Overcoming barriers to transfer of scientific knowledge: integrating biotelemetry into fisheries management in the Laure
- PDF / 2,649,665 Bytes
- 20 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 52 Downloads / 231 Views
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Overcoming barriers to transfer of scientific knowledge: integrating biotelemetry into fisheries management in the Laurentian Great Lakes Vivian M. Nguyen1,2 · Caleigh Delle Palme2 · Brian Pentz3 · Christopher S. Vandergoot4 · Charles C. Krueger4 · Nathan Young5 · Steven J. Cooke1,2 Received: 28 June 2020 / Accepted: 9 October 2020 © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
Abstract The science–practice divide is a stubborn problem in environmental management. Existing research tells us that a range of factors affects the uptake of new science into practice and policy, including socio-organizational, individual, and evaluative variables. Here, we seek to understand the variables influencing the uptake of biotelemetry-derived information in the Laurentian Great Lakes fishery management system. To do so, we used semi-structured telephone interviews (n = 50) to capture the views of managers, researchers, and assessment biologists affiliated with the Great Lakes Fishery Commission (GLFC). Our results suggest that biotelemetry offers epistemological value (generating new and important information), but faces barriers tied to perceptions concerning practicalities of the technology, such as its cost. The practical limitations facing the use of biotelemetry evidence were more specific and potentially more easily resolved than the entrenched individual and socio-organizational challenges of using types of knowledge other than biotelemetry. The persistence of the science–practice divide was evident in our findings. Formal entities and boundary organizations such as the GLFC and inter-sectoral networks that promote interactions, meetings, and connections among researchers and practitioners can help overcome this gap. The Great Lakes Acoustic Telemetry Observation System (GLATOS) network can play a boundary role in facilitating biotelemetry science transfer by focusing on overcoming its evaluative limitations (e.g., costs, technological limitations). Further, the GLFC and GLATOS are well positioned to play a greater role in science transfer by facilitating interactions among scientists and practitioners to help reconcile differences in perceptions. Keywords Knowledge transfer · Knowledge exchange · Fishery management · Technology diffusion · Great Lakes · Science–practice divide
1 Introduction
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s42532-020-00069-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Vivian M. Nguyen [email protected] 1
Institute of Environmental and Interdisciplinary Science, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON K1S5B6, Canada
2
Biology Department, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON K1S5B6, Canada
3
Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, ON M1C 1A4, Canada
Timely, up-to-date, and relevant scientific information is widely seen as an essential input for effective environmen
Data Loading...
