This one year, full-time award enables a new PhD in anthropologyto develop her understanding of the scientific approaches to management of natural resources, specifically oyster reefs. She will undertake a one-year course of study in the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Management at Texas A&M University, sponsored by Dr. David J. Schmidly, Head of the Department. Attending classes with future regulatory employees, she will learn about the scientific models on which resource management is based, including oyster biology, population dynamics, economics, growth, habitat and histories of local reefs. At the same time, field work in the Galveston Bay area among oyster fishermen will focus on elucidating the elements of indigenous models -- the local knowledge fishermen use in managing their resource. Anthropological literature has shown that fishermen often have models for self-regulation which are not apparent to regulatory agencies or to scientists. Bureaucrats often introduce management regimes with the assumption that fishermen have no management system (formal or informal) or use one that must be ineffective since it is not based on scientific information. This project hypothesizes that 1) adverse socio-economic impacts from the institution of rationalized management will be lessened if existing informal management systems are, where possible, incorporated, and 2) both types of management models must be explicit for this to happen. The project goal is to enable scientists to incorporate appropriate indigenous strategies and to give fishermen a voice in management of their local resources. This project addresses a central issue in both theory and practice in science studies: the relationship between formalized, scientific ways of knowing and the informal experience-based methods by which communities negotiate priorities and practices. The investigator and her host specialist and host institution are uniquely well-qualified to undertake and support this project; research and related activities are likely to continue after the period of the award. Results are likely to be appropriately disseminated and useful. An award in the amount of $28,000 is therefore recommended.
