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Fisher knowledge as expert system: A case from the longline fishery of Grenada, the Eastern Caribbean

2006; Elsevier BV; Volume: 84; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.fishres.2006.10.012

1872-6763

Sandra Grant, Fikret Berkes,

Complex Systems and Decision Making

We investigated a fisher knowledge generation process in the longline fishery for large pelagic fish in Gouyave, Grenada, using techniques of participant observation, interviews, and focus group discussion. We identified nine categories of knowledge that are important for finding and catching large pelagic fish: seasons, use of bait, gear technology, weather conditions, fishing practice, fish habits and behaviour, fish movement, 'folk oceanography' (seabirds, seawater colour, current), and fish stomach contents. Conceptualized as a decision-making rule structure, this information can be analyzed as an expert system, the rationale being to understand how human experts (fishers) use technological and ecological knowledge. We extract heuristic rules (expressed as IF–THEN clauses) based on fishers' description of how they make decision on how, where, and when to find and catch fish. Gouyave fishers are adaptive experts because they have the ability to learn from and deal with new situations. They rely on observation, experimentation, and experience through the feedback of fish catches and evaluation, learning adaptively to improve their understanding of the marine ecosystem and the resource.