Pardee Center Hosts Virtual Symposium, “Oceans Past, Present & Future: Historical Ecology & Circumpolar Fisheries Management”

On March 3, 2021, the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future hosted a virtual symposium titled “Oceans Past, Present & Future: Historical Ecology & Circumpolar Fisheries Management.” The symposium featured a keynote address by Loren McClenachan (Elizabeth and Lee Ainslie Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at Colby College) and an interdisciplinary panel of resource managers, climatologists, anthropologists, and archaeologists. The goals of the symposium were to identify the types of data that can be extracted from long-term archaeological, historical, and paleoenvironmental records, and to strategize about how these records can be used in the future.

The discussion centered on the decline of the Pacific cod fishery, which is threatening economic and cultural stability along the North Pacific coastline. This decline has been blamed on marine heatwaves caused by “the blob”, which raises sea surface temperatures and threatens cod survival.

The symposium was convened by Prof. Catherine West as part of her work as a Pardee Center Faculty Research Fellow. The public symposium was followed by an interdisciplinary workshop on March 4 to continue discussions about the role of the social sciences in northern circumpolar research, and the value of long-term archaeological and paleoenvironmental records for contemporary resource management.

Watch the recordings above.

The symposium was co-sponsored by the BU Archaeology Program, the BU Department of Anthropology, and the BU Marine Program.

Participants:

Keynote:

Loren McClenachan, Elizabeth and Lee Ainslie Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Colby College

Panel Discussion:

Bruce Anderson, Professor, Earth & Environment, Boston University
Jason Addison, Research Geologist, United States Geological Survey (USGS)
Steve Barbeaux, Research Biologist, Alaska Fisheries Science Center – NOAA
Kate Reedy, Professor & Chair, Department of Anthropology, Idaho State University
Catherine West, Research Assistant Professor, Archaeology & Anthropology, Boston University
Mike Etnier, Affiliate Research Associate, Western Washington University
Discussant: Torrey Rick, Curator of North American Archaeology, Smithsonian Institution