From senior project to published paper, with COA faculty as co-authors
In Marine Policy, Sophia Chivers ’24 and College of the Atlantic professors Ken Cline and Chris Petersen compare how Maine towns and the state share oversight of two fisheries, and find that strong local management isn’t always enough.
“Many stewards and harvesters hold a wealth of knowledge particular to the dynamics, challenges, and history of the area they use or steward” — Sophia Chivers '24, Ken Cline, and Chris Petersen, Marine Policy.
Chivers is the lead author of "The roles of ecology, legal structures, and threats in maintaining successful shellfish and river herring co-management in Maine," published in Marine Policy. The paper looks at two fisheries that Maine towns and the state manage together, with a focus on Washington and Hancock counties.
Fisheries are a classic tragedy of the commons, Chivers and her co-authors write: Without shared rules, no one has a reason to conserve. Co-management, in which local and state governments share responsibility, is one answer. The trio found that shellfish co-management in Maine is the stronger system, with clearer rules, better communication, and more shared responsibility. Yet soft-shell clams are declining while river herring populations are holding steady or growing. The authors point to threats such as climate change and predators moving into new areas, which no town can address alone.
The research began as Chivers' senior project at College of the Atlantic. Chivers reviewed the scientific literature, interviewed 18 fishers, community members, researchers, and others, and traced the legal history of both fisheries back to before Maine was a state. Ken Cline, JD, David Rockefeller Family Chair in Ecosystem Management and Protection, guided her through the legal questions. Chris Petersen, PhD, faculty emeritus, guided her through the science. They kept working together after she graduated, and both are co-authors on the paper.
Chivers is a graduate student in anthropology at the Universidad Austral de Chile, where she works with coastal communities.