Science as Alibi: On Managing the Extinction of Tunas
When:
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Venue:
Birkbeck 10 Gower Street
In the world of ocean governance, where decisionmakers are entrusted to care for the high seas, fisheries science has become, in the words of one interlocutor, the 'Holy Grail'. Is it? This talk goes behind the scenes of fisheries management to show, ethnographically, how institutions perform and justify their legal mandate to manage the catch of commercial fishes through what appears to constituents as the independent, neutral authority of fisheries science. It shows that the techno-scientific effort to measure, quantify, master, and control the volume of fishes as readymade inventories evinces the fidelity to extraction in zones where the aspiration for commodity empires organizes relations between maritime states. At a time of mass extinction—when fishes appear disposable, replaceable, exposed to early death—might other ways of knowing beyond counting 'stocks' inform the regulation of capturing marine life?
Contact name:
Alex Colas
Contact phone:
02079261664
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Jennifer E. Telesca
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Jennifer E. Telesca is Associate Professor of Environmental Justice at the Pratt Institute, New York, and, in Spring 2022, is Visiting Professor at the University of Bergen, Norway. She is the author of Red Gold: The Managed Extinction of the Giant Bluefin Tuna (University of Minnesota Press, 2020).