Keynote Speaker
Dr. Alan Longhurst
Retired Fishery Biologist, SW France
PRESENTATION TITLE: The Sustainability Myth
Alan Longhurst studied the bionomics of groundfish and the ecology of their benthic habitat off Sierra Leone and Nigeria (1954-63), and assisted in the regulation of the developing trawl fisheries there. He moved to a tuna oceanography group at Scripps in 1964, subsequently directing the NMFS laboratory at La Jolla (1967-71) and the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Nova Scotia (1979-86). Research on the dynamics of the pelagic ecosystem in relation to the physics of the upper ocean occupied his attention during this period. Later, he explored the possibilities for ecological geography offered by satellite imagery as this became available. Since retiring in 1995, he has published a series of critical essays on the insufficiency of the ecological assumptions that are made in classical stock management procedures. He now lives in SW France, where he and his wife Françoise run a small gallery of contemporary art.