Mitchell Student Receives Prestigious Fellowship

Josh StollCiting his innovative work on sustainable fisheries management at the Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, Joshua Stoll, a graduate student in the School of Marine Sciences, has been awarded a prestigious yearlong fellowship from the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation.

The Switzer Fellowship Program offers fellowships to highly talented graduate students in New England and California whose studies and career goals are directed toward environmental improvement and who clearly demonstrate leadership in their field. The fellowship provides a $15,000 cash award for academic study, leadership training and opportunities for professional development during the fellowship year and beyond.

Stoll is the only 2015 fellow from Maine.

“I am really humbled to be recognized for the work we are doing and feel privileged to get to be part of the Switzer network,” he said. “I absolutely plan to use this opportunity to continue to work on fisheries management issues.”

The project is a collaboration between fishermen from Maine’s diverse fisheries, scientists, local government officials and representatives from non-governmental agencies.

At its crux are burgeoning efforts to change the way fisheries are managed. Right now, marine resource management consists of a separate system for each species, but researchers like Stoll think the answer to more sustainable fisheries and better economic opportunities may lie in a more place-based, ecological approach that looks at mutual ecological and economic issues affecting multiple fisheries in specific areas.

Stoll and colleagues at the Mitchell Center and the School of Marine Science are taking the early steps in an effort to evaluate the potential for such place-based ecosystem management. As part of this effort, Stoll spent much of the past year interviewing fishermen in eastern Maine about perceptions of leadership in the industry while also analyzing the state’s commercial fishing licensing system. He wanted to know whom fishermen turn to for help and advice and how these informal networks of support align with the existing management system. He looked at similarities and differences between fisheries and networks and will use those results to identify opportunities for change as well as existing impediments to progress.

Stoll is still analyzing results, but said there is interest from fishermen and policymakers alike in new governance approaches. Stoll said he hopes this research will contribute to positive change.

“These are early steps in a complex process,” Stoll said. “We are starting to lay early groundwork.”

The research was presented at the Society for Applied Anthropology conference in Pittsburgh, PA and at the School of Marine Science’s Annual Student Symposium, where it was awarded best student presentation by a faculty review panel. Stoll anticipates that the first publication from this research will be submitted later this summer, building off three other peer-reviewed papers he has had accepted this year.