Society For Conservation Biology Update

I haven't posted nearly as much about proceedings of the annual meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology here in Chattanooga. Truth be told, I've been doing a lot more dipping in-and-out of sessions and it's keeping me running around. While there is a marine science working group of the SCB, the offerings of presentations having to do with marine protected areas or coral reef conservation are few and far between.

One of the presentations I was looking forward to this afternoon, How Are Our MPAs Doing? Assessing Global Patterns in Marine Protected Area Management Effectiveness by Jed Holtzman, et al., was withdrawn from today's agenda and moved to Thursday. Bummer for me since I leave Wednesday morning.

Still, there have been several interesting presentations I've attended already:

Larval Spillover From South African Marine Reserves;
Comparing and Integrating Science and Community-Based Conservation Approaches: Prioritizing Areas for Marine Protection;
Promoting Aquatic Tourism Potentials of Nigerian Protected Areas;
Software Tools for Coastal Marine Ecosystem-Based Management.

My favorite presentation today was From Fishmeal To Fish Meals: Affecting the Largest Single Species Fishery in the World. The presenter was the amazing Dr. Patricia Majluf with the Conservation Biology Unit, Cayetano Heredia University, Peru. She described the incredible progress she has made in changing perceptions and attitudes of the commercially harvested Peruvian anchoveta. It's amazingly high in protein and quite delicious. As a fast reproducing planktivore eating low on the food chain, anchoveta are an excellent option as a sustainable fishery.

But anchoveta has had a PR problem. It has historically been considered a "trash catch" and is almost exclusively used for making fishmeal or deriving fish oil in Peru. But things have changed, thanks to Dr. Majluf.

She described an ambitious and amazing campaign to change attitudes and behaviors of consumers in Lima, Peru. From helping to educate consumers through outreach and education and even hosting anchoveta "give-aways" in markets to change tastes and opinions all the way up to facilitating government meetings to talk about incentives for getting more anchoveta into markets. The result has been nothing short of impressive. Majluf even brought a few tins of Peruvian anchoveta and crackers for everyone to taste!

Dr. Majluf admitted that perhaps she had a relatively easier time of convincing consumers to make the perception switch given that Lima is a city of "foodies" anyway. I told her I was skeptical that such a rapid shift can occur here in the States where we are a population absolutely addicted to firm, white fleshed fish. Don't get me wrong, I've already gone on the record as being a big fan of anchovy. But it's not like you find anchovy on many restaurant menus. She agreed that more aggressive strategies would indeed be necessary, and also pointed out that they are far from finished with Peru. There's a long way to go, especially in creating incentives to reduce fishing pressure on those species and fisheries that are less sustainable.

Still, it was a truly inspiring example of what is possible. Find out more about anchoveta fisheries, Dr. Majluf's work, and the "Eat Like a Pig" campaign from a great article by Jennifer Jacquet.