries economics and remote sensing. Steve’s research and investment in local communities is building fisheries that protect the environment and the livelihoods for fishers in the Western Caribbean and around the world.

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

• Predicting vulnerability to management changes in data-limited, small-scale fisheries. Marine Policy

• Evaluating tools for the spatial management of fisheries

• Fine-scale population structure of Lobatus gigas in Jamaica’s exclusive economic zone considering hydrodynamic influences

• A case for redefining the boundaries of the Mesoamerican Reef Ecoregion

• Isolation by oceanic distance and spatial genetic structure in an overharvested international fishery

• A genuine win‐win: resolving the “conserve or catch” conflict in marine reserve network design

• Biophysical connectivity explains population genetic structure in a highly dispersive marine species

• Contrasting genetic effects of red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle L.) range expansion along West and East Florida

OTHER RELATED LINKS

• Ocean Resilience: Biodiversity’s Role in Coping with Adversity 

• On ocean dumping and ocean pollution

• On Marine Debris and the impact of human 

• On the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

• A message from Dr. Steve Box as Senior Vice President, Fish Forever

• OPINION: To help the ocean globally, we need a local approach

• Long and short term economic drivers of overexploitation in Honduran coral reef fisheries due to their dependence on export markets.

• Follow the Data Podcast: Why are small-scale fisheries such a big deal? 

• Catalyzing sustainable fisheries management through behavior change interventions 

• Human Behaviour: The Key Source of Uncertainty in Fisheries Management

• Social marketing is shown to help small fishing communities adopt sustainable fishing practices

• The hidden value of artisanal fisheries in Honduras

• Scientists design first reserve network balancing fishing benefits, species protection

• System-level optimal yield: increased value, less risk, improved stability, and better fisheries

• Hidden in plain sight: Using optimum yield as a policy framework to operationalize ecosystem-based fisheries management

• Follow the Data Podcast: Community-Based Conservation: Local Approach with a Global Impact

• Using stakeholder’s perspectives of ‘Managed Access’ to guide management efforts in small-scale fisheries

• Stakeholders in Fisheries

• Understanding stakeholder conflicts in coastal fisheries: evidence from the brackish lagoons around Rügen, Germany

• Stakeholder participation and sustainable fisheries: an integrative framework for assessing adaptive comanagement processes

• Many government subsidies lead to overfishing. Here's a solution.

• 25 Reasons Why the WTO Must End Subsidies That Drive Overfishing

• The sea is running out of fish, despite nations’ pledges to stop it

• Overfishing - Marine Stewardship Council

• Putting an end to billions in fishing subsidies could improve fish stocks and ocean health

• Impact of COVID-19 on small-scale coastal sheries of Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia

• Fish landing app tracks boat and catch

• New App gives Fishers a Say - Living Oceans Foundation

• Tracing Fish and Finances

• Fisheries app for mobile devices introduced in the Philippines

• Indonesian former fisheries minister jailed for bribery in lobster exports

• New and Emerging Technologies for Sustainable Fisheries

• Global Fishing Index

• Global Fishing Index - Conservation Finance Alliance 

• Global Fishing Index - Ocean decade.org

• IUU fishing Index 2021

• Local leaders called upon to safeguard small-scale fishing - devex

• Oceana Annual Report 2020 - 2021