Dan Holland: The Role of Economics in Marine Environment

Dan Holland introduces us to the next panel, and suggests that there are three roles for economics (and economists) in a coping with the uncertain future of the marine environment in the face of climate change:

1) they evaluate the costs and benefits and economic impacts of specific potential outcomes (eg. decline or extinction of a particular fish stock)

2) They understand how economic incentives influence human behavior, and how that behavior impacts economic and ecological outcomes

3) They understand how human organizations (government, companies, institutions) behave and how regulation works

He shows us the human connections of the various marine biological populations: markets, technology, and regulations affect the productivity of one species (e.g. herring) which changes the availability of bait and therefore impacts the lobster harvest. So groundfish, herring, and lobster are connected not only ecologically and environmentally, but also economically and via human systems (markets, technology, and regulation).