Paddlefish: Ecological, Aquacultural, and Regulatory Challenges of Managing a Global Resource

<i>Abstract</i>.—The Paddlefish <i>Polyodon spathula</i> has been identified and characterized disparately by commercial harvesters, anglers, managers, and the public, from a rough fish, to a food fish, to a trophy sport fish, to one of North America’s most economically valuable and evolutionarily irreplaceable fish species. It is most commonly harvested with recreational fishing methods often used only for low-valued species, including snagging (the most common method) and archery since adults are primarily filter feeders and thus not susceptible to more traditional angling methods used for sport or game fishes. The prevalence of recreational snagging throughout the Mississippi and Missouri basins increased greatly over the period 1950–1975, associated with impoundment of upper Mississippi and Missouri mainstem and tributary reaches. More Paddlefish became accessible to snaggers below dams as spawning and feeding migrations were impeded and fish aggregated in tailwaters. The variability of legal and administrative classifications of Paddlefish and differing perceptions of the species by harvesters, managers, and the public have resulted in a fish with a complex identity. While Paddlefish in the past have been petitioned for federal listing under the Endangered Species Act, to date they have not been listed. Recreational fisheries management strategies, goals, and objectives have varied widely, perhaps understandably, since the species is managed at the state level. To assess the current situation, we administered an electronic survey to state Paddlefish managers from each of the 25 current and former range states, requesting information on Paddlefish status, regulations, perceptions, and management strategies. The legal and administrative classification of Paddlefish by each state remains the primary factor in how they are managed, and we identified several regional management strategies. Paddlefish regulations continue to evolve based on new research findings and stock assessments. The most impactful regulatory changes have been the development of limited entry Paddlefish fisheries requiring the purchase of a special Paddlefish permit and three instances where recreational fisheries and stock assessments are supported in part by voluntary roe-donation programs. Management of Paddlefish across the Mississippi Basin at biologically relevant or regional scales remains the most rational and desirable long-term goal.

2019 ◽  
Vol 77 (6) ◽  
pp. 2333-2343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alyssa S Thomas ◽  
Taciano L Milfont ◽  
Michael C Gavin

Abstract Understanding current and predicting future behaviour of fishers is fundamental to designing effective management strategies. The management of most recreational fisheries requires releasing fish not meeting size or daily limits, and assuming the majority survive. In the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand, a maximum size limit imposed on the blue cod (Parapercis colias) fishery aimed to achieve a more balanced sex ratio for this hermaphroditic species. We tested three alternative size limit scenarios (current, increased, and no maximum size) in a study with recreational fishers (N = 420) to investigate whether regulation change would influence their intentions to discard fish and fishing satisfaction. Increasing or eliminating the maximum size led to lower discard intentions and greater fishing satisfaction, suggesting strategies to achieve both management goals (e.g. more large fish) and increased fisher satisfaction (potentially increasing compliance). More broadly, the results demonstrate the benefits of using scenarios to evaluate potential regulatory changes prior to implementation.


2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Colbert ◽  
Bruce Louis Rich ◽  
Timothy A. Judge

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Urman ◽  
Stefania Ionescu ◽  
David Garcia ◽  
Anikó Hannák

BACKGROUND Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists have been willing to share their results quickly to speed up the development of potential treatments and/or a vaccine. At the same time, traditional peer-review-based publication systems are not always able to process new research promptly. This has contributed to a surge in the number of medical preprints published since January 2020. In the absence of a vaccine, preventative measures such as social distancing are most helpful in slowing the spread of COVID-19. Their effectiveness can be undermined if the public does not comply with them. Hence, public discourse can have a direct effect on the progression of the pandemic. Research shows that social media discussions on COVID-19 are driven mainly by the findings from preprints, not peer-reviewed papers, highlighting the need to examine the ways medical preprints are shared and discussed online. OBJECTIVE We examine the patterns of medRxiv preprint sharing on Twitter to establish (1) whether the number of tweets linking to medRxiv increased with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) which medical preprints were mentioned on Twitter most often; (3) whether medRxiv sharing patterns on Twitter exhibit political partisanship; (4) whether the discourse surrounding medical preprints among Twitter users has changed throughout the pandemic. METHODS The analysis is based on tweets (n=557,405) containing links to medRxriv preprint repository that were posted between the creation of the repository in June 2019 and June 2020. The study relies on a combination of statistical techniques and text analysis methods. RESULTS Since January 2020, the number of tweets linking to medRxiv has increased drastically, peaking in April 2020 with a subsequent cool-down. Before the pandemic, preprints were shared predominantly by users we identify as medical professionals and scientists. After January 2020, other users, including politically-engaged ones, have started increasingly tweeting about medRxiv. Our findings indicate a political divide in sharing patterns of the top-10 most-tweeted preprints. All of them were shared more frequently by users who describe themselves as Republicans than by users who describe themselves as Democrats. Finally, we observe a change in the discourse around medRxiv preprints. Pre-pandemic tweets linking to them were predominantly using the word “preprint”. In February 2020 “preprint” was taken over by the word “study”. Our analysis suggests this change is at least partially driven by politically-engaged users. Widely shared medical preprints can have a direct effect on the public discourse around COVID-19, which in turn can affect the societies’ willingness to comply with preventative measures. This calls for an increased responsibility when dealing with medical preprints from all parties involved: scientists, preprint repositories, media, politicians, and social media companies. CONCLUSIONS Widely shared medical preprints can have a direct effect on the public discourse around COVID-19, which in turn can affect the societies’ willingness to comply with preventative measures. This calls for an increased responsibility when dealing with medical preprints from all parties involved: scientists, preprint repositories, media, politicians, and social media companies.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Lang ◽  
Sébastien Lemieux ◽  
Josée Hébert ◽  
Guy Sauvageau ◽  
Ma'n H. Zawati

BACKGROUND Medical care and health research are jointly undergoing significant changes brought about by the Internet [1,2,3]. New online tools, apps, and programs are helping to facilitate unprecedented levels of data sharing and collaboration, potentially enabling more precisely targeted treatment and rapid research translation [4,5,6]. Patient portals have been a significant part of this emerging online health ecosystem, providing patients a mechanism for accessing electronic health records, managing appointments and prescriptions, even communicating directly with care providers [7]. Much has been written about the technical and ethical challenges associated with the development and integration of patient portals into the clinic [8,9]. But portal technology might also be used to connect health researchers to clinicians, patients, and the public. Online systems could be a useful platform for broadly and rapidly disseminating research results while also promoting patient empowerment. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to assess the potential use of online portals that facilitate the sharing of health research findings among researchers, clinicians, patients, and the public. It will also summarize the potential legal, ethical, and policy implications associated with such tools for public use and in the management of patient care for complex disease. METHODS We systematically consulted three databases, PubMed, Scopus, and WestLaw Next for sources describing online portals for sharing health research findings among clinicians, researchers, and patients and their associated legal, ethical, and policy challenges. raised by the integration of online tools into patient care for complex disease. Of 719 source citations, we retained 22 for review. RESULTS We found a varied and inconsistent treatment of online portals for sharing health research findings among clinicians, researchers, and patients. While the literature supports the view that portals of this kind are potentially highly promising, they remain novel and are not yet being widely adopted. We also found a wide-ranging discussion on the legal, ethical, and policy issues related to the use of online tools for sharing research data. We identified five important policy challenges: privacy & confidentiality, health literacy & patient empowerment, equity, training, and decision making. Each of these, we contend, have meaningful implications for the increased integration of online tools into clinical care. CONCLUSIONS As online tools become increasingly important mechanisms for sharing health research with clinicians, patients, and the public, it is vital that these developments are met with ethical and conceptual scrutiny. Therapeutic portals as they are presented in this paper may become a more widespread feature of precision and translational medicine. Our findings suggest that online portals are already being used to disseminate research results among clinicians, patients, and the public. But much of the ethical and conceptual debate is framed in terms of the patient portal, a concept that does not adequately reflect the potentially broader scope of therapeutic portals. It may be useful to clarify this distinction in future research and to underscore the unique ethical, legal, and policy challenges raised when online systems are used as a platform for disseminating research to as wide an audience as possible. CLINICALTRIAL n/a


Author(s):  
Pascale Chapdelaine

This chapter proposes two principles that should inform the development of copyright law and policy and of user rights. The first calls for more cohesion between copyright law, private law, and public law, and for less exceptionalism in copyright law. The second requires that the balance in copyright law be adjusted for its future application as a mediation tool between the competing interests of copyright holders, users, intermediaries, and the public. Instituting positive obligations for copyright holders in relation to users and steering freedom of contract toward the objectives of copyright law are necessary regulatory changes to rectify ongoing imbalances. The principle of technological neutrality should guide the judiciary in its application of copyright’s objective of promoting a balance in copyright law. The proposed guiding principles lead to the creation of a taxonomy and hierarchy of copyright user rights that take into account the myriad ways users experience copyright works.


Author(s):  
Natalia Nowakowska

Our three existing master narratives of the early Reformation in Poland are all over a century old and mutually contradictory, drawing on different sources to serve differing confessional and national/ist agendas. This chapter offers a fresh narrative of the impact of Lutheranism on the Polish composite monarchy to c.1540, synthesizing these older accounts and updating them with new research findings. This is a narrative in three parts: early signs (1517–24), the great Reformation year (1525), and aftershocks (1526–40). The chapter discusses the challenges of measuring ‘Lutheran’ sentiment, sets these Polish-Prussian events clearly in their comparative European context, and considers what implications they might have for that bigger, familiar tale. It stresses the precocity of Sigismund I’s monarchy, which saw the most far-reaching urban and violent Reformation in 1520s Europe (Danzig), a peasant Reformation rising, and Christendom’s first territorial-princely Reformation, in Ducal Prussia.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 215013272199545
Author(s):  
Areej Khokhar ◽  
Aaron Spaulding ◽  
Zuhair Niazi ◽  
Sikander Ailawadhi ◽  
Rami Manochakian ◽  
...  

Importance: Social media is widely used by various segments of society. Its role as a tool of communication by the Public Health Departments in the U.S. remains unknown. Objective: To determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social media following of the Public Health Departments of the 50 States of the U.S. Design, Setting, and Participants: Data were collected by visiting the Public Health Department web page for each social media platform. State-level demographics were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention was utilized to collect information regarding the Governance of each State’s Public Health Department. Health rankings were collected from “America’s Health Rankings” 2019 Annual report from the United Health Foundation. The U.S. News and World Report Education Rankings were utilized to provide information regarding the public education of each State. Exposure: Data were pulled on 3 separate dates: first on March 5th (baseline and pre-national emergency declaration (NED) for COVID-19), March 18th (week following NED), and March 25th (2 weeks after NED). In addition, a variable identifying the total change across platforms was also created. All data were collected at the State level. Main Outcome: Overall, the social media following of the state Public Health Departments was very low. There was a significant increase in the public interest in following the Public Health Departments during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: With the declaration of National Emergency, there was a 150% increase in overall public following of the State Public Health Departments in the U.S. The increase was most noted in the Midwest and South regions of the U.S. The overall following in the pandemic “hotspots,” such as New York, California, and Florida, was significantly lower. Interesting correlations were noted between various demographic variables, health, and education ranking of the States and the social media following of their Health Departments. Conclusion and Relevance: Social media following of Public Health Departments across all States of the U.S. was very low. Though, the social media following significantly increased during the early course of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it still remains low. Significant opportunity exists for Public Health Departments to improve social media use to engage the public better.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 272
Author(s):  
Aaron C. Sparks ◽  
Heather Hodges ◽  
Sarah Oliver ◽  
Eric R. A. N. Smith

In many public policy areas, such as climate change, news media reports about scientific research play an important role. In presenting their research, scientists are providing guidance to the public regarding public policy choices. How do people decide which scientists and scientific claims to believe? This is a question we address by drawing on the psychology of persuasion. We propose the hypothesis that people are more likely to believe local scientists than national or international scientists. We test this hypothesis with an experiment embedded in a national Internet survey. Our experiment yielded null findings, showing that people do not discount or ignore research findings on climate change if they come from Europe instead of Washington-based scientists or a leading university in a respondent’s home state. This reinforces evidence that climate change beliefs are relatively stable, based on party affiliation, and not malleable based on the source of the scientific report.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Su L. Boatright-Horowitz

Avian bornaviral ganglioneuritis, often referred to as parrot wasting disease, is associated with a newly discovered avian virus from the taxonomic family Bornaviridae. Research regarding the pathogenesis and treatment for this disease is ongoing, with implications for understanding other emerging human and nonhuman diseases, as well as the health and ecology of wildlife. At this time, numerous questions remain unanswered regarding the transmission of the disease, best practices for diagnostic sampling and testing, and whether currently used drug therapies are effective or harmful for afflicted birds. The pathogenesis of the disease also remains unclear with many birds showing resistance to the effects of the virus and being able to remain clinically unaffected for years, while other birds succumb to its effects. New research findings regarding avian bornaviral ganglioneuritis are discussed and important as yet unanswered questions are identified.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document