Ashley Rowden
Title:
Dr
First Name:
Ashley
Last Name:
Rowden
Gender:
Male
Position:
Principal Scientist, Marine Benthic Ecology
Institution:
National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research
Country:
New Zealand
Email:
a.rowden@niwa.co.nz
Phone:
+64 4 386 0334
Sectors - Other:
Crown Research Institute - a quasi government entity which undertakes a mixture of government and consultantcy type research
Technologies and techniques:
Oceanographic Locations:
Deep Ocean Vertical Zones:
Deep Sea Habitats:
Involvement in policy or management:
Experience with bodies or processes:
- National government advisors
- The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) or any of its Commissions
- Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative (GOBI)
- Regional fisheries management organizations and/or their scientific commissions
- International Seabed Authority (ISA)
- NGOs (please specify in other below)
- Environmental impact assessments (EIAs)
- Developing impact assessment guidelines/standards
Experience with bodies or processes - Other:
Pew Environment Group, WWF
Primary Language:
Anything other contribution:
I think we need to better figure out how scientists can help 'bridge the gap'. We may want to do it, and be willing, but do we really know how to do it? Placing scientists on secondment in government departments or international bodies would help us understand what form of information is required by policy makers and environmental managers, and how and when they want this type of information. After secondment these scientists can go back to their original institutes and be more effective at bridging the gap (and convey the best method to others). In addition those in the government dept/international body will have learnt about the restrictions that scientists may be working under that prevents them from successfully bridging the gap - and thus they themselves will improve their own efforts in this regard. INDEEP could champion such an approach and facilitate such secondments at least on an international level - through its contacts in UN, GOBI, IUCN etc
Primary Expertise:
Secondary Expertise:
Secondary Expertise - Other:
Environmental Impacts (from fishing, seabed mining)
3 priority science questions that need to be answered:
(1) How important is deep-sea biodiversity for the planet's function? (needed to demonstrate the importance of the 'service' provided by deep sea biodiversity - without this society will not care about the deep sea and whether it is well managed or not - refer to famous New Yorker cartoon that said "I don't know why I don't care about the deep sea, but I don't". (2) How connected are populations of deep-sea organisms? (needed to devise effective protection measures such as MPAs) (3) How perturbed can deep-sea communties be before they are unlikely to recover? (needed to set standards of allowable disturbance by human activities such as fishing and mining)