• Feburary 9th, 2009

  UCSB Fisheries Paper Chosen as Best Research of 2008 by Nature

  Nature, one of the most prestigious scientific journals in the world, has chosen a paper co-authored by two UC Santa Barbara scientists as its top research highlight for 2008. The paper, based on a study published in the Sept. 19, 2008, issue of Science, showed that an innovative fisheries management strategy called "catch shares" can reverse fisheries collapse. It was co-authored by Christopher Costello, the lead author and an economist at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UCSB; Steven Gaines, director of UCSB's Marine Science Institute; and John Lynham, assistant professor at the University of Hawaii. Here's what Nature said about the groundbreaking study: "With the biomass of the world's top marine predators at about a tenth of what it was in the 1950s, fisheries need management that will stop them collapsing. In September, Christopher Costello of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his colleagues used data from 1950 to 2003 and 11,135 fisheries to conclude that individual tradable quotas (ITQs) could help.

• November  2008

  Presidential Task Force/Working Group titled: Oceans of Abundance

• September 18th, 2008

  New Study by UCSB , Hawaii Scientists Offers Solution to Global Fisheries Collapse

  A study published in the September 19 issue of Science shows that an innovative yet contentious fisheries management strategy called "catch shares" can reverse fisheries collapse. Where traditional "open access" fisheries have converted to catch shares, both fishermen and the oceans have benefited. UC Santa Barbara scientists Christopher Costello and Steven Gaines are two of the co-authors of this groundbreaking study, which was funded by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. Costello, the lead author, is an economist at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UCSB. Gaines is director of UCSB's Marine Science Institute. John Lynham, assistant professor at the University of Hawaii, is the third author.